The Laughter is Political in "More Guns!" from Second City
When I heard that Second City Hollywood was touring their show, “More Guns!” which bills itself as a musical comedy about the NRA, I invited a friend of mine, a conservative Republican and lifetime member of the NRA, to come with me. He refused to go.
Maybe that is the chasm that separates the conservatives and liberals in this country. Both sides think they’re right, but only one side is willing to laugh at itself.
And, to his great detriment, laugh we did. “More Guns” is a frenetic, manic, and imaginative, hour and a half of satire whose very existence is a tonic for our ailing political nerves. That is, if you think making fun of the NRA is funny. Which my friend does not.
Satire is made when things in real life are carried just one step further to make them absurd. And it's the absurdity that makes us laugh. In a way, laughing is a relief. At least things aren’t as bad as they are on stage. Or are they?
Andrew Pifko, in a thin blue suit, plays Rod Barkley, a lobbyist for the NRA. His daughter, Christina Barkley, played by Marnina Schon, is a liberal snowflake. She is dating a similarly aligned boy, played by a fey, whimpering Philip Labes. And, Caroline Thrasher plays “Bushmaster,” Ron Barkley’s boss at the NRA, who has a, lets just say, more sensual relationship with firearms than the average hunter.
As with most shows that started with improv, the jokes come fast. In between laughing fits, I was only able to record on my iphone a snippet of one joke, when three would rush past me, the actors breathless, their chests heaving.
Barkley is lobbying representatives about the universal background check bill before the House. The term “slippery slope” is used, which has been the NRA’s perpetual rational for blocking the bill the whole time.
Well, as is historically accurate, Barkley fails at his job and the bill passes the House. He doesn’t win over the representatives he needs to block the bill. Though, by the end of the play, he has better luck with his daughter.
Conservative parents giving birth to liberal children is a juicy bit of irony in itself. And, this show pulls no punches when it makes fun of Christina’s snowflakeyness. While my conservative friend would not have laughed at the NRA jokes, I was more than happy to laugh at the pitfalls of my own kind.
Schon, the liberal daughter, and Labes, her boyfreind, sing a hysterical duet where they, as liberals, are just as shallow and out of touch as conservatives are vindictive and insensitive. They sing about wanting to marry Bernie Sanders, have “meaningful sex” with Elizabeth Warren, and wanting to kill Joe Biden, which is a pretty nuanced set of political values.
She is “triggered” - the audience gasped - “but in a good way,” she tells him. They want to make a “safe space” together and live in a “bubble made for two.” It’s a sequence of liberal cliches, enough to make a self aware millennial cringe with embarrassment, if any exist.
The show is consistently stolen every time Caroline Thrasher comes on stage. On the outside, with her sassy booming voice, her brusque, take no prisoners persona, she is a battle axe. But, when the other characters are off stage, we find out why she is so passionate about gun rights. That passion, for the cold hard shaft of a firearm, she saves for the bedroom. And when she, in a heated song, admits, dropping the F bomb, what she likes to do with guns, it brings home the absurdity of the NRA’s position on gun laws. Now that I google a picture of Carolyn Meadows and Wayne LaPierre, NRA President and Executive Vice-President respectively, and I consider her minced, thin smile and his dopey grin, I can’t help but wonder if their fanaticism is rooted in something more tantalizing than just a “slippery slope” toward authoritarianism.
The playwright and musical director Michael O’Konis is to be commended. Not only has he turned an improv bit into a full length romp, but he also wrote the music, adding a third dimension to an already complicated enterprise. And, the show would not be as good without Dahlya Glick’s capable choreography. When the four actors line up, like the Temptations, and sing a silly song, their movements are clever and funny. Zach Siegel’s direction does so much with so little - the show’s props are confined to a table and two chairs, a backpack and a couple plastic guns, while costume changes consist of simple jackets and hats switched out each scene. The whole thing is alive, zany and vibrant.
I do wish my conservative friend could laugh a little bit at the total absurdity of our politics. That may be the root of the contentiousness. We’re all taking ourselves too seriously. In this way, Second City is absolutely necessary, saving us from our dour ideologies, our egomania and our conceitedness and leading us into the bipartisan melting pot of laughter.
“More Guns!” was a Z Space in San Francisco for two nights only. But you can catch the show the next time you’re in LA at Second City in Hollywood. It’s been extended through April 25th. Go to secondcity.com/hollywood.
Satire keeps John Henry Martin sane in these crazy times. Email him your favorite satirical pieces at jhm@johnhenrymartin.com.
