"Gosh," twangs Dubya, "It's hard work being a President that people don't like much." And thus begins the singing and dancing political satire titled The Dick 'n Dubya Show: A Republican Cabaret. Currently running at The Marsh SF, this two-man comedy team will hopefully sweep across the country, turning red states blue. Well, if not blue then perhaps bright purple.

Dubya starts the show with a prayer, sigh. He then directly addresses the audience and explains that he and Dick are doing their Republican outreach show in cities like San Francisco in an attempt to politically convert us. (I suspect though that by the evening's end, we were all bigger Democrats than when we entered.) Dick enters, and they both turn to the audience for some question-answer time. When a tough question arises, Dick rolls up a shirt sleeve to perform a brief ventriloquist act (without poppers, ouch). Then Dick takes to the electric keyboard and accompanies a singing and dancing Dubya. Shake those hips! To facilitate Dubya's vocabulary lessons, Dick attaches jumper cables-to help zap a little sense into the Prez. Dubya's ensuing "best of" speech (rife with sense-defying sentences) is accompanied by lots of zaps. Next up, Dubya does a cheer that morphs into a rap song. It's hoppin'. Barbara Bush (complete with red power dress and pearls) puts in a special guest appearance and brings a bit of order to the sharp-witted, shamless shenanigans. The two savvy satirists wrap it all up with "Cakewalk to Baghdad" (composed by Bruce Barthol), a musical tribute to imperialism, I mean democracy. Wonderful.

Amos Glick is terrific as the malaprop-popping, sentence-mutilating Dubya, who oftentimes sounds more like Austin Powers than the Prez. His wide-eyed delivery is bolstered by a childlike, upbeat attitude. Ed Holmes is hysterical as the manipulating, tough-as-nails Vice President Dick Cheney. He really looks and acts the part. Scary. With tongues firmly planted in cheeks (hmmm), these two spew out the Republican party lines with clenched-jaw conviction. "I wanted to spread peace and freedom in Iraq," Dubya adds, "by dropping bombs." Whether painful direct quotes, or improvised bits of comedy, they hit today's hot political topics with belly-aching acumen.

Director Bill Allard understands how to pace a zany show. He keeps it moving, moving, moving. And avoiding any political diatribes from the actors (OR the audience), he opts for a delightfully dead-on, hit-and-run approach. Anything is possible in the certifiably wacky worlds of comedy and politics.

When the humor is waaaay too close to our painful reality, it can hurt to laugh. But sometimes that's exactly what we need to do. We may be the already converted, but when the preaching is this much fun, then bring it on! Check out The Dick 'n Dubya Show: A Republican Cabaret for a very good time.