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The Other Side is the official podcast of a great comedy club, the DC Improv.

Apr 30, 2015

Comedy nerds, rejoice -- we're talking vaudeville, history, and political humor in this special two-part episode.

Part 1: Woodrow Wilson House, just a mile from the DC Improv, is the last home that the president lived in. (woodrowwilsonhouse.org) They do a great "vintage game night" once a month, and we got executive director Robert Enholm to tell us about it. And naturally, we also get into Wilson's personal sense of humor and his passion for vaudeville, one of the forerunners of modern stand-up comedy.

Part 2: If you're talking vaudeville, you gotta visit the Library of Congress, home to the Bob Hope Collection. Hope started out on the vaudeville circuit, but he went on to become one of America's most beloved entertainers. We're talking to Daniel Blazek about Hope's career -- and the evolution of political comedy over the course of the 20th century. Check out the "Hope for America" exhibit in the Jefferson Building!