A few years ago when debates raged in statehouses around the country over displaying the Ten Commandments, comedian Chris Bliss came up with a novel idea:
Put the Bill of Rights next to the Ten Commandments and let people comparison shop.
"The Bill of Rights gives you such a great deal: It tells you to speak freely, carry a gun, pursue happiness. And it presumes that you're innocent - and my religion doesn't do that for me," he said.
But that simple joke turned into a mission to create the nation's first monument to the Bill of Rights.
And that monument -10 monoliths made of single sawcut blocks of limestone, each etched with a single declaration - is mere months from becoming a reality.
On Dec. 15 - appropriately Bill of Rights Day - Bliss's My Bill of Rights Monument Project is slated to come to fruition with the dedication of the monument at the Capitol in Phoenix.
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It has taken him seven years, all told, which has included getting approval from the Legislature to secure a grassy spot in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza near the state's Vietnam Memorial and crafting the limestone slabs.
He has raised $250,000 so far and needs to raise another $100,000 to $125,000 to cover the installation costs.
Which brings him to Tucson this weekend for four shows at Laffs Comedy Caffé .
Bliss, who gained national prominence six years ago when a video of him juggling along to The Beatles went viral, has learned a thing or two about fundraising since he began this project. Last Mother's Day, he recruited a handful of comic friends, including Lewis Black, Kathleen Madigan and Bill Engvall for a show in Phoenix that raised $110,000.
He's also learned the art of civil negotiation, getting a conservative (Karen Johnson, a Republican senator from Mesa ) and a liberal lawmaker (then-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Phoenix) to jointly propose his plan in the Legislature. Lawmakers unanimously OK'd it, he said.
"When was the last time you heard that there was a unanimous vote in the Arizona Legislature?" said Bliss, whose comedy includes observations of everyday life.
"I think we are going to create a real landmark for the state of Arizona, and it will be the first monument to the Bill of Rights in the United States. So I wanted to do something appropriate to the scale of the document. And of course as a comedian, the abuse that we put the Bill of Rights through, we should pay it back a little bit."
Bliss grew up around monuments in Washington, D.C., and as a son of a lawyer had the Bill of Rights chiseled into his DNA. Soon after he first told that Ten Commandments/Bill of Rights joke, he cruised through the Internet looking to see how the country honored the document.
"All I got was a link that said there were thousands of them and it took you to a picture of a trash can. Which was really depressing. The guy was saying this is what happened to our rights," he recalled.
But why Arizona, a state that has gotten more than its share of abuse over perceptions that it tramples individual rights?
Aside from Bliss calling the state home at the time, it was accidental, he said.
"But honestly, why not? … This place was never like that. This place was the typical area along the border where people had family on both sides. People going along to get along, and I think the state will probably revert back to that after all the noise is over. Because that's what most people want to do. Most people aren't angry 24 hours a day," he says.
So on Dec. 15, Bliss envisions all eyes on Arizona as the 10 monoliths gleam in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza and visitors can refresh their memories on the civil liberties guaranteed to them by their Constitution.
"Two-hundred years later, we just assume that every American has all of these rights and every human should have all of these rights," Bliss said. "It's pretty much swept the planet-people demand their bill of rights when they're trying to get their freedoms."
Bliss said he hopes to create Bill of Rights monuments in every state, even if the monument is as simple as a plaque on a statehouse building.
If you go
• What: Chris Bliss in concert with Jacob Breckenridge and Henry J.
• When: 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• Where: Laffs Comedy Caffé, 2900 E. Broadway.
• Tickets: $12.50 at laffstucson.com
• More: about Bliss's project to install a Bill of Rights monument in Arizona at mybillofrights.org
