Former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris performed their respective standup routines on Tuesday, September 10.
The two comedians have been polishing their acts at various political rallies in recent weeks, in massive stadiums in front of thousands of comedy fans, but this was the first time they’d appeared together on the same stage, on live TV.
Reportedly, the former President and the current Vice President were not able to rehearse together? Even though they were expected to react to each other’s punchlines?
I read somewhere that they had never previously met in person. Never. Takes guts to do standup with someone you’ve never met.
Unfortunately, the producers of the show at ABC News didn’t allow a live audience at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center. Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris were performing for an audience of two — count ’em, two — ABC staffers and a few camera operators (who apparently were told not to laugh?) Obviously, ABC News knows very little about hosting standup comedy.
A laugh track would have helped.
I’ve never done standup comedy, because I’m painfully shy. But I can imagine how hard it is to be funny, when your only live audience is two Lamestream Media journalists — David Muir and Linsey Davis — and a couple of camera people.
Mr. Muir and Ms. Davis somehow kept straight faces throughout the entire show. That’s how you can tell a truly professional newscaster; they can act serious even while listening to Presidential candidates.
So this was pretty much ‘improv comedy’.
We have an improv comedy group here in Pagosa, that puts on performances at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, but they actually spend a lot of time practicing together. At the shows, they often call out to the audience, “Give us a location!” or “What is the relationship between these two people?” and then they improvise around the provided prompts.
At the Presidential debate, the prompts from the two journalists were also a surprise for the performers. Not a complete surprise, of course. The prompts all related, in one way or another, to the ‘Make American Great Again Tour’ or ‘Let’s Win This Tour’. (Both performers are currently on tour.)
The show started off with Ms. Harris introducing herself to Mr. Trump, by walking boldly across the stage, extending her hand, and stating her name.
“Kamala Harris. Let’s have a good debate.” She was reminding him of her name, because he’s been known to mispronounce it… as a playful joke, of course.
Mr. Trump shook her hand. “Nice to see you. Have fun.”
And with that, the fun began. They traded quips about the economy.
Kamala Harris:
“Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century. Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess…”
I appreciate Vice President Harris’ delivery, here. Comedians often use the ‘Power of Three’ when constructing the build-up to a joke. Here, she repeats “Donald Trump left us…” three times, and then hits us with the punch line. There’s hardly anything funnier that someone having to clean up a mess.
Donald Trump:
“Look, I went to the Wharton School of Finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant plan, it’s a great plan. It’s a plan that’s going to bring up our worth, our value as a country. It’s going to make people want to be able to go and work and create jobs and create a lot of good, solid money for our… for our country. And just to finish off, she doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s like four sentences, like ‘Run Spot Run’. Four sentences that are just ‘Oh, we’ll try and lower taxes…’ Take a look at her plan. She doesn’t have a plan.”
Some people may have missed the humor in this story, if they weren’t paying attention. The joke is, that Donald Trump has a plan. His plan is to have the Chinese pay our taxes for us. Ha ha!
“World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” said Vice President Harris, during a skit about foreign policy. I found this to be a generous comment on her part. At least someone is laughing at Donald Trump.
A childless cat lady named Taylor Swift (you may have heard of her?) also watched the show, and posted her reaction on her Instagram account at the end of the ABC News performance. (She’s apparently a night owl.) When I visited Instagram on Wednesday, 9.5 million people had already read her post.
Part of her post:
Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.
I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos…
Ms. Swift didn’t mention, in her post, any of the numerous wisecracks from Tuesday night’s show… or whether she had laughed at Donald Trump’s little AI joke. Maybe she doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.