At the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway St., on Nov. 4 a select crowd cheered anxiously while watching a group joke about subjects like a new Calvin Klein fragrance called “Recession” and Gov. Sarah Palin’s intentions to murder Sen. John McCain.

Though some of the artists of Democracy Burlesque mentioned they would have liked to have gone to the rally in Grant Park, they decided to celebrate by doing something they love. What started during the 2004 elections and carried on satirizing President George W. Bush for four years, the group could finally celebrate that they would be “Bush-free.”

Among the performers were two Columbia students who both broke into tears after Obama won, and then proceeded to join a dancing crowd.

Dani Loumena and Zach Overstreet, both sophomore theater majors at Columbia, have been performing in Democracy Burlesque for more than a year and decided to spend the election night entertaining a politically minded crowd.

“It would be a lie to say it wouldn’t be awesome to be at Grant Park,” Overstreet said. “This way we are getting to do something we love and hang out with cool people who are a lot of fun in a safer, warmer environment.”

The night started off with a video montage of the past eight years, which led to mock presidential debates. In the satirical debates, the candidates never answered any questions even as faux Tom Brokaw threatened to hang himself if they didn’t. The candidates went on to talk about the meaning behind sex toys that were given to them, as well as an onslaught of over the top subjects. But the purpose of the show was not to just induce laughter.

“The goal for most of us is just to get people to think and talk about the stuff we’re making fun of up on stage,” Overstreet said. “Even just to start a dialogue between somebody else and their friends-I think that’s a successful piece.”

As a performer of the show as well as a producer, director and writer, Erik Parsons said he and the crew had been planning to have a show on election night since the start.

“The only drawback to doing an election night show was the fact that [President-Elect] Obama was holding a rally in Grant Park,” he said. “We’re not that upset about it, because he won.”

The concept of the show was originally conceived in 2004 when Joseph Fedorko was campaigning for Howard Dean.

As a political activist, Fedorko said, “Either it was write satire or throw bricks through windows and get arrested.”

He said one of the things he noticed was the Right had places where like-minded people would meet, such as churches, but the Left didn’t have that. So he said he thought he could create a gathering spot in his own way.

Throughout the show, the actors and audience were updated on the way states voted, cheering when states like Pennsylvania and Ohio went to Obama.

The actors themselves strived to make the show bi-partisan but admit to having a liberal lean, if not even more liberal than Ralph Nader, Fedorko said.

“We always attempt to throw in a little bipartisanship,” Overstreet said. “And to be perfectly honest, everyone here is that liberal do-good, die-hard type thing.”

Now that Obama is going to be the next president, Fedorko said his first thought is to sit back and see what happens.

“There will be plenty to satirize,” he said. “There will be plenty of disappointments, but it’s going to be such a different tone-it won’t be as angry.”

Parsons agreed but said there were positives and negatives to Obama winning the election.

“I’m incredibly excited about moving in a positive direction,” he said. “But professionally, we’re going to have to work a lot harder to [keep] the comedy going. Over the last eight years, the Republicans have made it really easy to be in the satire business.”

To make it easier, Fedorko said he hoped for some residual political coverage of the Republican candidates.

“Dear God, I hope Sarah Palin is still around,” he said. “She’ll make our job so much easier.”