Mayoral hopeful Alderman Ed Bus releases tax return

Mayoral hopeful Alderman Ed Bus releases tax return
Mayoral hopeful Alderman Ed Bus releases tax return

Mayoral hopeful Alderman Ed Bus releases tax return

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I’ve been having a ton of fun playing Alderman Ed Bus this past couple weeks. The old character is from my comedy group, Schadenfreude. We aired a comedy show on WBEZ from 2003-2005. We’ve done specials and a few Eight Forty-Eight appearances. It’s fun to bring the alderman back, because the mayoral election is just too much fun to pass up. A mayor’s race is not national politics. It’s immediate, it’s eccentric and it can be low-rent. It’s great political theater. 

So this has been a great time to dust-off ole’ Alderman Ed Bus. He was a funny stage character we did for years in Chicago. Almost every Schadenfreude stage show has had Alderman Ed Bus make an appearance. He’s the meat and potatoes, hard-hat wearing Chicago grabowski. He’s been an alderman for 40-45 years. What can we say, we love local politics.

We recently launched the web-series to showcase some fun film ideas we had. No one gets paid, although the shooters and editors should. It’s hard work, but for everyone is doing it for the fun of it. We’ve shot 10 episodes worth of material. We are shooting the last few shots this weekend and holding a press conference at City Hall (if the weather doesn’t mess it up).

Ed Bus has come back to life.

So here we are, at today’s prank. It’s not just about videos, it’s also about multi-media. Recently, we put out a press release to the media that was triple-faxed and scuffed up (PDF) thanks to the handy-work of Ed Bus’ campaign director (and intern) Jason Challenger, played by Sandy Marshall. It’s a joke we always wanted to try. And now, we’ve put together Alderman Ed Bus’ tax returns. Just downloaded a 1040 and filled in the necessary information. 

This should lay to rest all the rumors out there about Alderman Bus and his finances. He is just like you, a working-class alderman making $6.5 million a year.

(Download the PDF)