In this time of war, natural disaster, social upheaval and political strife, Christmas just got funnier. “PeaceNick” is satirical songwriter Roy Zimmerman’s send-up of the joys, pains and absurdities of the Holiday season.
Zimmerman’s solo show comes to The Unitarian Universalist Community Church, 1260 18th St in Santa Monica for a performance Sunday, December 20 at 7 pm. There is a $15 suggested donation.
He'll perform again on Monday, Decdember 21 at 8 pm at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake St in Altadena. Admission is $15.
It’s an evening of family-friendly Seasonal satire from a decidedly Lefty-Pacifist-Humanist point of view.
Roy Zimmerman writes fiercely funny songs about ignorance, war and greed. In eleven albums over twenty years, Roy has brought the sting of satire to the struggle for Peace and Social Justice. Roy’s YouTube videos have garnered over three million views and tens of thousands of comments, many of them coherent. His songs are heard on NPR and Air America Radio, and he's a freatured blogger for the Huffington Post.
The Los Angeles Times says, “Zimmerman displays a lacerating wit and keen awareness of society’s foibles that bring to mind a latter-day Tom Lehrer.”
The show “PeaceNick” includes “Christmas is Pain,” a Dylan-esque protest song about the agonies of drunken Santas and sharp candy canes. “Hula Yule” imagines that global warming has turned the North Pole into a tropical paradise. In "Christmas on Mars," we learn how to say Merry Christmas is Martian ("Eenie Kveenie Klibinavac").
“Christma-Hanu-Rama-Ka-Dona-Kwaanza” is a vaudeville-style patter song (one can almost hear Danny Kaye) about the Season as celebrated in all world cultures. And Zimmerman deals with the war in Iraq in “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” which he croons as a young soldier spending Christmas Eve under attack in Tikrit.
“If I was home,” he says, “I’d have the love of a good woman. And who needs that when you’ve got the adoration of a grateful Iraqi people?”
It’s all original material, much of it cowritten by Zimmerman and his wife, Melanie Harby.
“Satire is a family value for us,” he reports.
“Peacenick” is a hilarious and heartfelt look at Christmas, sometimes scathing, sometimes silly.
The show ends on a humanistic note of hope:
And the sun comes up, and the world is saved
Every time a child is born
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