Jon Stewart at Riverside Theater
There likely exists an alternate universe in which The Daily Show is still hosted by the shit-eating grin of Craig Kilborn, and Jon Stewart is an everyday working comedian. Milwaukee was given a glimpse of that Bizarro World Saturday night as Stewart performed a rare night of stand-up at the Riverside Theater. Not that the game-changing political satirist left his celebrated wit off the table; indeed, it was a night where jokes about airplane food were replaced with hilarious musings on religion and science, and the differences between men and women became the differences between George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Coming out to a standing ovation, Stewart wasted little time in bringing up a topic near and dear to Wisconsinite hearts: Gov. Scott Walker. (Spoiler alert: the audience booed, prompting Stewart to ask, “Why don’t you guys like sociopaths?”) From there, he touched on topics like ineffectual Democrats, the “idiot parade” that is the current crop of GOP presidential hopefuls, and the gay- and shellfish-hating Book of Leviticus (“God hates fags… and scallops!”) Stewart killed during a bit where he likened Barack Hussein Obama’s 2008 victory to “Gaydolph Shitler” winning in the ’40s, but also got plenty of mileage from more traditional stand-up topics like children, getting older, and his Jewish heritage. As on The Daily Show, Stewart expertly towed the line between left and right, idealistic and exasperated. All throughout, he decried the noisy minority that seems to control our country’s agenda, and celebrated and gave voice to the rest of us—the ones with “shit to do.”
Unfortunately, a host of audience members without enough shit to do continually derailed the evening by shouting out random Wisconsin-related ephemera. Stewart opened Pandora’s box early in his set by mentioning the brand of his bottled water: Chippewa. From there, it was open season for an audience determined to yell “Spotted Cow!” “Brats!” or “Come to the Nomad!” at every possible opportunity. Stewart expertly worked with and deflected the catcalls, but after the 400th beer/brat/cheese shout-out, even he seemed fed up. (“I’m sorry, I know I’ve been dominating the conversation.”)
Not that it mattered: Stewart still triumphed. As his 90-minute set drew to a close, Stewart seemed to be working toward an overarching theme of “We should be proud of ourselves, but we also need to get over ourselves.” But after receiving a surprisingly boisterous response to a bit about Jewish holidays vs. Christian holidays, he ended his set early, going out on a high note. It was a controlled and professional touch from a controlled and professional performer—too bad the audience was oftentimes anything but.
