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In ABC’s new sitcom The Mayor, a young aspiring rapper runs for political office in his California hometown to promote his career, only to find himself winning the election.
In reality, a young aspiring stand-up comedian in Ohio ran for mayor in his hometown outside of Columbus a decade ago, only to wind up with a short-but-sweet documentary about it called American Mayor (which recently became available on Amazon Prime Video). It follows then 24-year-old Travis Irvine’s campaign for mayor of Bexley, Ohio, in 2007.
“It’s a Jewish sandwich on ghetto bread,” Irvine says about his hometown at a Columbus comedy show the night before the election. “I don’t say that to the voters when I go out and talk to them.”
No, he doesn’t.
As a matter of fact, what seems at first like a publicity stunt turns out to be an inherently personal and sincere effort by Irvine. Ten years ago, Irvine was fresh out of college, unemployed and back living with his parents in Bexley, a town of 13,000 two miles east of Columbus. With messy dreadlocks, he looked unemployable.
But when the town’s longtime mayor decided to retire after 32 years, and the town’s master plan threatening to demolish his childhood home and those of his neighbors to support the expansion of Capital University — a dorm already had been built next door to the Irvines in a scene out of 2014’s Neighbors — the young comedian felt compelled to act. American Mayor follows his quixotic campaign from the very start, showing up at City Hall to learn how to get his name on the ballot, delegating friends to gather signatures and his sister to serve as his treasurer, and eventually cleaning up his act after a Labor Day block party gone awry. “There was no way I could represent my neighbors if people weren’t even taking my campaign seriously,” he says off camera.
At a Chamber of Commerce debate, however, Irvine proves himself worthy of inclusion among the other seven candidates up for mayor. His cool, calm, comedic demeanor wins over many more than perhaps he might have thought at the time. He offers to take a $30,000 pay cut if elected, vowing “I think I can live on $60,000.” And he really does care about his hometown.
Irvine talks to a family friend, who’s also the town auditor, to learn about the town’s finances. He also talks to an elderly man who actually won his hometown mayoral race back when he was 24, who tells Irvine: “Young people have it in their power to change it. All they have to do is circulate petitions and get it on the ballot.”
American Mayor documents the haphazard humor of a naïve campaign in perhaps the final year you could have found one before it could harness the power of social media.
And though Irvine (spoiler alert) didn’t win that 2007 election, he didn’t quit politics after that initial attempt. He served as intern in D.C. for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Matthew Lesko (the guy in the question mark suit) in 2008, then returned to Ohio in 2010 to run for Congress as a Libertarian in the district once represented for 18 years by now Gov. John Kasich. Irvine then went to Columbia Journalism School and produced a 2015 series on climate change for The Guardian.
He tells Decider he’s managing a fellow comedian’s campaign for Brooklyn Borough President this fall, and contemplating a run for Ohio governor in 2018 to help the Libertarian Party regain ballot access in that state. “And I’m probably going to do it!” He also developed a sitcom pilot idea in 2014 with comedian Barry Rothbart (ABC’s Downward Dog) called Congressdude, “that’s pretty much the same premise (as The Mayor) — in fact, the scene from The Mayor where he finds out he won on the news is pretty much the same as in our original script :/”
Nevertheless, Irvine says he’s friends with Bexley’s current mayor and is happy American Mayor is online now to inspire other young people to go into politics.
“I’m on a mission to get more millennials to run for office in the coming years, so hopefully this’ll help.”
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
