Glenn Beck at the Chicago Theatre: Beck 2.0 is a preacher man, not a right-wing pundit
Glenn Beck Live at the Chicago Theatre, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.
“I really believe Chicago is the nicest city in America,” a grinning Glenn Beck said from the stage of the town's namesake theater Thursday night. “Now if we could just get rid of all the commies and progressives, we'd be set.”
That stuff is red meat for his demographic and Beck knows it. He obliged with a quick endorsement of his 2012 dream team: Allen West (president), Michele Bachmann (vice president) and Rand Paul (secretary of the treasury). He proffered his fervent declaration that he would rather “scoop his eye out with spoons” than join in one of the fundraisers for President Barack Obama (whom he called a Marxist), that were taking place in town simultaneously with Beck's show at the Chicago Theatre. And although he walked out on stage dressed like a card-carrying member of the Local Two stagehands union, he took some obligatory licks at Al Gore and the United Nations.
But Beck's heart didn't really seem to be in that stuff anymore.
If Thursday night's mighty strange and thoroughly fascinating show revealed anything, it's that Beck is moving away from the political arena and toward the religious realm, albeit one of his very singular definition. The open question is how many of his followers from the Fox News Channel are ready to make the same journey. (The Chicago Theatre was less than half full Thursday, but then Beck was playing a town from which he only half-jokingly suggested that those who stand with him should move.) Beck, a far smarter man than many realize, clearly knows that it will be a tricky transition, economically and otherwise, and that it will require all his considerable charm and force of personality.