Dick Cheney's Comedy Act

[ChattyDaisy]

Since shooting a man in the face, Vice President Dick Cheney has
endured a withering comic assault, sitting idly by as jokesters
everywhere have made him a near-constant butt of jokes. But Cheney
tried to turn the tables this week with his own stand-up comedy act at
the annual Radio & TV Correspondents' dinner, poking fun at the media,
White House officials, and himself.

"I feel very comfortable up here," Cheney said. "The lighting could be
better, but I can still see the whites of your eyes."

He then went on to narrate a humorous slide show. A sample: "I really
spend a lot of time every day with the most powerful man in
Washington," Cheney said, as a slide of Karl Rove appeared to loud
laughs. "So powerful, in fact, that he inserted that line in my
remarks."

All in all, Cheney's stand-up shtick was a bit lackluster. As blogger
and political comedy guru Howard Mortman noted, Cheney's routine was
predictable, and the slide show gimmick trite. (President Bush has
relied on slide shows as a comedy crutch several times over the years,
including one notably bizarre routine in which he showed a picture of
Cheney apparently urinating on the door to the Oval Office.)

Cheney was easily upstaged by the evening's headliner,
comedian/impressionist Frank Caliendo, who did a wicked Bush
impersonation. We don't have the video yet, but you can view this
hilarious clip from Caliendo's recent appearance on the Late Show With
David Letterman.

Next up on the Washington comedy circuit is the annual White House
Correspondents Dinner on April 29, where it will be hard for anyone to
top last year's widely acclaimed "Desperate Housewife" routine by First
Lady Laura Bush