Comedian Randy Rainbow, dressed in a glittery blue coat draped in a brilliantly pink fuzzy boa, set the ground rules for his sold-out Fox Tucson Theatre concert Friday night.
"We're going to hit mute on our worries and our notifications from CNN. MSNBC. Fox News," he said, then waited for the audience's reaction and any telltale signs that among them there might be a few fans of the conservative network.
"I don't know your lives," he said, and from the mix of quiet boos, giggles and applause, his Tucson fans made very clear they were on his side of the political aisle.
If there were any Fox News or President Trump fans in the audience, they probably spent the next 90 minutes cringing and slinking low in their seats as Rainbow performed parodies of Broadway show tunes and pop songs that mocked Trump and his cadre of loyalists.
Rainbow -- yes, that's his legal name -- prefers to call his viral YouTube videos taking on the bully in the "White House playground." As a self-described music theater nerd, Rainbow was on the receiving end of bullying throughout his childhood. His popular YouTube videos are his way of evening the score.
On Friday night, backed by a four-piece band and with videos projected on a large screen on stage, he pulled out some of his greatest hits. He questioned the Trump administration's truthfulness in "Fact Checker, Fact Checker," a parody on "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from "Fiddler on the Roof." He revisited the 2016 campaign to poke fun at Trump's "Braggadocious" to the tune of βMary Poppinsβ classic βSupercalifragilisticexpialidocious.β He went country with "Before He Tweets," using Carrie Underwood's country hit βBefore He Cheats," then returned to Broadway for "You're Making Things Up Again, Donald!" from "Book of Mormon."
"The Sound of Music" was the backdrop to "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea," a little nudge to Trump's close relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Un, and he took his cue fromΒ "South Pacific" forΒ "There Is Nothin' Like A Wall," or more specifically a border wall.Β
Rainbow, who changed outfits almost as many times as Cher, showed off some mad vocal skills including holding a high note for an eternity at the end of on his newest parody "He's Just a Gurl Who'll Quid Pro Quo" sung to "I'm Just A Girl Who Can't Say No" from "Oklahoma." It was his most recent video, which he posted to YouTube just hours before Friday's show.
As we were making our way to the exits after Rainbow sang his last song, it dawned on us: We hadn't bothered to check that CNN alert telling us about a new controversy surrounding Republican Devin Nunes or news that the IG's report will find there was no politics involved in launching the Mueller investigation.Β
For 90 minutes Friday night, we did something we had not been able to do over the past two exhausting weeks of House impeachment testimony and Trump tweetstorms: Laugh.
