INTERVIEW: John Fugelsang is ready to ‘Make America Laugh Again’
Photo: John Fugelsang brings Laughing Liberally: Make America Laugh Again to the Theatre at St. Clement’s. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided with permission.
John Fugelsang, host of Tell Me Everything on SiriusXM Insight #121, has been extremely busy the last two to three years, and that’s mostly because of what happened in Washington, D.C., and across the nation. The comedian and radio host has found himself with a lot to talk about — and poke fun at — thanks to President Donald Trump and the current state of affairs in the country.
He brings his unique brand of wit and humor to his SiriusXM show, but he also engages with audience members in person. Point in fact: He recently started a three-week off-Broadway engagement of Laughing Liberally at the Theater at St. Clement’s in Midtown Manhattan.
The evening, which promises to “Make America Laugh Again,” features a variety of political comedians expounding on Trump, society, gender, race, religion and more. There are few rules and plenty of laughs.
Joining Fugelsang on stage on various nights are Elayne Boosler, Judah Friedlander (30 Rock), Janeane Garafolo, Judy Gold, Marina Franklin (Train Wreck, HBO’s Crashing), Hari Kondabolu (The Trouble With Apu) and comedian/SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah, among many others.
“It was all sort of last minute,” Fugelsang said in a recent phone interview. “I had done a [Laughing Liberally] a few years back and really enjoyed it, and I was surprised at how many tourists came to see that kind of show. And they came to me and said they wanted to do something, rather last minute, and put up an off-Broadway run. They gave me central commands. They didn’t want conventional political comics, and they didn’t want white guys. They wanted to have it be very diverse and try to avoid white guys as much as possible. Eventually they yielded, and we slipped in a few decent white guys.”
When he started planning the off-Broadway run, Fugelsang started to make a wish list of New York City comedians he wanted to work with; he was looking for people who could offer fresh commentary on the current times, rather than folks who would solely comment on the usual political tidbits.
“We have gay comics, Muslim comics and at least one gay Muslim comic, so it’s an insanely funny comedy festival of political humor and satire for three weeks in New York City,” he said. “Just because the show is called Laughing Liberally doesn’t mean you have to do jokes about today’s headlines or even politicians at all. We have comedians who talk about gender, who talk about race, who talk about sexuality in a way that is very progressive, but taking on society as a whole, not specifically Trump.”
Fugelsang is of the mind that an evening of curated comedy that is too narrow in focus would grow stale, especially for dedicated theatergoers, so he was after a diversity of voices and approaches.
This latest installment of Laughing Liberally is a continuation of Fugelsang’s impressive career of TV hosting, radio hosting, comedy and just about everything else in the entertainment field. He got his start performing in regional theater, and he’s been fine-tuning his standup comedy chops for a long time. His interview subjects over the years have included everyone from Paul McCartney to Bruce Springsteen to Pete Townshend to Brian Wilson to Yoko Ono to Willie Nelson and Tony Bennett.
He has appeared in Coyote Ugly, The Girl on the Train, Becker and Providence, and that’s not when he’s being picketed by Westboro Baptist Church or calling out Mitt Romney on CNN.
“I’ve been murdered on CSI,” he said proudly. “I’ve hosted TV shows and been a regular on CNN and MSNBC.”
His parents were involved in the religious life, his mother as a nun and his father as a Franciscan brother. This gave him a unique insider/outsider take on American Christianity, which no doubt aided some of his humorous bits. His father was also a history teacher, so the appreciation for politics was there from an early age.
“I was doing standup and so influenced by George Carlin,” Fugelsang said. “I just didn’t see my point of view anywhere very much. Billy Wilder famously said, ‘If you’re going to tell people the truth, make it funny, or they’ll kill you.’ And that’s sort of been the slogan I live by when it comes to political comedy. I wanted to do a show with comedians with something to say, but entertaining first and preachy last.”
One of the proudest bullet points on his résumé is his SiriusXM show, Tell Me Everything. He launched the program the same time the network was launching Insight channel #121, the place for edgy and varied commentary and comedy.
“It was all about eclectic content that wasn’t going to be just one thing, and the idea of helping to start a whole channel but also of doing a show that didn’t have a niche was really appealing,” Fugelsang said. “Sirius said that they would never dictate any of my content. They wouldn’t censor me, and I could play any music I wanted. And I could do it from L.A. or D.C., wherever I was, and so I came to them with a show that was ⅓ political talk, ⅓ NPR-style interview with newsmakers and politicians and movie stars, filmmakers, rock stars, rappers, authors, science, dating, sex, health, family, history, and then ⅓ early Howard Stern, comedians on a panel just cracking jokes about various headlines.”
He added: “So for about 4-½ years I’ve had the real pleasure of doing an insanely eclectic show at SiriusXM where I could have Bernie Sanders and Chris Christie and John Fogerty and Gilbert Gottfried and Ashanti, and it’s been great fun.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Laughing Liberally: Make America Laugh Again plays through Sept. 21 at the Theatre at St. Clement’s in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
