Sat. April 26

 “Last year, I was Borat,” says Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton (in photo),  though in the past he’s often been a woman – Laura and Barbara Bush, Martha Stewart, Camilla Parker Bowles. “I like broad, skit-based comedy,” he says. “One year I couldn’t be there ‘cause Aerosmith was on tour, so I did a video thing in Toledo, after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl thing, and I had on a T-shirt with a left nipple cut out.”  This year, he’s not sure yet who he’ll be, although Hamilton says, “I could do a decent Huckabee, or a bleached-blonde Mitt Romney.” He hasn’t got the script yet. But for the 12th year, Hamilton will step into a comedic role for “Banned in Boston,” the once-a-year charity extravaganza that raises a big chunk of the budget for Urban Improv. More on that later. But the “Banned in Boston” revue has been going since 1995. It’s usually at Avalon, but that club is shuttered (as the House of Blues takes over) so it’s moved across the Charles to The Theater at MIT's Kresge Auditorium.

You can still count on seeing some of Boston (and the state’s) top pols, corporate execs, academics, and, well, at least one rock star on stage. People who are willing to risk looking silly and make jokes that sometimes veer into the land of the risqué. This year, Hamilton will be joined by Mayor Tom Menino, Ernie Boch, Jr., Attorney General Martha Coakley and many more as they skewer the local and national political scene. ... and do their darndest not to fall flat on their faces. (Gov. Deval Patrick was going to do it, but bowed out. Perhaps he needs the time to write his book.)

This year, Hamilton says, should be especially rich considering the presidential race, and, of course, Eliot Spitzer's follies. The participants in the sketches, says Hamilton, tend “to be Boston suburbanites who want to reach across the divide and offer a hand." (Yes, he includes himself in that group.) "It’s a very warm place. The people are doing it ‘cause they’re great people, trying to express some generosity. They all love to laugh.” Some of the sketches we’ve seen have been groaners – remember these are not professional actors. And a lot of them stay “on book.”  But some of the bits have been very barbed and funny and you think, "Did he/she just say that?" We're also wondering in this year of especially touchy presidential campaigning, what can be said in public in a youtube world? Anything can be taken out of context, of course, so here's hoping folks like Patrick and Menino aren't bashful.
Now, about Urban Improv. These people, professional actors, go into Boston area schools get the kids to act out confrontational skits, to help them make choices about tough situations they might face in real life. Artistic Director Toby Dewey says, “The kids act out and talk about things they’ve never talked about before. The power of the curriculum is that it is real; it is relevant. It’s about their lives … When they face in their real lives the same difficult situations that they played out in the workshops, they are far better equipped to make positive decisions rather than self-destructive ones.”

Back to Hamilton for a moment. He had throat cancer diagnosed in May 2006. “It was back of my tongue,” he says, “Stage 3.” He was treated at Mass. General: seven weeks of radiation, five days a week, chemo once a week. “These doctors are so determined to beat this disease,” he says. And they got it, though Hamilton goes back for a checkup every six weeks. Now, he realizes, “The more time that goes by, the more I go ‘Shit' I did that.’ You have the fright and terror of the diagnosis, and then you get down to business and the routine. They gave me a lot of confidence they were going to get rid of it.” Having had cancer, Hamilton says, forces realizations upon you. “It enhances your life. All those things you wanted to do, you realize that time is not open-ended. Even in the best of circumstances time is a finite thing. I see I see colors I didn’t see before.’’

Urban Improv’s “Banned in Boston” starts at 6:30 April 26, with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails donated by some of Boston’s top restaurants. Tickets are $200 if you’re over 40 or over, $100 if you’re under 40.

Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,   617-524-7049

www.urbanimprov.org