10/27/12 The Capitol Steps

Thirty years ago, the Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. In the years that followed, many of the Steps ignored the conventional wisdom (“Don’t quit your day job!”), and although not all of the current members of the Steps are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of eighteen Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience.

Since they began, the Capitol Steps have recorded over 32 albums, including their latest, Take the Money and Run for President! and their special holiday release, Barackin’ Around the Christmas Tree. They’ve been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, and can be heard 4 times a year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during their Politics Takes a Holiday radio specials.

Their material is updated constantly. Current examples include songs about Mitt Romney’s plea to the GOP (“Help Me Fake It to the Right”) and President Obama’s class warfare (“If I Tax a Rich Man”). In addition, we offer our own take on such trending topics as Secret Service indiscretions and the EU’s money woes and what to do with Greece. No matter who or what is in the headlines, you can bet the Capitol Steps will tackle both sides of the political spectrum and all things equally foolish. What else would you expect from the group that puts the “MOCK” in Democracy?!

Presented by The Klein as part of the THE BIG READ, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Media sponsor: WSHU Public Radio Group.

Made possible in part by the Fairfield County Community Foundation.