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Satirist ready to hit Senate show

It was Ronald Reagan who once observed that: 'Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while and then have a hell of a close.' The former actor, who became governor of California before entering the White House, was undoubtedly a standard bearer for performers turned politicians.

Now, attempting to follow a path from the world of entertainment into public office comes Al Franken, one of America's most prominent comedians who next week could be on his way to Washington as the new senator for Minnesota.

It is a concept more likely than it sounds.

For a start, Minnesota is the state that chose Jesse 'The Body' Ventura, a show-boater from the notoriously theatrical sphere of professional wrestling, to be its governor a decade ago.

There is also Franken's journey from his juvenile lampooning of politicians on a sketch show three decades ago to his more recent activities as a learned political commentator in print and over the airwaves.

That transformation from spoof to satire appears to have given Franken, 57, some degree of credibility with Minnesota's voters, at least according to the polls.

The candidate for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (the state's affiliate to the Democratic Party) is neck-and-neck with Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in what has become a bitterly fought race.

In keeping with Reagan's belief, Franken's political career certainly had a hell of an opening.

In May, he was criticised by fellow Democrats for a sexually explicit essay entitled 'Porn-O-Rama' he wrote eight years ago for Playboy magazine, a controversy that his Republican rival exploited with glee.

A month earlier, Franken's tax filing 'problems' were exposed, resulting in him making a hasty payment of US$70,000 in overdue taxes and penalties in around 17 states.

So why would a broadcaster, writer, actor and comedian earning a comfortable living from his wry analysis of politicians suddenly want to become one, especially given the vitriol and mud-slinging that has been a hallmark of his rivalry with Mr Coleman?

'Throughout his writing and radio career he has always been passionate about a lot of issues, about liberal concerns, things he has been an advocate of in his satire,' said Tom Borman, a Minneapolis lawyer who has been a close friend of Franken for more than 40 years.

'He just felt that this was the best way he could do something about it. His passion is not so much the politics, but the issues.'

His storyline is similar to the 2006 movie Man of the Year, starring Robin Williams as the popular host of a television political talk show.

His character, Tom Dobbs, becomes so disillusioned with the negativity of mainstream political campaigning that he launches an issues-led bid for the presidency and wins.

There are certain differences, such as Franken running as a Democrat for the Senate rather than as an independent for the White House.

And The Al Franken Show, which ran from 2004 until he announced his Washington ambition in February last year, was a radio broadcast, not on television.

Yet he and the fictional candidate share the same exuberance and jocular passion for the campaign trail.

'He's a natural and more at ease making jokes,' Mr Borman said. 'I watched him at one fund-raiser and he almost can't help himself, he's so funny. He's hilarious and can go non-stop.

'But at the same time he speaks passionately and is issue-orientated. He's had to rein himself way in to be politically acceptable, but I can't ever see him not being involved in comedy in some way.'

Some analysts believe that Franken's decision to turn his back on a lucrative broadcasting career, albeit temporarily if he should lose on Tuesday, is a natural consequence of the increasingly influential role that satirists have had in helping shape political debate in America.

Franken's radio broadcasts, along with Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's Daily Show on television, are largely comedy but leave listeners and viewers with a clear idea of the serious issues of the day.

'Our comics are now so much a part of the political conversation that it doesn't seem like quite a stretch when they want to run for public office,' said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at New York state's Syracuse University.

'Al Franken has been ploughing these fields for a while and it's not outrageous to me that this would be a move he would make.

'A century ago, it would have been inconceivable for Groucho Marx to make such a run, but in the modern era of celebrities and political leaders the job description overlaps somewhat.

'You have to appeal to a wide audience, know how to perform and hit your marks, inspire people, look good and be a TV star.

'We expect our politicians to be performers, we're just not always consciously aware of it.'

Alan Stuart Franken was born in New York to Jewish parents.

Franken and his elder brother Owen went to high school in St Louis Park, Minnesota, after the family moved to a small town called Albert Lea when he was four.

'Years later I asked my dad, 'Why Albert Lea?'' Franken recalls on his website. 'And he said, 'Well, your grandfather wanted to open a factory in the Midwest, and the railroad went through Albert Lea.'

'So, I asked him, 'Why did the factory fail?' and he said, 'Well, it went through Albert Lea, but it wouldn't stop.''

Franken continued working on his comedy writing at Harvard College, the same school of John F. Kennedy, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former vice-president Al Gore.

In 1975, after graduating, he and writing partner Tom Davis, another high school friend, landed jobs on a new satirical programme that became Saturday Night Live, now America's top-rated comedy show.

The pair split the US$350 weekly salary.

Franken went on to win five Emmy awards in two stints with the programme.

He has written four best-selling books critical of the Republican establishment, including Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, attacking the right-wing radio host with whom Franken has a long-running feud.

While at Harvard he met his wife Franni, a fellow student, and the two have been married for almost 33 years, 'many of them happy' as Franken tells it.

They have two children, daughter Thomasina, 27, and son Joe, 23.

'He adores his wife and children, and his whole life is about his family and comedy,' said Mr Borman, adding that his friend was surprised by how personal the campaign against him had become.

'Al is a guy who's really very sensitive and people don't see what a family person he is and how much emotion he wears on his sleeve,' he said. 'He had no idea it would be this nasty.'

Is it a lesson, perhaps, that comedy and politics might not be that compatible after all?

'By and large, politics has a detrimental effect on comedians, and vice versa,' said the British satirist Craig Brown.

'Politics aspires to rationality, comedy to irrationality. The politician must stop before he goes too far, whereas the comedian must go too far before he stops.'

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