On election night, the directors of the Here Arts Center, a SoHo theater, held an unusual event to celebrate Barack Obama’s victory.
Actors Amanda Sisk and Noah Diamond, who recently staged a comic play, “Life After Bush,” followed the election results on a big projector screen, flipping from news channel to news channel. Sisk and Diamond discussed what was happening on the TV with people in the audience.
The actor who portrayed George W. Bush in the “Life After Bush” play showed up at the party in a costume. He stayed optimistic even as his party lost state after state. He talked and joked with the audience.
After Mississippi was won by John McCain, Bush said, “What was it? Mis., mis., a…h sippy, yah good, good state Mississippi.”
-“Can you spell that?” said someone from the audience
-“T- h- a- t- a.”
He wore a big orange cowboy hat, formal suit and held a Chihuahua toy under his arm.
During the event, Sisk and Diamond were calling their friends across the country. The first person they called was Sisk’s mother from Tennessee, who revealed that until the last moment she was unsure of whom to vote for.
Most of the call receivers were Obama supporters. But a woman named Rachel Fishman, a McCain supporter, prompted an unexpected silence, which was broken by the Bush actor, who said, ”Thank you, you are a great American even from the state of Oregon.”
A white man from California, who was wearing a long-haired wig, was reached via web-camera. He called himself Jesus and said, ”Of course I voted for Obama, we are the same color.”
You could hear applauses frequently that night as Obama was sweeping Republican states one after another. The pick was reached when one of the anchors at MSNBC News declared ”McCain’s campaign for victory has been crushed!” when Obama won Pennsylvania state.
The event had breaks. There were stand-up comedy performers, and a music group- Mask of Death. The group called themselves that night Projected Winners at their first performance, and at the second Too Close To Call.
A special guest who was reached by phone call was one of the Obama’s campaign activists, Mat Walters, who knows Obama personally. He was asked by Sisk what the candidate likes to do, and if there are any secrets he can share. But Walters avoided revealing any private information about Obama and said, “He likes to wake up early in the morning and play basketball.”
When the Too Close To Call band were performing their last song, someone from the audience whispered, “He won.” At that moment, the monitor wasn’t displaying. It was a moment of sudden confusion. As soon as Obama’s victory was clear, some of the women started crying.
”It is not over for me, you will see me again. I am just going to take a vacation, regroup my people, and come back,” were Bush’s final comments.