Al Franken, Molly Ivins deliver liberal dose of political humor

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Al Franken, Molly Ivins deliver liberal dose of political humor

He is a short, bespectacled New York comedian with a smirky nasal voice. She is a tall Texan and veteran journalist who speaks in a purring alto drawl.

Al Franken and Molly Ivins may not seem to be the likeliest comedy duo. But when the two made a rare appearance together Sunday night at McCaw Hall, in a stage chat presented by Foolproof, they had the capacity crowd guffawing for the better part of two hours in an event that was part laughathon, part political rally.

And they did it by being proud, unapologetic, anti-Bush liberals, engaged in vigorously trashing conservative pundits and politicians.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2001740849_molly23.html

[Dudley_DUright]

1. I wish I could have been there

Two of the wisest and funniest people on the planet for two hours! I can't wait to buy Molly's new book (out today I believe).

[LisaM]

2. I was there and it was incredible!

The crowd was really great, Al and Molly were great, everything was wonderful (and we saw at least six other people we knew.) The atmosphere outside was like a sporting event; people were holding up signs for tickets.

Funniest to me as Al's imitation of Bush landing on the aircraft carrier. He jumped to his feet and then he started doing a bump and grind like a Chippendale dancer.

The time just flew by - they wound up at about 9:15, and the crowd (and they) wanted more.

A lot of people were wearing Dean shirts - saw a guy in a Wellstone shirt (he asked a question about whether the plane accident was suspicious and got a flat out "NO.")

Molly Ivins acted as an interviewer and she got in plenty of zingers and told plenty of funny stories. A lot of Al Franken's material was from his book - but not all - and he is so wry and smart and funny that it was really enjoyable to hear it again.

He said he had 1600 people at a book signing in St. Louis - and he said a lot of people are really angry and he thinks the tide is turning.

God, I hope he's right!

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

3. Al's imitation of Bush

'Funniest to me as Al's imitation of Bush landing on the aircraft carrier. He jumped to his feet and then he started doing a bump and grind like a Chippendale dancer. '

--that sounds hilarious!

[Dudley_DUright]

4. He did that on Jon Stewart's show

and I thought I would die laughing!

[Myra]

5. Thanks for posting this

Just to put it in perspective, this hall
(I'd rather not use the name of the corporate
whores after whom it's named, the same assholes
that hosted a fund-raiser for Der Furher a couple
of weeks ago) holds 3,000 people. And it was sold
out, packed. There's a big hunger for progressive
voices.

I went and Al and Molly were fantastic.
The evening did end on the *weirdest* note,
really rather a buzz kill. After two hours
of laughing along with them and getting great
perspective and advice it ended with a thud.

About the last half hour or so they took questions
from the audience. All of the questions were pretty
good and substantial. And the last question of the
night someone pointed out the conspicuous deaths of
Senator Wellstone and Mel Carnahan and Asscrotch's
loss to a dead man, and asked if they thought the
Bushies would/did stoop to murder.

Phew. It got completely silent. 3000 people were just
holding their breath. Then Franken just blurted out the
strangest, most abrupt and dismissive response:
"NO! They'll murder people in Iraq but they wouldn't
do anything like that!"

Then both of them were clearly nervous and flustered
and tried to make jokes and then that was basically it.
Show over; stunned applause.

I know that they got the mother of all tough questions.
I mean, that was a doosey. But a perfectly valid question.
And one to which the answer is obvious. And, granted he
was giving his opinion as asked for, but Franken's abrupt
reply was sort of an insult to the collective intelligence
of the audience, after two hours of speaking to us as
intelligent sentient beings. He blew it. (It didn't
even make sense; he's murder Iraqis but not pols?)

Then again, I do think every progressive has good
reason to fear the BFEE, so maybe that was behind his answer.
I mean, he is a "comic" taking on way way more than a comic
should have to take on.

Regardless, thank gawd for Franken and Ivins.
Michael Moore's coming up next in Seattle.
Then Paul Krugman...
I'm grateful to them all for speaking out.

[Jennellist]

6. Franken is funny....but he could do with a dose of niceness

I say this because I heard him on NPR's "What Do You Know" Saturday. I totally understand his political disagreements with Bush, but he seemed a bit nasty and petty when he didn't need to be. When told that Ann Coulter reported that she and Franken were on friendly terms, Franken said that he 'made the mistake' of being cordial to Coulter, then went on to report how weird she was..then made some jokes about her 'mannishness'. Then Franken described an encounter with Barbara Bush on an airplane. He said that 'sort of made fun of George Jr." to her, to which she responded by saying "I'm through with you, Mr. Franken." To which he told the WDYK host (I can't remember his name) that Barbara had indeed 'confirmed the rumors he'd heard that she was a word that rhymes with witch". I mean, Lord, what mother wouldn't be upset if you were ridiculing her son to her face. So I know Al was probably playing to the studio audience there, but I do think there is a time to go after just the issues, but to allow yourself a little civility on occasion.