Zimmerman folks with conservative politics
CASEY THOMPSON, Lifestyle Editor
Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: Entertainment
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"One more Bush Administration screw-up and I've got tenure," said political satirist Roy Zimmerman as he took the stage for two hours of uproariously funny and thought-provoking songs.
From that point on, the laughter never ceased in the small auditorium. Zimmerman's performance, entitled "Faulty Intelligence: Funny Songs About Ignorance, War and Greed," highlighted the folk singer's keen comic wit, as well as his lyrical acumen and guitar skills.
The show was set up by music professor Arthur Winer to raise money for the music industries studies program. Winer found Zimmerman during one his many excursions on Youtube and thought he'd be great to host.
"Roy Zimmerman is a fun lesson," Winer said during his introduction of Zimmerman.
The musical styles ranged as widely as the subject material during Zimmerman's two-hour set. The music ranged from fast-paced bluegrass that showcased Zimmerman's technical abilities to outright ballads, but always remained closely tied to the folk roots he wears so proudly on his sleeve.
Similarly, the subjects of his songs could go from the Iraq War to the Moral Majority, but they never strayed from his unapologetically liberal viewpoint.
His first set elicited the most laughter from the audience, singing sexually charged songs about Bush "pulling out" of Iraq and Dick Cheney's animal magnetism. Throughout the entire show, he made full use of bad impersonations and asides along with outrageous faces to really get into character of each song.
"It was different from something I expected," said Joseph Viallajin, a second-year computer information systems student who came to the show to fulfill a requirement for a music class. "It was kind of dirty humor … it turned out to be really funny."
Zimmerman's second set was noticeably less crude than the first, causing slightly fewer laughs but much deeper thought. This music personified Zimmerman at his most biting, with scathingly honest satire.
He began by mocking the difficulties of being a liberal - one of Zimmerman's best traits is his ability to analyze himself and his self-deprecating nature.
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