Harry Shearer: The Silent Echo Chamber

Related Content

• Hillary Clinton Says She Still Wants to Go to Space (and Some Other More Important Stuff)
  April 26, 2012
• President Obama Stumps in Seattle: 'We've Got to Keep Moving Forward'
  May 10, 2012
• Q&A: Smiley & West on Springsteen, Lupe Fiasco, Obama, and Their Fight Against Poverty
  April 18, 2012
• Gun Nutty: State Pistol Permits Reportedly Hit Record Numbers, Thanks to Boogyman Barack
  April 24, 2012
• Want to Found Out How to Vote for a Republican Saturday? Here Are Help
  March 1, 2012

More About

• Harry Shearer
• Anderson Cooper
• Barack Obama
• Government and Politics
• Politics

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

In his installation Harry Shearer: The Silent Echo Chamber, the veteran comic actor cuts the volume on some of cable TV’s most vociferous talking heads. Here are Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and others in blissful, bored silence. Shearer has long been fond of culling the satellite airwaves for the pre-broadcast waiting, the interval before the camera clicks on and the shouting begins. These are unguarded moments of yawning, hair combing, and slurping down cheap coffee—the “unvarnished depictions of human behavior,” says Shearer. It’s true, and whether you vote Republican or Democrat, there’s something calmly reassuring about John McCain sipping coffee or Joe Biden scarfing down a cookie. Lou Dobbs doesn’t seem quite such the demagogue when hushed; he’s more like a serene, shiny Buddha. President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other politicians are glimpsed on the nine video monitors. But the star is Anderson Cooper, so hyperactive and fidgety before his camera cue that, in his tight black T-shirt, he appears to be leading an aerobics class. BRIAN MILLER
Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Starts: Oct. 16. Continues through Jan. 16, 2010