Interview: Jen Houston of Trump Lampooning Viral Song PATHOLOGICAL LIAR

Jen Houston has been in show business since she was a teenager; she has sung for her supper, as well as act, dance, write, compose, and bake. She has never done anything but show business, including waitressing, which is part of the deal. Never did she imagine that she would land in the spotlight with such force by spending three minutes singing about the man ranked as the worst President in the history of the United States.

Houston, who has spent the entire New York City lockdown in her Lower East Side home with her husband, filmmaker Allan Piper, and their cats Miu and Buddy, recently performed a political parody song that she co-wrote with Randy Bierman and filmed for NOW THIS, where Piper serves as Senior Politics Producer, as well as on camera Fact Checker for every Presidential press conference (give the man a medal!). During his time with NOW THIS, Mr. Piper has turned to his wife, a respected voiceover artist, for narration on videos coming out of his office; at a certain point, Houston decided it was time to put her songwriting skills to use on a scale that went beyond her performances at Rockwood Music Hall, Don't Tell Mama and the Laurie Beechman Theatre. She began writing parodies about the President. Naturally, she had to deal with the online haters and trolls, but along with the negative response came many fans, people who came to Camp Houston out of appreciation for her biting musical commentaries on the current administration but who stayed to look at her online postings about the cats and to watch her cake tutorial show SHUT YOUR CAKE HOLE! Houston, who had done the show business struggle in the past, had an online following.

Now, thanks to her most recent parody song, Jennifer Houston has national coverage.

Within hours of the song PATHOLOGICAL LIAR (based on the Billy Joel hit We Didn't Start The Fire) Houston discovered that the song video had gone viral and that Newsweek had done a story on the three minute, thirty three second song that went through all the travesties of the Trump Presidency. Well, maybe not all of them...

I caught up with Jen Houston for a digital chat about her forty year overnight success, the kitties, cakes, and the upcoming election.

Jen Houston, welcome back to Broadway World, we are always lucky to have a chance to chat with you.

It's a complete and total honor to be asked back. Thank you.

This is an exciting time for you, isn't it? Your political parody PATHOLOGICAL LIAR dropped, got 2.2 million views, and was covered by Newsweek. What's it like living in your house right now?

Thank you, yeah, it's been quite a ride since my last parody dropped, and it just goes to show that you never know what is going to go viral, or flop flat. It's just all one big crapshoot ain't it? Lol, what's it like living in my house right now? One week prior to the most important presidential election ever? It's a little nutty right now, to be honest. But that's nothing new; it's always a little chaotic over here. My hubby and I both trying to do so many things at one time, well, it's definitely NEVER boring.

You have been doing song parodies like this one for a while. Put a picture in my head of the trajectory that has brought you to this moment in time.

And yes, I believe this is my eighth political parody song for NowThis. I'll be honest with you, it wasn't even my idea to start doing them. It was my husband's. The first one was Mueller Baby (Santa Baby spoof) and he just came to me one day and said "I have an idea" and I said, "let's do this!" And the rest, as they say, is history. Either he would come up with an idea and ask me if I was on board with it, or I would come to him with an idea and we would write it together. But really, most of them are his brainchildren. He also reworks most of them because he says I go for the "low hanging fruit" too often. The easy and/or off-color joke. He's right. I do. The man has a degree from Harvard. He's a writer. I have other skills. And he's steeped in political policy literally all day, every day, so he's way more on top of the whole political spectrum if you will. Then I started having friends of friends approach me with song ideas, as was the case with Crime After Crime, and Just Stay Home (Elliot Stein, and Toni Stanton, respectively). And a complete stranger (Randy Bierman) approached me on the internet to please help him out with an idea he had for a parody of We Didn't Start the Fire. A week later we had combined forces and come up with Pathological Liar. I've written a couple of political songs on my own, but they are anything but funny, Girl Wearing Black HERE and Help HERE, which my brother Jack played on with me. One of my other favorite things I got to do was a parody for Lysol, made even sweeter by the fact that I was literally one of the voices for Lysol for about four years: HERE

The creation of this video is a story about the power of social media, isn't it?

I agree with you, the power of social media, be it for good, or bad, is definitely at the forefront here. It's literally why we have the president we now have.

How did you discover that Newsweek had picked up the video for an article?

The Newsweek story happened very quickly the day the song dropped, and within minutes of my getting back to them with a response, the article was released and it's been kind of a flurry of activity ever since. (See the Newsweek story HERE)

Since the lockdown in March, you and Allan have been creating his content for NOW THIS, your song parodies AND your own music videos, as well as your web series SHUT YOUR CAKE HOLE. Do you guys get to rest at all? Because it sounds like a movie studio over there.

It is quite literally a movie studio over here! We've used much of the first few months of quarantine to film quite a few scenes for our upcoming feature-length horror/comedy E.vil Sublet, which my husband and his writing partner Chris Pearson wrote last year. We were planning to be finished filming by May, but of course, the coronavirus had other plans. Fortunately for us though, a bit of the story takes place in our very own haunted apartment, and many of the scenes take place with me home alone, so we would have been fools not to take advantage of us both being locked down here. But yes, I also do some voice over work and I've been able to do that, along with a few episodes of Shut Your Cake Hole, and writing as much music for the movie as I can. We've had a lot of help with that actually and it's turned into quite a family affair: my brother Jack has donated his talents, my brother Thomas, my ex-beau and former business partner Charley Tucker (also one of the co-stars of E.Vil Sublet....I know, I know...) has created some scary ambient music, as well as my dear friend and amazing musical partner Gail George. Gail and I have actually written quite a few things for the movie and I can't wait to get to the point where I can get into the studio and record them!! (Damn you corona... damn you!!! ***shakes fist at sky**** (Wednesday, Oct. 28th) Here's one of my favorite things I've written for the movie: Miss You Most HERE

We have put together a tentative schedule for getting back to filming the rest of the major scenes of the movie, but I mean, it's really just anyone's guess. I mean, we've got to get people back to NYC from California, namely, the outrageous Leanne Borghesi and the incomparable Sally Struthers. We've got a day trip to Baltimore, another trip to Massachusetts, and all over New York City. We have to wait until it's safe! I mean safe within a shadow of a doubt! If anyone got sick because of something I asked them to do? Wow. Well... I'd never forgiven myself. The bottom line, I'm not going to ask an actor to do anything that I wouldn't do myself, like fly 3,000 miles across the country for a film shoot.

E.Vil Sublet trailer HERE

Speaking of Shut Your Cake Hole - it's Halloween, can we expect a fabulous spooky show this week?

The new Halloween Cake Hole is being released today! See the Creepy Doll Cake episode HERE

And how are the kitties during all this?

My sweeties! Miu and Buddy love having us home all the time but the other day I caught them in Miu's bed together. Never in 5 years have they shared a bed. They can't stand each other. Strange times indeed.

Jennifer, you've done just about everything there is to do in the business, from theater to clubs, from cruise ships to NOW THIS. As a person whose work before coronavirus was online content, what are your thoughts on how the industry is changing since the live entertainment shutdown started?

Ya know, it's interesting, and I'm a little nervous about how things are going to play out industry-wise, now that we've all proven we can do almost anything from home. I mean, sure we CAN, but that doesn't make it desirable. That doesn't make it the best. When I think of all the trouble and expense we actors and musicians go through just to do what we do on a GOOD day, without corona quarantine? Oh, man... The DIY from home thing, while is convenient and safe and all, it really puts an even bigger burden on us. All the gear we've had to buy? Green screens, lighting gear, audio gear upgrading computer systems, or even maybe entirely new computers... Just to audition? Monthly expenses on actor's sites just to have our photos and reels online? Voice over gear, fancy mics, and recording booths, and learning how to be your own audio engineer on the fly? And all without aid from our beloved casting directors. I guess that's just not a career anymore? Casting director? Pitiful. I'm not too ashamed to admit that I'm someone who really likes and NEEDS a casting director. As the "president" would say, "hashtag, sad."

The election is just days away - any chance of one more song parody before it happens?

With the election just a week out, there is no chance of another political parody coming. The staff of NowThis is absolutely swamped with videos they must get out. Of course, I will let you know if that changes, lol.

Jen, as a woman who has been very politically outspoken and passionate during the 800 years of this administration, and as a bona fide political satirist what message would you send out into the world, as we enter these next two weeks?

The only message I have for people is to vote. Vote blue. If you think republicans give a fiddler's fart about a bunch of Cabaret and Theatre nerds you're huffing paint. Republicans love to cut funding for the arts. Support your community. Let's hold each other up.

Thank you so much for chatting today, and for all the artistry you send out into the world, in all your creations, Jen. Talk again soon!

Visit the Jen Houston Music YouTube channel HERE

Visit the Shut Your Cake Hole! YouTube channel HERE

Visit the Jen Houston Music Facebook page HERE

Visit Jen Houston's cake website, Sugar and Bones, HERE

Photos provided by Jen Houston and Allan Piper

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