Mayor De Blasio, Reporters To Joke At Annual NYC Inner Circle Show
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - Mayor Bill de Blasio is rarely shy about cracking a joke, and his Dad-like sense of humor usually draws a mix of laughs and groans from New York City's political press corps.
On Saturday night, he'll take a turn playing comedian again-- and this time for a good cause.
De Blasio is set to perform at the annual Inner Circle show, which is New York's answer to the White House Correspondents Dinner, where politicians, reporters and the city's power brokers rub shoulders during a charity dinner.
The highlight each year is the mayor's performance, which serves as a rebuttal of sorts to the reporters' show, which opens the night by skewering the mayor and other city and state elected officials.
In a promotional video released Thursday, de Blasio seems to have cold feet about appearing in the show, saying "the press corps is going to eat me alive" and "I'm too tall for dancing."
A year ago, in de Blasio's first Inner Circle as mayor, he delivered a winning performance in which he enlisted celebrity friends like Steve Buscemi and Cynthia Nixon to gamely make fun of his tendency to be tardy, his struggle with managing a snowstorm and his reliance on his family during his mayoral campaign.
The theme to his show this year has been kept under wraps.
"We're taking a real look at what it means to be Bill de Blasio,'' mayoral spokeswoman Rebecca Katz said. "There will be surprises, and they're not all PG.''
De Blasio's performance is expected to follow the same template a year ago and be a skit-filled, low-frills affair. That stands in stark contrasts to the outlandish performances put on by his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, who used some of his own fortune to hire a Broadway cast each year and put on elaborate, music-filled shows.
One year, Bloomberg wore a harness, flying 20 feet in the air while dressed as Spiderman. Other noteworthy previous mayoral performances included Rudolph Giuliani donning drag and Ed Koch stepping out of the mouth of a man-eating plant.
The mayor's show follows a two-act reporters' production, which this year is titled "Going to Pot'' and pokes fun at de Blasio's approval of a new relaxed marijuana policy.
"It's an opportunity for many disparate elements _ the mayor, the press, the unions, the business community _ to come together and make fun of ourselves and affirm in each our own way our love for this great city,'' said this year's Inner Circle president, Henry Goldman of Bloomberg News.
The black-tie event is expected to raise about $100,000 for various city charities.
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Inner Circle show, Mayor de Blasio
