Washington DC-based comedy troupe Gross National Product has gone bi-coastal in order to ride the wave of public attention whipped up by the DNC. Politics and politicians are fair game for GNP's satirists, with not only Gore and Bush being ribbed, but Hillary and Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Seymour, Charlton Heston, Ariana Huffington and William Buckley as well. Utilizing a sketch format sprinkled with songs and improv, Gore More Years or Son Of A Bush is more likable than memorable, with the humor rarely drawing blood. Still, there are some good laughs along the line, particularly in the Jane Seymour takeoff, which has Seymour (Dorian Frankel) attacking her NEA critics while her speech is mimed hilariously for the hearing-impaired by Christopher Pray.
Pray also draws big yocks for his impersonation of a twitchy-faced Buckley interviewing George W. (Jim Ward) on television. The latter's credo of compassionate conservatism came in for much teasing, especially when the Republican presidential candidate admitted that "because of a medical condition, I try to use my heart as little as possible."
Such non-political targets as motivational speakers are also mocked successfully, but GNP misses the boat with its Heston/gun lobby sketch and with some of its improvised exchanges with the audience. GNP also fails to exploit the humor in the recent appointment of the Orthodox Jew Joseph Lieberman as Gore's running mate, settling for Gore's mispronunciation of certain Yiddish words when introducing the would-be veep at the party convention. It could be that GNP simply hasn't had the time to put together a full-fledged sketch involving the pious Lieberman.
