WASHINGTON — You couldn’t pick a better town for live political comedy.
So if you’re looking for sidesplitting laughs, why not split six sides of a Hexagon?
The 61st annual Hexagon variety show is currently raging at Woodrow Wilson High School, on Chesapeake Street in Northwest near the Tenleytown Metro, with just three shows remaining.
So why is it called Hexagon in the first place?
“The Princeton Triangle Club had a guy who left to come down here, Charles Isley, and he had three men on his stage, so he went ahead and combined them with three women, and that’s six, so it was called Hexagon,” Hexagon’s Gene Tighe tells WTOP.
But the size and scope of the show has grown greatly since its 1955 inception.
“They were performing a much more streamed-down show than we have now. We’re kind of elaborate now… Hexagon was a streamlined, small skit show that was done with great writing and done every year by students. Nowadays we’ve got a lot of non-students who are doing it in their off time, but it’s basically the same kind of format with a couple of nuances, like the News Breaks.”
These so-called “News Breaks” are exactly like the “Weekend Update” segments on “Saturday Night Live,” only instead of Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey, the anchor team consists of local news figures such as ABC7’s Doug Hill, NBC4’s Doug Kammerer and FOX5’s Sue Palka and Tony Perkins.
WTOP also routinely participates in the News Breaks, this year including anchors Bruce Alan, Debra Feinstein, Shawn Anderson and Hillary Howard, reporters Jamie Forzato and Megan Cloherty and D.C.’s one-and-only, high-energy, quick-clapping, weather-predicting meteorologist, Lauryn Ricketts.
“People kept asking me, ‘What do you do? What is this thing?’ … The first thing I say is it’s exactly like ‘Weekend Update.’ … They wrote all of my jokes, which are just on topic for what is going on today. Especially with this election, it’s just insane … Plenty of funny things to talk about,” Ricketts says.
Longtime participant Neil McElroy writes the various News Break jokes.
“He’s been doing this kind of funny stuff for a couple decades. He’s a very old hand at Hexagon, been there at least 20 years, and he is a very keen observer of the ways and whys of Washington. … But he’s also got a very good sense of humor. So we really have a fun time with him,” Tighe says.
These news anchor spoofs serve to break up an array of singing, dancing and bipartisan sketch comedy, roasting everyone from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who’s played by producer/performer Willy LaHood.
“He’s an absolute kick in the pants. Just watching him wear that wig and do his crazy little dance on the stage is just worth coming down to. He kind of steals the show from everybody else,” Tighe says.
“Last year, I thought one of the funniest things was Obamacare, trying to get on the website for Obamacare. You guys made a whole five-minute skit about that,” Ricketts recalls.
But you don’t need to be a political junkie to appreciate the humor. Hexagon pokes fun at a wide range of relevant things in our everyday lives, particularly our obsession with modern technology.
“You don’t really have to follow politics too much to get into it. … They’re talking about people who are on their cellphones constantly or FitBits, that was a big thing. So it kind of speaks to all ages and they put a funny spin on it and some of the stuff is just really, really hilarious,” Ricketts says.
The entire cast of actors, dancers, writers and comedians are volunteers from the D.C. area.
Auditions are announced in mid-November and held in early December. Rehearsals begin in mid-December and are held sporadically over the holidays, then ramp up to three or four nights a week starting in January. By early March, dancers put in longer hours to practice the all-important kickline.
Of course, these aren’t Radio City Rockettes. These are all folks who have other full-time jobs.
“Joe Kaplan our president; he’s a lawyer and has his own partnership in a law firm downtown. We have dancers; we have accountants; we have medical people. One of our longest[-tenured] members, Jamie Sinks, is a nurse downtown. These people have been doing this for 20 years or so,” Tighe says.
These longtime participants create not only a community feeling, but also that of a tight-knit family.
“Most of the performers are folks that have been down here with us at Hexagon for a significant period of time. I think the oldest performer is Gary Snyder. He’s been down about 25 years now. (Retired WTOP Man About Town) Bob Madigan had been doing it for almost 18 years,” Tighe says.
The local figures continue to come out because it’s always for a good charitable cause. This year’s program benefits the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home, the only long-term care facility in D.C. exclusively caring for low-income elders. Such service has not gone unnoticed, as in 1987, former President Ronald Reagan presented Hexagon with the President’s Volunteer Action Award.
“It’s just an incredible thing,” Ricketts says. “It’s a community thing. I love doing it.”
WTOP’s Shawn Anderson & Hillary Howard will host the News Break segments on Saturday. WTOP’s Megan Cloherty & Jamie Forzato will host the News Break segments on Sunday. Click here for ticket information.
