Arlen Specter Does Stand-Up

Arlen Specter has a new gig, and to hear him tell it, it’s a logical progression from his old one. “I’ve been in comedy now for 30 years,” he told the audience at the Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia. “It’s sit-down comedy.” Yes, believe it or not, the former senator tried his hand at stand-up comedy last night, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, and it actually went pretty well—even if some of the jokes were recycled from a 2007 Washington comedy competition.

Here are a smattering of his jokes, courtesy of this video, and this write-up:

• On Bill Clinton: “I called Clinton up on his 65^th birthday, and I said, ‘Bill, congratulations on being 65, how do you feel?’ He said, ‘Arlen, I feel like a teenager. The problem is I can’t find one.’”
• On Ed Rendell: He described the ex-governor as a “man about town” who bragged that “I have sex almost every night. I almost have sex on Monday, I almost have sex on Tuesday…”
• On Chris Christie: He was upset that the recent hurricane “destroyed his entire library—both books. And he wasn't finished coloring them."
• On Newt Gingrich: Specter says he was once on a train with Gingrich, a minister and a waitress when a waitress asked what they wanted to drink. "The minister said … 'Drinking is a sin. I would commit adultery first.' … Gingrich jumped up and said, 'Wait, wait, I didn't know that was one of the choices.' "