Comedy’s Capitol Steps an Equal-Opportunity Offender

The last weeks of the presidential campaign are to the Capitol Steps what Christmas is to retail.

“This is our holiday rush,” says member Michael Tilford. This month alone the Beltway-based satirical group has almost 100 bookings, including shows Monday night at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

The outgrowth of a revue put together by congressional staffers for an office Christmas party in 1981, the Capitol Steps manages to make us laugh at politics instead of weeping. And, according to Tilford and his colleagues, who perform in changing groups of five singers and a pianist, the group will find foibles to make fun of as long as politicians remain flawed.

As Tilford says, you can’t really go wrong in a country where a top presidential aide is caught retaining a $200-a-tryst hooker. Fallen advisor Dick Morris “actually let her read some of Al Gore’s speeches, for which she charged $300,” Tilford quips.

Tilford often appears as President Clinton, the protagonist in such numbers as “Return to Center,” in which the incumbent’s shift to the political right is spoofed to the tune of Elvis Presley’s “Return to Sender.” The reason he gets to play the president, Tilford says in his best Bill Clinton voice, is that he has a rare ability “to sound constipated and sincere at the same time.”

Tilford is a five-year veteran of the troupe, which has 16 albums and performs regularly on National Public Radio. One requirement for membership is that you must have worked on Capitol Hill in some capacity. One prospective performer briefly became an intern for the House Subcommittee on the Environment before she was allowed on stage. Tilford paid his political dues by working as a fund-raiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Indeed, he says, the roughest performance of his life was election night in 1992. He had to face an audience of tearful Republicans gathered in Las Vegas and announce, in his Clinton persona, “I know you’d rather be home drinking heavily, but what the heck, here’s the Capitol Steps!”

It was a sad day when the group lost “Mr. Potatoe Head” Dan Quayle, one of the biggest targets in the history of political comedy, but new ones appear with every headline. Right now, the troupe is grateful that Perot is in the race again this year. The cranky little candidate “adds a third more humor,” says Tilford. “We encourage him to run whenever possible.”

The Democrats gave the group such sure-fire material as Gennifer Flowers and not inhaling in 1992, but have a lower profile this time out. “The Republicans are easier targets now, because they’re blabbing more,” he explains. “There are more chances for their feet to go in their mouths.” Still, the Clinton White House has been a major source for four of the group’s albums, including “Lord of the Fries” and “The Joy of Sax.”

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Some critics have castigated the group for pulling its punches when beating up politicos. Founding member Elaina Newport responds to that by explaining, “We are not angry comedians. We are not Don Imus.” She and Bill Strauss write most of the group’s material, and the question they always ask themselves, she says, is: “Could we do this song in front of the person we’re singing about?” She points out: “We’ve performed in front of four presidents--five, if you count Hillary.”

Tilford agrees. “We don’t go out of our way to be excessively nasty,” he says.

In part, that is a business decision. The troupe makes hundreds of appearances a year before groups of all political persuasions. So it makes a point of being an equal-opportunity offender. For every unkind reference to Dole’s age or ferocity (a current lyric, sung to the theme music from “Beauty and the Beast,” asserts that “Dole’s as old as time”), there is a swipe at the president’s tendency to shift his political position. Thus, “I’ve Taken Stands on Both Sides Now,” sung to the tune of the Judy Collins’ hit “Both Sides Now.”

As a result of this bipartisan approach, says Tilford, “we can count on the same number of laughs, albeit in different places.”

Once primarily a Beltway phenomenon, the group now takes on larger cultural phenomena as well. Lots of pointed material emerged from the first O.J. Simpson trial (the troupe was invited in to entertain the sequestered Simpson jury). Songs on the current album, “Return to Center,” include such nonpolitical titles as “Good Morning, Starbucks” and “Your Son’ll Come Out Tomorrow.”

The group is always incorporating new material into the show, an average of a song a week, Tilford says. Faxes fly back and forth as the troupe responds to the latest political gaffe or scandal. One result is that the material is always fresh for the performers, who are often learning new lyrics moments before the curtain goes up.

“One of the side perks of this,” Tilford observes, “is that it sharpens your memory incredibly.”

As to the goings-on onstage, rest assured that you will get to see someone who looks very much like Al Gore (but is a better dancer) do the Macarena.

DETAILS

* WHAT: Performances by the Capitol Steps.

* WHERE: The Charles E. Probst Center, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday.

* HOW MUCH: $18.50 and $28.50.

* CALL: (805) 449-ARTS.