COUNTYWIDE : Production at Livery Makes Local Politics a Laughing Matter

Ventura is “The City That Never Wakes” in a political satire that opened Wednesday downtown.

In “Live From the Livery,” a group of amateur actors--including a fashion designer, a realtor and a day-care director--put on a 50-minute assortment of skits parodying local politicians and celebrities.

The show at the Livery shopping center lampoons the city as a sleepy place where the Two Trees landmark has been stolen, a slow-growth councilman constantly flip-flops to vote for pro-growth measures, and the overdressed mayor envisions razing a residential neighborhood to make way for more bathrooms at the mall.

Councilman Gary Tuttle is portrayed as Gary B. Fuddle, a wishy-washy ex-athlete who betrays his slow-growth philosophy by voting to approve the Ventura Auto Center’s plans for a bright electronic message board to justify a larger sign for his own running-gear store.

Mayor Richard Francis becomes Mayor French, a preening pro-growth advocate who squabbles with Fuddle and dreams of a cemetery plot for himself beneath the Buena Mall.

And County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk is satirized as a dim-witted Maria VanderPepsi, who proclaims in a squeaky Betty Boop voice, “I’m tall, have strongly chiseled features, and I’m four weeks pregnant!”

Director John Hammil said Ventura and its officials are ripe for parody.

“Small issues become major issues here,” Hammil said. “Here, the triviality of it all becomes absurd, and they bicker, and that’s why, in small towns, small issues become major fodder for satire.” Francis said he plans to take his family to see the show.

“Satire is healthy,” Francis said Wednesday. “These are tough times, and everybody has to be extremely serious about lots of things that are critical. And it helps to have some comic relief.”

Wednesday’s show, “Buena Maul,” which will be repeated Saturday at noon, was the first of three episodes planned in this year’s series of skits, said the show’s writer, Rick French, a Ventura police services employee.

French said the second episode will be performed next Wednesday and July 27, and the third episode is scheduled for July 31 and Aug. 3. Admission is free, but donations are accepted and divided among the actors. The Livery is on Palm Street, half a block north of Main Street.