Rolling across the aisles: Capitol Fools poke fun at the political realm through musical parody

Sometimes you just need to laugh off what is happening in Washington, D.C., and the Capitol Fools have plenty of material that will have you cracking up about politics.

“We all were kind of the ashes from The Capitol Steps, and The Capitol Steps was a group, and we played at Popejoy many times under that name,” said Mark Eaton, Capitol Fools writer. “We’ve been around for nearly 40 years and just did not survive COVID, like a lot of live theater and things of that nature. And once the gloom started coming off and people started performing again, Capitol Steps had officially closed at this point.”

Capitol Fools makes a stop at Popejoy Hall on Friday, Jan. 17.

Rolling across the aisles: Capitol Fools poke fun at the political realm through musical parody

Former Capitol Steps performer Jack Rowles decided to form the Capitol Fools with other former members of The Capitol Steps. The newly formed group hit the road to get bookings and perform shows. Rowles approached Eaton to be the writer for the Capitol Fools.

“I’ve been writing with The Capitol Steps for the last 20 years or so, and so it just kind of felt like the world needs political satire,” Eaton said. “They need to laugh at some of this stuff ... And so (we’re) trying to unite the differences of people in our country with laughter.”

Eaton stays abreast of the latest political news to come up with his humorous melodies.

“There’s over 40 years of different songs that we’ve done,” he said. “There’s just kind of building blocks that you say, ‘Oh, this is an issue.’ You try to find the right song. With all the things going on in the nation, in politics, there’s never a lack of material. You kind of just open up the newspaper, or watch the news, and something might just strike your fancy, and you say, ‘Oh, you know, I think that might make a song.’ And maybe a tune instantly pops into your head.”

Some of Capitol Fools’ program is talking skits, with a vast majority being song parody. Eaton describes it as “Weird Al (Yankovic) meets politics.”

Eaton works with music director Howard Breitbart on the melodies.

“He works on the composition,” Eaton said of Breitbart. “Basically the songs are all, hopefully, familiar to 90% of the audience. You know, a lot of Broadway standards, a lot of shows that most people will know. And so, when you obviously change it into silly words, sometimes the meter changes a little bit, or you have to decide what key it is for everybody. And Howard is excellent at keeping it all together.”

Audiences will recognize many characters being spoofed by Capitol Fools, including U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, Dr. Anthony Fauci and congresswoman and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

“Parody and satire have been around for so long and it’s just nice to kind of keep it going and to have the audience react,” Eaton said. “We try to be equal opportunity offenders. If you think we’re picking on your side of the aisle too much, just wait, because we’ll pick on the other side of the aisle as well.”

Rozanna M. Martinez is the arts and entertainment editor of the Albuquerque Journal. You can reach her at rmartinez@abqjournal.com.