Definitely Not the White House

Late-night news satire host Bee launches journalists’ ‘sister event’

Not the White House Correspondents Dinner With Samantha Bee Saturday, The Comedy Network

As the White House Correspondents Association dinner takes place without U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, nonattendees will have another gala option — complete with T-shirt cannons and fiery political commentary.

The late-night news satire show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will hold the Not the White House Correspondents Dinner gala in Washington, D.C., at the same time as the official correspondents event.

The Toronto native’s show will be taped and air later that night on The Comedy Network.

“We’re the sister event, I would say, to the other dinner,” said Allana Harkin, a Hamilton-born coproducer and correspondent on Full Frontal.

“Every penny we raise from that evening still goes to the Committee to Protect Journalists ... The reason why we’re doing it is, as you may have heard, the president of the United States doesn’t love journalists.

“We didn’t know how much that event was going to be supported, so we wanted to make sure we had an event that night … in celebration of all the journalists we admire and respect, and whose work we actually use all the time.”

Harkin said their event expects about 2,000 attendees, including Veep cast members and “lots of amazing journalists.”

It will include “a very special cold open,” pre-taped field pieces and will be “in the same spirit” as the weekly show.

“There was an email that went out … it said, ‘Is it possible to get extra T-shirt guns for the night?’” Harkin said with a laugh.

“Because I do a warm-up for all of the shows and I have a T-shirt gun, but that’s for 200 people. We’re going to have 2,000 people at our event, so it’s going to be a big giant party.”

The T-shirts, by the way, are not the typical “man’s T-shirt that you’ll never, ever wear,” she added excitedly.

“Ours are ladies T-shirts with a V-neck and they’re nicely fitted and they actually look good on you.”

Given the constant stream of news flowing from Trump and his administration, Harkin expected they would be shaping the content of the dinner “up until the last minute.”

Trump turned down his invitation to the official correspondents dinner in February.

He now plans to hold a rally in Pennsylvania on the same night to mark his 100th day in office.

“He’s the only president since (Ronald) Reagan who is refusing to go, and the only reason Reagan didn’t go is because there was an attempt made on his life and he was recovering,” said Harkin.

Full Frontal airs Wednesdays on The Comedy Network and tries to “find stories that not everybody knows about,” said Harkin.