A Letter of Appeal to Walt Stepp and Tom Herman (writer and director of The View Form K Street Steak, respectively):

Oh boy! Another scathing, satirical look at politics written and directed by ex- flower children who have become disenchanted with the results of their hippie revolution and now feel the need to spread the message that our government is fucked up beyond all belief.

Well thanks fellas, but let’s not forget it’s old acid freaks and coke heads like you, and good ol’ boy President Bush himself, that have made politics in this nation the horribly corrupt system that it is today.

Now, I appreciate a socio- political satire as much as the next guy. Hell, I love Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and that movie is drier than the eczema in my Grandma’s ear.

But Gentlemen: political ideology, and comic taste aside you way over the hill potheads were so busy taking yourselves seriously that you forgot the Golden Rule of the entertainment industry: BE ENTERTAINING!

Granted, the concept is a sweet one: Revealing the seedy underside of the relationship between congress, the media and the stranglehold lobbyists have on both: nice! Sure, it’s been done before, most notably in the films Wag the Dog and Thank You for Smoking.

Yet, staging it all in the form of vignettes presented by a venrtiloquist and his dummy: very nice! Honestly, kudos on the concept gentlemen.

But then you had to go and ruin it all by trying to be so preachy and highbrow that you simply forgot the funny. Not a joke in the entire show garnered a laugh. Not even the one’s you boys cued with rim shots!

Okay, so I didn’t enjoy the show. Granted, it may be my fault: Afterall the promotional materials led me to believe it was a puppet show. (Yes, I am a moron… And a jackass.) Still, I know funny and this show weren’t it.

I wouldn’t be so bitter if it wasn’t for what I experienced during the intermission.

I stood in the lobby of the Altered Stages theater and drank my complimentary wine (thanks fellas) while Mr. Stepp hung out with a bunch of his geriatric cronies congratulating himself. His fellow retirees surrounded him and all confirmed what a genius he was.

He soaked up their syncophantic praise and reasserted to his nearly dead ex- Deadhead pals how funny he and his play are. He wallowed in their praise like a pig in shit.

They smiled and congratulated him, kissing his ass with their denture filled lips. But believe me kids, not one of these life hogs cracked so much as a smile during the performance.

In short, it was this little scene combined with the uninspired staging and script that now leave me in the unenvious position of declaring your show, the false idealism behind the script, the entire failed free love experiment of the 60’s and the absurd pomposity of your very existence: BULLSHIT!

Then again this is just one humble kid from New Jersey’s opinion.

Best of luck in the future,

Objectively yours,

-Venditto

for those of you out there who can’t wait to run out and catch this show before it closes, click here for more info.