Leading Off: A change of plans for the Capitol Fools

Zach Hammack

Night Editor

Capitol Fools COURTESY PHOTO — The Capitol Fools will be at the Lied Center for Performing Arts on Friday.
AJ Mast, courtesy photo

The Capitol Fools were already in the midst of their nationwide tour delivering bipartisan political ribbing when the news broke that would completely change their show.

That, of course, being when President Joe Biden took to X in July to finally quell discussions about his second-term prospects and announce he would drop out of the 2024 race, and, in the process, endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris.

Suddenly, a vast majority of the Fools' show filled with song parodies and skits no longer worked.

"There were six numbers that we were able to hold onto out of 25," said Jack Rowles, who performs with the comedy troupe and is also the show's director and producer. "(We) had to write a new show."

That was no issue for Rowles and writer Mark Eaton, both veterans of the Capitol Fools' predecessor, the Capitol Steps, which for 40 years was the premiere political comedy troupe before it went defunct in 2021. For one, the group already had an actor playing Harris. And when in you're in the business of making fun of current events, being able to stay, well, current is just part of the job.

"It was quite the adventure, but at the same time, I will say that it did bring an energy to the audiences that we weren't experiencing before" Biden dropped out, Rowles said in a recent phone interview.

With the election a little more than a week away, the Capitol Fools will bring their reworked comedy act to Lincoln when they return to the Lied Center for Performing Arts on Friday.

The Fools are the natural successor to the Capitol Steps, which formed in 1981 when some congressional staffers for Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois were planning entertainment for a Christmas party and decided to write song parodies and skits to poke fun at those who employed them.

The satires were such a hit, the staffers formed a full-fledged group — the Capitol Steps — that over the years added more performers (not all former Capitol Hill staffers) and toured the country lampooning current events, even releasing dozens of albums. At one point, the group had three or four different casts playing different cities every night, especially during election season.

Then, the pandemic hit. In 2021, Elaina Newport, the group's co-founder and a long-time writer, decided it was time to give the Capitol Steps a rest.

That's when Rowles, who was a performer with Steps for 20 of the group's 40 years, came in.

"I thought ... there's still audiences out there who love this and let me talk to some of the other performers and I talked also to her co-writer Mark Eaton, and he said, 'Yeah, I'm not ready to retire or anything,'" Rowles. "We kind of got the group together, got the band back together and changed the name slightly and moved forward with our connection to the legacy of the Capitol Steps.

"Basically, if you had seen the Capitol Steps, and then you were to come see us on Oct. 25 ... you would basically not know the difference."

The Fools' first show was in Skokie, Illinois, in April 2022, and since then they've toured the country performing in 15 states and Washington. Just as with the Steps before them, the Fools skewer both sides, with Donald Trump, JD Vance, Harris, Tim Walz and Biden all fair game.

"We are bipartisan and that's one of my favorite things about this," Rowles said. "When you're in that environment, you're sensing that you're kind of in the middle of something important, where you're bringing both sides of the aisle together to laugh at some of the same stuff."

And being able to do that is needed now more than ever, Rowles said.

"It's a blast, and I honor that responsibility in a great way. I feel one of the things with Capitol Steps that I think was true with Steps and it's true of us, is that it's kind of a civic duty to get out there and to keep people trying to lighten up a little bit and unifying the country one laugh at a time."