The HUMOR Project

The Capitol Steps, the only group in America that attempts to be funnier than the Congress, is a terrific troupe who create and sing clever topical lyrics to familiar tunes. Their fast-paced performances draw loads of laughter and rave reviews. Larry King said, "They're the best. There's no one like them, no one in their league." Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop even went so far as to issue this warning: "The Capitol Steps will cause your sides to split."

The Capitol Steps first began performing as entertainment for a Capitol Hill office party. Like most things in the Congress, they spun wildly out of control, and now they've been doing their song parodies for 11 years and have recorded 11 albums which have sold over 100,000 copies nationwide-- including "76 Bad Loans," "We Arm the World," "Stand By Your Dan," and "Fools on the Hill," also the title of their new book. The Steps perform 300 shows a year throughout the U.S. and have been featured on NBC Ni ghtly News, CBS Evening News, ABC's Good Morning America and Nightline. Their songs are played regularly on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and they've had several national specials on public television. All of the Capitol Steps are current or former Congressional staffers... which is why none of your letters to Congress ever get answered on time.

We are delighted that the Capitol Steps will be joining us at our April 16-18, 1993 annual international conference on THE POSITIVE POWER OF HUMOR AND CREATIVITY. They will be the featured performers on Saturday night-- after which we'll have a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Social. This will make Elaina Newport very happy, since rumor has it she is addicted to Ben & Jerry's!

I had the pleasure of meeting with Elaina in the Summer of '92 at the Capitol Steps office-- right in the heat and heart of the Presidential camp-pain. Elaina is co-founder of the Steps with Bill Strauss and currently serves as the Producer and co-writer of its shows. Her warmth and energy were certainly contagious.... America (and the world) could use some of this contagion!

Elaina Newport: My desk is a Federal superfund site. I've had it declared a natural disaster area. Marilyn Quayle will be here any minute to clean it up.

Joel Goodman: Oh, you would feel better if you saw my desk. It's an organized mess-- of c ourse, I'm the only one in the universe who knows where everything is on it. If I kicked off tomorrow, it would take archeologists several centuries to unearth my desk.

EN: I saw a cartoon once that I clipped and put on my desk when I was working in th e Senate: a guy is on the phone saying, "Yes, I have your letter on my desk now." Of course, his desk is like a mountain of papers.

EN: I was on Capitol Hill for seven years. I started with Senator Percy in 1981, which is when all this silliness started. The struggle lately has been to be funnier than the candidates are.

JG: Will Rogers used to say that he had the entire government working for him as a speech writer-- he didn't need to make it up.

EN: Everywhere we've gone in the past ten years, people say, "You must be having a field day right now. There's hardly been a week that goes by that people haven't said, "Now you're having a field day." It's always happening!

JG: I read that the Capitol Steps had gotten their start at a Christmas party for Senator Percy in 1981. Fill in the blanks for us-- how did it happen, and when did the light bulb go on-- when did you realize that it wasn't just a one-shot deal?

EN: The basic question was who was going to entertain at that year's Christmas party. It was really that simple. Bill Strauss and I worked on the same subcommittee. I played the piano, and he had a few ditties going around in his head. We worked them up; everybody was amazed at how much we practiced. The joke running around was "they wanted to put on a traditional Nativity play, but they couldn't find three wise men and a virgin on Capitol Hill, so they did this instead."

The first year, we were worried, because we thought our jobs were on the line-- here we were making fun of the very hands that fed us. So, we didn't do any albums or public shows. We were just in basements where you had to know the password to get in. What we found out after awhile is that not only did the bosses not mind it, but they were only offended if we didn't do a song about them. It started to become, "Don't ignore me whatever you do-- pay attention to me." Percy was very nice about it, and o ther Senators and Presidents have all been good sports and invited us to perform to our amazement-- "Wait a minute, we're making fun of you!"

EN: In 1984, when Percy lost the election, we started thinking, "Hmm, maybe we should pay for parking." So, we owe our professional career to Senator Paul Simon-- he kicked us out of Percy's office, we started looking for other jobs, and we got to think ing, "Maybe we can make a little bit on the side with the Capitol Steps." Somebody actually persuaded us to take money for a show once. It's like most things in Congress-- it's grown all out of proportion without any controls on it.

EN: We didn't even think about making a living out of it for the first three or four years. We realized that Ronald Reagan was going around claiming to have created all these jobs. We owed our satire to him for the first four years-- so we in fact are 15 of the jobs he created. He had just gone from acting to politics...

JG: And you just went the other way-- from politics to acting. Do you have any memories-- fond or otherwise-- of sh'nanigans on the Hill when you were working there?

EN: My favorite Senator Percy story was that we were doing this hearing for him, and it was on some really exciting subject like "federal debt collection." We did up the briefing book, and we gave it to him, and he was supposed to take it home at night. The next morning... we had actually gotten some cameras to come to this hearing. We told him, "Senator, ABC News is going to be here for the hearing this morning." He said, "What hearing?" So we're all nervous as he walked into the room, opened his b riefing book, looked into the camera and said, "I've been very concerned about this issue for a long time." So working on the Hill wasn't too far from show business. We'd always sit around thinking about what sign you could get the cameras to focus on, sound bytes that the news would want to run that night.

EN: In 1981, the scandal of the day was Representative John Jenrette and his wife, Rita, who had bragged about making love on the Capitol steps. We started a tradition that every time there's a scandal, we'll do a song about it. We named ourselves afte r that scandal... and it stuck.

JG: What were some of the runners-up... other names that you entertained at that point?

EN: The runner-up was Washington Maul, but we were concerned that people would think that it was a shopping center.

JG: Well, that's one way of drawing a crowd. Do you still bump into people from the past-- your ex-employers?

EN: Percy came to our tenth anniversary show, and his daughter, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, is chairman of the board of WETA-TV, which does our PBS specials.

JG: In addition to Bill and yourself, how did you start attracting kindred spirits to conspire with you?

EN: We auditioned people. The first criteria was that you had to have worked on Capitol Hill, because we wanted it to be clear that we were laughing at ourselves, too. We were laughing at the very place that we worked, and we weren't claiming to be any better than the rest. In fact, we were right in the middle of it.

JG: Besides auditioning for "talent", how did you audition for "sense of humor," because clearly there are different senses of humor. Did you audition for their sense of humor, what made them laugh, their humor style?

EN: They couldn't be easily embarrassed-- that was one important part. And we wanted it to come across on stage that we were Congressional staffers. We wanted people to be easy on stage-- and believable. Here's the guy you might work next to at the de sk... he's the guy who runs the legislation down to the floor during the day... and at night, here he is on stage.

JG: Are you all still working on the Hill?

EN: No, actually some of us have gone Down Hill. Some of our troupe do this full-time now, some have gone on to be lobbyists, radio producer, an occasional person who has gone to a trade organization in D.C.

JG: Given the pressure to be topical, do you get together to rehearse your new songs?

EN: It's FAX mostly. Here are the words, you know the tune, okay, you're on tonight! Like the day that Dan Quayle spelled potato with an "e", you couldn't go up on stage that night and not do something about it. The day that Gary Hart got caught, you couldn't go up and not do something about it on stage.

EN: Allan Sherman kind of did what we do-- you take a perfectly good song, and ruin it! I remember listening to him when I was growing up. Lately, we did a take-off of the Allan Sherman song "Hello, Mullah, Hello, Father" about the middle east peace ta lks: "Here I am at Intifada." Bill, my co-writer, was a real Tom Lehrer fan. What he did was a little different than us-- he tended to write original melodies, and he tended to have a point of view to his satire, while Bill and I could best be characte rized as "extreme raving moderates." We actually often try to point out the irony, the fact that there are two sides to any issue.

JG: Is there anything that you feel passionate about-- or that angers you-- when you see some inanity happening on the Hill... or do you experience joy and say, "Great, here's more fodder!"?

EN: Bill loves telling the story that one day he woke up and heard that Chernenko had died. I'm sure that there are all kinds of State Department people running around saying, "World peace, world peace, what's going to happen to world peace?" Meanwhile , Bill is wondering, "What rhymes with Gorbachev?"

EN: It is a warped way of looking at the news. For instance, in the last election there was the Jesse Helms-Harvey Gant race for Senate. It may have been truly good for North Carolina and the country that Harvey Gant win the election-- but for comedy, you really want Jesse Helms in there. We do get torn... but the good news is that we're happy no matter how the election turns out. This Fall, I couldn't really tell you which one of the candidates is funniest-- I'd really be hard-pressed. Clinton has had all the sex scandals and played the sax on Arsenio, but he never inhaled...

EN: The whole time... and he didn't enjoy it. And then there's Ross Perot. He's always got an anecdote: "The deficit is like the guy finds a rattlesnake in his pants. He knows he's got to shoot it, but he doesn't want to hit anything important." And then Bush would probably be in third place except for the fact that he's got the Danster with him.

EN: Yes, Joke-PAC has been in action. Not only for the candidate that is funniest, but also for the outcome of the legislation that would be the funniest.

JG: That would be good to dress them up like that for Halloween right before election day when the candidates go, "Trick or Treat!"

Speaking of treats, someone else who is a real treat is Mark Russell (see Volume 5,

EN: He's been very nice to us, too. We've done a couple shows with him, and he's a very nice man. He's paved the way for us in the Washington area-- people got to feel that there was this niche that needed to be filled. There was a need for someone to ridicule Washington.

JG: I had a chance to make a presentation last week in Buffalo at the Katherine Cornell Theater where his PBS specials originate. It was exciting to tread on his piano marks.

EN: We were with him at the Humor in the Presidency conference in 1986 (see Volume 4,

JG: How would you see yourselves as similar or different from Mark? You clearly have him outnumbered.

EN: It takes six of us to be as funny as one of him. I remember one time he called our office with a song idea because we do rock songs-- there are certain songs you need a group for-- the political pips as it were-- he goes, "Use 'Proud Mary' for Proud Barry"-- referring to Mayor Marion Barry of Washington. So we did "Going up the river" with Mayor Barry. Mark does a lot more stand-up than we do, a lot more one-liners. We're almost all musical.

JG: How have you seen the Steps evolving? You're approaching your pre-adolescence now...

EN: Uh, oh, our voices are going to start cracking! One thing that has been new for us is a lot of traveling and public shows. We've now been to 38 states... and New Jersey. We have quarterly specials on NPR... it's fun to travel and meet the people w ho listen to us on NPR. They're really enthusiastic audiences. We have another PBS special this Fall. And then we have our new book, Fools on the Hill. There are many political science books, but we realized that there is no book which trains you to b e a slimy politician. So we thought of the Political Ineptitude Test-- the P.I.T. which has questions like: "Women Air Force pilots can now fly in combat roles. This was done: (a)to ensure full combat readiness; (b)to satisfy feminist groups; (c)to en sure that at least some pilots won't be afraid to stop and ask for directions".

EN: You could be our first guinea pig! We were going to do a big contest with prizes, but our publisher said, "You can't do a contest-- there are so many laws that govern contests! If you want to give something away, you have to get five affidavits fro m lawyers standing on their heads.

EN: I could see it now: we're standing next to Charles Manson in prison, and someone would ask, "What are you in for?" He'd say, "Axe-murdering." And I'd say, "Contest rules violations!"

JG: The current election seems to violate the rules of previous campaigns. Mr. Perot is in, he's out, he's in.

JG: Well, timing is everything. Is there anything that isn't fair game for you?

EN: Our material has always been national. If it's in the headlines for several days, we try to hit it. There's been some tough subjects along the way. For instance, the Clarence Thomas hearings at first-- sexual harassment in and of itself is not a f unny subject. But you could make all the fun you want of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Just bring out DeConcini, Biden, and Kennedy to talk about morals and there's your joke right there. Or even a war-- that's tough. But then we did a love song to Wolf Blitzer. You look at the personalities that emerge and make fun of Saddam Hussein. There's always an angle.

JG: There's a fine line sometimes between laughing at others and laughing with others. Different people draw that line in different ways. Have you ever had someone who was offended by your material?

EN: We often think when we write a song, "Could we perform it for the person whom it's about?" In all cases, except for Dan Quayle, I think we could say we would. To his credit, we've been at a lot of events where he has probably had the veto power ove r our appearance.

JG: I'm curious about your magic process. Here's a headline or serious story three days in a row in The Washington Post. How do you take that and as an alchemist change that into funny? Do you wake up screaming in the night with ideas and inspiration?

EN: There's no set formula. Sometimes there's a song waiting for something to happen. There's a guy who does a mean Julio Inglesias in the group-- "To all the girls I've loved before...." And then Gary Hart gets caught. And other times, you have a Mi ke Dukakis, and you sit there with a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary and a book of song titles, and you think, "What on earth is funny about this guy?" But you've got to come up with something. I mean, you can't ignore the Democratic Presidential can didate.... well, then again, I guess the voters did!

EN: I do read a lot of comedy to loosen myself up, and watch a lot of comedy. I can get to the point where I can sometimes guess the punchline that Jay Leno will come up with. Not always-- but at least I try to teach yourself to think that way. I cons ider Jay Leno to be a very good barometer of what subjects are funny and what he thinks people know enough about to joke about.

EN: My absolute idol is Dave Barry. He's the funniest guy-- I just can't believe him. He's so prolific. (See Volume 8,

EN: Well, I wrote to him, because he's running for President, of course. I thought we could be a collective Vice President, but he's very fond of the Danster... but he did say that maybe he would chain us to the nuclear briefcase, and we could follow hi m around.

JG: You should at least get a Cabinet position. How about setting up a Department of Humor?

Elaina is sitting front and center next to Bill Strauss (who co-founded the Steps with her).

EN: We kind of use Quayle as the Secretary of Humor. Bush brings in the Secretary of Labor to appease the labor unions... and Quayle to appease the humorists and satirists.

I actually do feel somewhat responsible for Dan Quayle. We were at a party in the summer of '88 and it was clear that Bush was going to get the nomination. He hadn't yet picked a running mate, and he turned to us and asked, "Who should I pick?" And I s aid, "Just pick somebody funny and we'll be happy!"

JG: I imagine you also have to walk a balance beam-- on the one hand your humor is timely and topical... and at the same time you want it to be timeless... or at least have a half-life of more than two weeks.

EN: It depends on the subject. We have a song called "SuperfranticUnproductiveNothingLegislation". The only thing that would make that song dated is if the Congress got competent and solved problems and was no longer a laughing stock. We're going to d o that song forever!

EN: But we did lose "The Sounds of Tsongas." We are at the mercy of the headlines. It's not always pleasant to see a song go.

JG: If you were going to come up with a formula or recipe for your shows, it seems that you have the music, the satire, the sight gags, props, puns. Is there a conscious blending of those, or has it just gotten to be intuitive now?

EN: I constantly try to think of other angles. I've been experimenting lately with an opera. I decided there could be an ironic juxtaposition of the modern. Or we did a rap song called "The Simi Valley Rap," which is a white rap with guys that can't r eally rap. So I'm always trying to think of a different form that we can put in the show that stirs up the pot and makes the show have a lot of variety to it.

JG: So, not only do you want to corrupt individual songs, you want to corrupt entire musical art forms. Maybe you could be honored by the President someday at the Kennedy Center for your own musical political satirical art form. Are there any other ane cdotes about White House performances?

EN: Reagan came up after one show and said, "Well, thank you very much. Now you're all under arrest!" He had great timing. I don't think anybody had much doubt that Reagan could laugh at himself... aside from what you thought of his politics.

EN: He might forget what he was laughing about... Dave Warner (one of the Steps) does a bit where he suggests taking one Reagan campaign advisor and one Carter campaign advisor, so we could have a President who forgets he has lust in his heart.

One of the hardest things about making fun of Dukakis was that you didn't think he would laugh at himself. At least, he didn't come across that way. To me, that seemed like such a liability. If the public doesn't think a person has a sense of humor, th en that will really hurt them.

JG: So, you're performing a real public service, helping politicians and others to develop that skill.

Do you have any favorite songs... I know it's like asking who's your favorite child.... Do you have your own Capitol Steps Hall of Fame?

EN: It's almost always the newest one. I'm always one who loves puns-- so I like "Stand By Your Klan," "Thank God I'm a Contra Boy," "We Arm the World."

EN: We have our book, the PBS Special, we hope to hit more of the 50 states with public shows.

JG: Larry Klein, who was a writer on The Tonight Show, talked about the notion that "laughter is the only form of revolution we have left in this country." I don't know if that's true or not...

EN: Well, since nobody is staging any coups in our country.... The question that always comes up is "Do you as the comedian cause the politicians to become a laughingstock... or are they already a laughingstock?"

EN: You can tell a lot by how and at what people laugh. I can tell you right now that Sonny Bono will never be President!

JG: Maybe Vice President... So do you have any social mission: "We arm the world with laughter"... or "Changing the world through laughter"?

EN: One of our missions is to help people not take themselves too seriously. And another mission would be to point out the ironies in issues. Issues are not always as simple as they seem and sometimes that's why they are funny. Gee, on the one hand, D an Quayle puts an "e" on "potato", but on the other hand, he's the Vice President of the United States-- and we're not! So he may get the last laugh.

EN: Of course, the voters should continue to elect the funniest candidates, which they've been doing very nicely in recent years.

EN: Well Perot should get Sonny Bono to run with him... so they could be the Perot-Bono (pro-bono) ticket. I guess Clinton could run with a woman, but that got him in trouble in the first place.

I was curious about the role of humor in your own life. You do this as a job-- spreading humor and laughter.

EN: There are some fairly strong egos in a performing troupe, and you have to use humor to get past those tense situations. Hey, I should probably take one of your seminars! Humor is very important.

JG: It's a wonderful occupational hazard-- sharing ideas about humor... it's nice to be able to remind myself of my own medicine.

EN: It's a weird business, because no matter how rotten I feel or what's going on in my life, I still have to get up on stage and be funny. It's been therapeutic in some cases to arrive at a show and to know that my mission was to be funny and have a go od time! And the audience is so warm and nice that it's tension-relieving.

JG: Erma Bombeck once said, "When humor goes, there goes civilization." Gandhi was once asked what he thought about western civilization, and after an appropriate pause, he replied, "That would be a good idea!" On some global level, I see your work-- like ours-- as being fun, but not for fun. It entertains people... and there may also be some important messages in between the laughter.

EN: I'd agree with that-- I like what you say about taking your job seriously but not yourself seriously. It's important to be serious about comedy... if that's not an oxymoron.

If you are seriously interested in the Capitol Steps, look for their Fools on the Hill audiotape and book now available in the new HUMOResources catalog.