Jon Stewart in concert: Bipartisan satire loaded with equal-opportunity barbs

By Lisa Rose/The Star-Ledger

March 08, 2010, 1:54PM

Scott Gries/Getty ImagesJon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, revisited his standup roots with four shows Friday and Saturday at the Music Box in the Borgata. Above, comedian John Stewart performs at the MTV Networks UpFront at The Theater at Madison Square Garden May 05, 2004 in New York City.
It was a bit unexpected to find nuanced political discourse at a theater in an Atlantic City casino.

But then, it's also strange that a mock newscast often contains more substance than the opinion-driven journalism it targets.

Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, revisited his standup roots with four shows Friday and Saturday at the Music Box in the Borgata.

Taking the stage late Friday night, the Lawrence Township native introduced himself as a Jersey guy and declared: "What happens in Atlantic City bites you in the a-- in Philly."

After filling a certain quota of local jokes, Stewart segued into more divisive material, confronting the audience with mordant observations about the fear, greed and arrogance that's led the country into a crisis.

At various points, the serious talk silenced the crowd, so Stewart shifted gears to win laughs with whimsical riffs on parenthood, pet mishaps and fetishized food.

The 47-year-old provocateur appeared to be enjoying himself, freed from the shackles of basic cable, hammering liberals and conservatives in language that gets bleeped on TV.

It's not uncommon for famous comics to go clubbing, testing out new routines. That didn't seem to be the case here, however. Stewart waxed philosophical for an hour-plus, with no mention of more live dates on the horizon. He clearly has a lot on his mind of late and this was a chance to engage in free-form commentary. And the paycheck surely didn't hurt.

His bipartisan satire inspired scattered applause, but it was nothing like a "Daily Show" taping, where seats are filled by cheering fans who camp out for hours to get up front. During question time at the Borgata, few volunteered to challenge his viewpoints.

One audience member shouted "Sarah Palin," which led to the inevitable digs about her shortage of intelligence and surplus of sex appeal.

Palin-bashing aside, Stewart offered evenhanded humor. If anything, he was tougher on the left.

He expressed disillusionment with the Democrats and Obama, "This was the guy that was going to lift us up. When did we lose our nerve? When did we become afraid to do anything?"

He wondered aloud about the cause of the stalemate on Capitol Hill and someone yelled, "It's Fox."

Feigning confusion, Stewart replied, "Lox?"

He contended he does not believe smoked salmon is the cause of the crisis. Whitefish, on the other hand -- who knows?

On the topic of the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial, Stewart stated -- with disbelief -- that, after all this time, it could move from criminal court to a military tribunal.

If there's one thing America does well, he opined, it's jailing people.

"Have you ever watched MSNBC on the weekends?"

Stewart used the phrase, "tyranny of the left," referring to political correctness taken to an extreme. The father of two referenced protests against community Christmas displays and said the spectacle of a mega menorah doesn't give Hanukkah more significance.

An equal opportunity social critic, Stewart railed against hubris on both sides of the religion vs. science debate.

At one end, he said, are the folks who claim to be glorifying God when they're actually glorifying themselves.

On the science side, Stewart poked fun at sheep cloners and voiced fears over the Hadron Collider in Switzerland, where physicists are trying to mimic the big bang. "It will be ingenuity that ends our reign," he said, "The last thing man utters will be, 'Hey, it worked.' "

In Stewart's mind, the nation is tangled up in all the wrong arguments, like gay marriage. It's not as if anyone is campaigning to make it mandatory, he stressed. While the bible says a man shall not lay down with another man, it also condemns eating shellfish as an abomination. The comic shrugged, "God hates fags, and scallops."

Lisa Rose may be contacted at lrose@starledger.com.