Anthony Atamanuik

JFL42, Toronto ON, September 23

BY Vish KhannaPublished Sep 24, 2018

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The world's most accurately infuriating Donald Trump impersonator, gifted comedian Anthony Atamanuik did more than a spot-on shtick of the random, nihilistic leader of the free world. The President Show star lampooned the fucker, sure, but in a well-paced show, he also spoke to how Trump is the end result of a complacent pact with capitalism that humanity has abided for far too long.
 
Taking his lectern to great fanfare, Atamanuik's Trump saluted the cheering crowd gathered for this "rally," knocked down a Canadian flag that had been standing tall among seven American ones, and proceeded to speechify his way through the kind of mangled, tangent-prone address his real-life counterpart engages in. There were some nice Canadian touches tonight, poking at the NAFTA dispute, our no-good former cartoonist of a PM, Garry Trudeau and some confusion about Brett Kavanaugh's sexual assault accuser being Doug Ford.
 
Atamanuik broke several times, either distracted by a loud laugher he addressed as Mary, while heckling any audience members who left their seats to use the bathroom, or when forced to tug maniacally at his wig, as it threatened to secede from his head.
 
But beyond the great jokes and artful misspeaking, Atamanuik took the bold step of bringing the mood down for serious discussions about corporate feudalism, slavery and the armed revolt that will likely ensnare America when Trump loses his next election and decries the system as rigged or an election as hacked. The local cops and armed militias will do his bidding. This current bleak period could be a golden age compared to what the world may plunge into. What a remarkable turn for this show to take.
 
Anthony Atamanuik continues to treat Trump like the logical manifestation of Western civilization that he is — a genuine reflection of a society that thought itself better than it was, or else assumed that no matter what we enabled, everything would be fine. But even this comedy show, rammed with jokes and joyous laughs, made the sombre point that no, things aren't fine, nor will they be anytime soon.

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