Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin graced the Whitman stage last week—kind of.

Actors impersonating various political celebrities are commonly portrayed in sketches on SNL, but on Oct. 13, satire group Capitol Steps performed in the auditorium with its own political rendition of an SNL-style musical comedy. Whitman parents planned the event to fundraise for the Post Prom event in May.

Capitol Steps is a DC-based musical comedy group. Their tagline, “We put the mock in Democracy,” encompassed the spirit of the night with major political wisecracks.

Beginning with some Senate staffers goofing off at a Christmas party on Capitol Hill, the group has now been around for 35 years and has evolved into a full-time musical company.

Brian Ash, an actor who impersonates Mitch McConnell, Putin, Trump and others, said he has been working full-time with the company for 28 years.

Though the group has 25 actors, only five performed at Whitman. A continuous show with so many costume changes and different scenes yet few actors is stressful, he said.

“Backstage, it’s like ‘Where’s my wig? Where do I put this sign?’” he said. “All while trying not to miss your cue.”

Though the election season is their busiest and most popular time of year, challenges still arise, Ash explained.

“With the election in mind, one of the things I’ve found is that it’s harder to be funnier than Trump and Clinton are in real life,” Ash said. “They say and do such ridiculous things. What’s funnier than what they already are?”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”Brian Ash” color=”#7fd9f8″]“With the election in mind, one of the things I’ve found is that it’s harder to be funnier than Trump and Clinton are in real life,” Ash said. “They say and do such ridiculous things. What’s funnier than what they already are?”[/perfectpullquote]

Despite this, Ash and the rest of the group kept the audience laughing the whole night with their song topics varying from Obamacare to Bob Dylan’s recent Nobel Prize win. In the final scene, the group sang ‘O Canada!’ as a tribute to the Americans threatening to move to Canada after the election, regardless of who wins.

A crowd pleaser, Lirty Dies, featured Ash expertly switching the letters of words without missing a beat. For example, instead of saying “two-party system”, Ash said “poo-tarty system”.

“My favorite part was the Lirty Dies segment because of the way the writers chose their wording very specifically to have a totally different effect when the syllables were reversed,” sophomore Matthew van Bastelaer said.

After covering the costs of hosting Capitol Steps, all proceeds from the event go toward the Whitman Post Prom fund.

“We contacted Capitol Steps because it is a fun show that makes jokes about both Political Parties and politics in general,” said Whitman parent Cindy Campbell, who is on the Post Prom committee. “It is a fun time really for anyone over age 13 and for students who live so near the nation’s capital.”