No One Ever Asks For a Political Comedian

Why JerDog is feeling victorious and confidentWhy politics is a usually a dumb move in stand-up comedyShout-out to comedians Vince Maranto and Carlin Hagerty as well as Boxcars Pub & Grub in Clinton, Wisconsin for an upcoming SOLD OUT season of The Pub & Grub Comedy Tour It's election time, which means political comedy has gone into high gear.I don't know how you feel about it, but I get a little bit annoyed.  I'm pretty much done with it.I understand the point of political satire and parody, it's a way to poke fun at the powers that be. I totally get that. But when you go into a live comedy situation, like at a comedy club, for instance, it's kind of a dumb move.Because, you know what, you're gonna piss off somebody and he might lose a fan over it.Why risk alienating half the audience? Why bring political discourse into a situation that involves alcohol? Furthermore, I tend to vote libertarian, which means everybody hates me!I'm not gonna lose relationships over it. I certainly don't want to blow a comedy show over, you know, people go into a comedy show to escape all that. Have some drinks, share some laughs blow off steam, they want to laugh. If I go into an ice cream shop, and I pay for a banana split, and they bring me an alligator sandwich. I'm not gonna be happy.I want to hear more about people's experience with food at the State Fair and less about their political viewpoints when they're doing comedy.I want to hear their unhinged rant over how much they hate dryer lint.There are so many things in the world to make fun of that other people can relate to that you're not going to make them angry about.  So why do it?I know some comedians, that's their thing - to be the person that makes people angry. And there are some audience members that do like that kind of thing.But, for almost 20 years, I've been booking and producing several hundred comedy shows a year, and not one time as someone asked me to bring a political comedian.I even had a political group contacted me once I said, "Do you want political comedy?"They said, "No, that's the last thing we want. People want to laugh."Politics are their own comedy shows in and of themselves. Televised political debates like family Thanksgiving. They always start out real nice. And then they quickly turn into insults and character attacks. Someone going into a live comedy show at a nightclub tab or neighborhood bar does not pay an admission or cover charge to get indoctrinations and viewpoints jammed down their throat. And many times the comedians are not even making fun of the politicians... many times they're making fun of the  the voters, which (statistically speaking) going to be at least half the audience.Or... if you're like me, you don't even care and you just want to hear the jokes. You just want to be entertained.When I do stand up comedy, I've always avoided politics religion and sports.  Why? Those are three things that piss off too many people and I don't know jack squat about any of those topics anyway.<br/><br/><br/>