The 52nd annual Cornyation pulled no punches this year with its tongue-in-cheek, hilarious sketch comedy about local and national current events.
Everything from the crazes surrounding the Zika virus and Pokémon GO to mocking Millennials to Beyoncé’s “beyhive” of loyal fans were featured topics that brought the audience to their feet at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre this week.
With the event following the November 2016 presidential election and preceding San Antonio’s municipal election on May 6, there was plenty of political fodder for the two and a half-hour production.
A muscular Melania Trump made an appearance alongside several former First Ladies of the United States, including Jackie Onassis and Barbara Bush impersonators. After a skit featuring a lookalike of Kellyanne Conway – from “the Court of Alternative Facts, Fails, and Follies” — actors playing two of San Antonio’s mayoral candidates took the stage: a masculine Mayor Ivy Taylor in a red dress facing off against a clean-cut District 8 City Councilman Ron Nirenberg.
Of course, an orange-faced, red shoe-wearing President Donald Trump reared his head toward the tail end of the show, refusing to let Jesus Christ enter the United States.
The Rivard Report‘s Managing Editor Iris Dimmick made a cameo as a money gun-toting City Manager Sheryl Sculley in a skit about the infamous $100,000 Portland Loo installed downtown last year.
The performances would not have been complete – or nearly as entertaining – without the witty remarks of longtime event emcees Rick Fredrick and Elaine Wolff, whose banter with the audience between acts was expertly executed.
Keeping in the spirit of Fiesta – San Antonio’s “party with a purpose” – Cornyation is more than just a night of drunken hyperbolic commentary and clever, often risqué costumery. The nonprofit has donated almost $2 million to local charities that help those affected by or infected with HIV, as well as the San Antonio AIDS Foundation and Black Effort Against the Threat of AIDS.
The group also has the Robert Rehm Scholarship, which gives scholarships to local college students majoring in theatre arts.
The fun continues Thursday at the Empire Theatre, with showings at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Click through the gallery below to see more images.
