John Oliver’s intelligent humor resonates with local fans (w/video)

From Will Rogers to Mort Sahl, humorists throughout American history have mixed punchlines and politics. But few have blended hard-news topics and edgy humor as thoroughly as John Oliver.

First on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and now on his new HBO series, “Last Week Tonight,” the English humorist has built an avid following.

When Oliver plays two shows on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, he’ll find an appreciative total audience of some 3,000 local fans.

“I enjoy watching people who can be funny and interesting at the same time,” said Robin Calkins, 46, of Santa Rosa, who works as a business development specialist for Jackson Family Wines. An Oliver fan since his “Daily Show” stint, Calkins has tickets to see Oliver's show.

“There is something about the combination of intelligence and humor that is really appealing,” she said.

In a cultural climate that still has many comics joking about couples sharing a bathroom, Oliver doesn’t shy away from serious subjects.

In a recent segment of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver accused the U.S. government of abandoning native interpreters who aided our armed forces in Afghanistan. Now targeted by the Taliban, these allies are bogged down in the American immigration process and can’t escape their home country.

“John Oliver’s new show is funny, but it’s also not funny. He hits some heavy topics not necessarily covered in the news,” said Sheri Roberge, 47. a special education assistant from Windsor, who will see the comedian's Wells Fargo Center show. “He keeps your eyes open, and you kinda have to laugh.”

Current topics Oliver has tackled include drones, the wealth gap and misleading food labels. And yet, punctuated with pop-up graphics, sly insides and witty quips, every segment is fun to watch.

Oliver doesn’t duck the potential shock of joking about dire events.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he told his audience at the start of a segment on the botched execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma. “You’re thinking, ‘You’re not going to do a comic take on the death penalty, right?’”

To keep viewers from tuning out, Oliver paused briefly to screen a YouTube video of tiny hamsters eating tiny burritos, before he went ahead and talked about the death penalty.

Since the U. S. Supreme Court doesn’t allow cameras in the courtroom, Oliver and his crew in another segment dressed up dogs in black robes and reenacted the high court’s debates using the audio track from actual sessions.

In Oliver’s version, Justice Samuel Alito became a poodle, with Clarence Thomas as a Rottweiler and Elena Kagan as a pit bull. The court staff featured a pecking chicken as the court stenographer and a goose as an assistant.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. Read his Arts blog at arts.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.