Democracy Burlesque

08/13/2024

We're back! And we're back ... to the origin story of DB Comedy and Democracy Burlesque: the George W. Bush Presidency. We laughed to ridicule and to route our fury (and produce shows to do a little good), and in that spirit we invite you to join us to laugh well-deserved and earned laughs towards what most of us SWORE would be the President we'd ever live through. Ha ha ha (sigh) - but HAHAHA! Give it your ears!

Once upon a time in the city of Chicago - around 2006 - a group of politically-nerdy writers and performers came together in a mutual need to stay sane through what we all SWORE would be the WORST Presidency we would EVER live through. How naive we were ... but also, how funny! Because the only way....

05/29/2024

"Hap-py BIRTH Day ... Mister Pre-si-dent ...!" Sing along as you listen (or re-listen!) to our JFK episode on the anniversary of his birth!

It says ... something about our political culture ... that the man with the third-shortest Presidency (and lack of legislative record to match) nonetheless generates SO much press and myth and legend and historical interest - and we at DB Comedy are right there with them. Its John F. Kennedy, and in...

05/08/2024

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY TRUMAN! Celebrate by catching up with his life and Presidency with our Harry Truman episode, why don't'cha?!

World War II is ending, and the American Century is ready to go - but before we do, there's the matter of the last guy who brung us there: the plain-spoken piano player from the Show-Me State who worked up through a political machine and avoided the Klan to drop the bomb(s), pulled off one of the al...

04/30/2024

WE'RE BACK! And we're finishing our side episode on third parties by spending some time with all the fun 20th century parties - from Bull Moose to Dixiecrats, from Liberarians to Greens, and ending with a glimpse into what 2024 could bring (erp!)! LOAD IT DOWN!!!

DB Comedy returns to put as much of a bow as we can to our discussion of Third Parties - what with several lurking about as this episode was posted in 2024 and all - but we focus on Bull Mooses and Socialists and Dixiecrats and Greens, and even chat and snark about parties and privilege and movement...

04/28/2024

Happy Birthday, James Madison! And what better way to celebrate than to revisit our James Madison episode? Or better yet, if you missed it the first time, to listen to it for the first time now? NOW'S the time!!

He was the first President who started a war and got the White House burned to the ground in the process - but we got an Anthem and a cooler White house out of it! And, his wife was really awesome! He's James Madison, and this is his podcast!

03/08/2024

Ancient Rome was a diverse place, but the frontiers were the most in flux

02/27/2024

YES! This thing is ON - and we have a fun two-parter starting with this episode exploring all the weird, fun, intense, and sometimes even important, third parties in American political history - starting with Whigs and Masons and Know-Nothings, OH MY!

LOAD IT DOWN, Y'ALL!

Throughout the podcast, we have flirted with and chit-chatted about all kinds of third parties in the United States, and while at first we didn't think it was the case, we realized it actually would have been wrong not to talk about all those extra parties - and explore what it is about our system t...

12/05/2023

HI! Sorry about that slight delay between episodes, but WE'RE BACK to wrap up The American Century (TM!) - and since everyone else is into 90s nostalgia, we're ready to do our part with our Bill Clinton episode! LOAD IT DOWN!

08/15/2023

This is the kinder, gentler episode on the Presidential escapades of ... that family - with lots and lots of gratuitously funny shots at that potatoe-headed Veep of his for good measure! LOAD IT DOWN!!

Would it be prudent to download this episode? Is it a kinder, gentler take? Or is it all voodoo? Read Our Lips - it's DB Comedy snark the way you know it and love it ... especially since it's a chance to kick a certain potato-misspelling Hoosier up and down the electoral map too! It's George HW Bush...

07/11/2023

We're up to the actual Reagan Presidency, and we give it the respect it deserves ... come join us as we do! LOAD IT DOWN!

The Ronald Reagan Presidency. Lots of feels about this one - and so our discussions and sketches have lots of barbs and lots of laughs to cope with the things that were done. Ronnie may not have remembered - but we did and we dish, and you'll be glad we did! This is how you deal with Reaganism - giv...

06/20/2023

If you still heart the 80s - and apparently everyone does - join us as we gear up to dig into the Reagan Presidency (one of those 80s things you just have to manage) with a Bonus Episode on The Decade That Won't Quite Go Away ... LOAD IT DOWN! STREAM IT OUT!

It is said that the influence on the 1980s on subsequent decades - even now - is stronger than any other in cultural history. All we know is, because we're at Ronald Reagan and he was kind of big in the 80s, we talked a LOT about a bunch of those influences - and we thought it was interesting and fu...

05/23/2023

Here we are - Ronald Reagan. We're starting before he got to the White House - and boy howdy, we dig in! So you should too - LOAD IT DOWN (and if you need some jelly beans to do it, do it)!

If Franklin D. Roosevelt was the defining President of the first part of the 20th Century to the burning resentment of one of our two political parties, you KNOW there was an inevitable counter - and we all know that counter is named Ronald Reagan. So away DB Comedy goes, with a review of the pre-Pr...