Author, five-time Grammy winner and “Saturday Night Live” writer Al Franken brought his political satire to Pick-Staiger Concert Hall Thursday night and entertained a captive audience of 750 students with his liberal wit and charm.
“I like that I can talk about what I want to talk about,” Franken said. “You have to stay within certain parameters when speaking to corporate America. Speaking at a college is more like … speaking at a night club, without people drinking.”
Representatives for Hillel Cultural Life, which hosted the event, said coordinating with Franken was painless, even though he does most of his speaking at right-wing corporations.
“Basically most of the groups I speak at are conservative,” Franken said. “Democrats can’t afford me. (Conservatives) love to hear that, it makes them feel rich. I make them laugh. Then they pay me.”
Barry Goldwater’s opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act persuaded Franken’s father to subscribe to the liberal perspective, though he originally was a Republican, Franken said. He followed his father to the left and has stayed there ever since.
“The last time I was in Chicago, I was campaigning for Al Gore,” he said. “Remember him? Yeah, he’s the guy that won the election.”
The speech included suggestions that the elderly be shot into space or used to fight in Iraq. Franken also commented on his legendary “SNL” character Stuart Smalley and the failures of both Bush administrations, culminating with his crowd-pleasing schtick, “The president has Tourette’s.”
“I love statistics,” Franken said. “For example, 1.7 million jobs were lost in the six total years of the two Bushes. If you extrapolate that, if the Bushes had run this country from its inception to the present day, no one would have ever worked. We’d be the poorest country in the world. Numbers don’t lie.”
On a more serious note, Franken told The Daily he disagreed with Bush’s policy on the war with Iraq.
“I think it’s not necessary to go to war,” he said. “But it may have been necessary to threaten to go to war to get us to this point where it’s really not necessary.”
Franken’s talk revolved around his take on current politics, including his disapproval of right-wing demagogue Rush Limbaugh. Franken’s second book, “Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot,” sparked discussion.
“At the time Rush was enormously fat, fat, fat, (with a) huge gut and a big fat ass, just a fat, fat, fat ass,” Franken said.
Though Franken has never met Limbaugh, he said any encounter would be an interesting one. Writing out of character was new for Franken, who wrote skits for “SNL” for 15 years.
“I had to find my own voice as a writer,” Franken said before the show. “I just do comedy, and I just try to do it in different ways.”
Many audience members were well versed in Franken’s perspectives.
“I like his slanted view on all the politicians and what they’re reporting and how they report it,” said Evanston resident Susie Fobes, 48.
At least one student found Franken’s comedy did too much name-dropping.
“I didn’t know everyone he was talking about,” said Maria Voznesensky, a Weinberg junior. “It’s funny and applicable to this campus though.”
For all his criticism, Franken said he did not want to be in Bush’s shoes.
“I’d be an awful president,” he said. “I would freak out. I would just become very depressed, stay in bed. It would be awful.”
