The real Presidential election is serious business, but the mock-election that forms the framework of The Election Show is anything but. The improvised political spoof presents a condensed version of the election process in two acts. In the first act, the audience is introduced by the “non-partisan, non-biased moderator” to the incumbent President facing re-election. The President addresses the “nation” in a speech detailing the highlights of the previous four years. In Thursday’s opening night show, President Sean Patella-Buckley (cast members take turns playing the different roles on different nights), an RPG-loving leader spoke of his many accomplishments which included surgically enhancing all cats with wings and dogs with laser vision. The President is then sent away in order and the stage becomes home to the opposing party’s nominating convention. Three candidates make their cases for why they should receive the party’s nomination by presenting platforms based on themes brought up in pre-show conversation with audience members. As the first act ends, audience members are sent into intermission with ballots to choose the candidate they prefer to face the incumbent in act two’s election, during which the two contenders square off in a debate that is almost frighteningly realistic in points despite the utter ridiculousness of the campaigns.

Throughout the show, the on-stage action covers all the key components of a real election: recurring bits included portrayals of candidate stumping, attack ads, and a sharp-witted parody of political talk shows. The opposing pundits in the talk show segment, portrayed this night by Justin Sund and Ben Piper, were particularly amusing, providing some of the biggest laughs of the night with their spot-on portrayals of party propaganda hacks. After a solid round of campaigning and the selection of Vice President candidates from the audience–”Your job,” moderator John Boyle tels them, “is to sit down and say nothing”–the audience votes again and the show concludes with the announcement of the election’s winner. For this show, the winner was Jon Axell who responded to a pre-show complaint about not having enough time to get thing done by proposing to build a second sun so that there would always be enough hours in the day, a conceit that is unimpressive in the describing but made extremely funny by Axell’s performance.

Any improv show, particularly one so audience-driven, relies on two key factors to be successful: the performing talents of the cast and their ability to form a bond with the audience. The Election Show’s experienced and skilled cast are all veterans of the comedy and improv scene and put their skills to use in amusing and inventive ways and managed to get the audience so engaged in the show that at several points spontaneous chants related to the on-stage action broke out in the audience. The audience is an important part of this show and everyone in the theater rose to the occasion, although it should be noted that the two weakest parts of the show came when the audience was required to invent a political crisis facing the nation and the opposing candidate’s scandal. As it happened, the ideas thrown out weren’t terribly funny on their own. To the cast’s credit, they made the best of them and still managed to earn appreciative laughter.

If real life campaigns were as entertaining as those in The Election Show, we’d never have a low-turnout election again.

The Election Show runs through October 24 at the University Theater on the Ave and concludes with a special election night show on November 4th.