New London — There’s no rest for the political parodist. During his concert Friday at the Garde Arts Center, Randy Rainbow — who became a YouTube sensation in 2016 thanks to the way he rewrites showtune lyrics to satirize Trumpian politics — referenced the day’s events and quipped, “What rhymes with Dershowitz? I’ve got a lot of songs to write.”

With his musical satire, Rainbow is like a more fanciful Tom Lehrer or a more political Weird Al. He's clever in his conceits, his matching of subject matter to song, and his lyrics. Heck, even Stephen Sondheim is a fan. One of Rainbow’s best numbers, which he saved for last on Friday, involves his giving “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” a Trump focus and calling it “Super Callous Fragile Egocentric Braggadocious.”

While pointed commentary can sting, Rainbow’s feels more puckish, thanks in part to his delivery, with his guileless wide-eyed gaze, multi-watt smile and world’s most expressive eyebrows. He seems gently bewildered by the craziness of the political world.

His singing was quite good live, and he had perfect enunciation, all the better for theatergoers to appreciate every word. Especially impressive was his rapid-fire delivery on tunes like “A Very Stable Genius,” which is his version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s patter-happy “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General.”

As part of his YouTube videos, Rainbow — yes, that is his real name — also splices himself asking comical questions into clips of administration figures answering queries from news reporters.

Sometimes, those spoofs rolled onscreen at the Garde, leading into Rainbow singing a number onstage. And sometimes, he sang and his four-man band played live as the visuals of his original music videos played behind them.

The show occasionally seemed to drift into too much video and not enough live Rainbow, but it would get itself back on track. Rainbow was right in sync when singing live to one of his previously recorded videos of, say, “There’s Nothin’ Like a Wall” to the music of “There’s Nothin’ Like a Dame” from “South Pacific.” There were a few technical hiccups; during video of one of the 2016 debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton, for instance, the screen went black for several seconds.

One of the happy surprises of the night was how quick-witted Rainbow was when ad-libbing. Near the end of the show, he answered questions from the audience. His responses and back-and-forth with theatergoers was very funny, whether he was chatting with a girl who did a school report on him (her teacher wasn’t pleased, deeming Rainbow too political) or with a woman who invited Rainbow to join her and her friends afterward at The Social.

In response to a compliment about his jackets — he switched into different glittery jackets throughout the night — he said the designer was someone named Amazon Prime; all a customer needs is $12.95 and a Prime account.

Rainbow — who had been pursuing a career in theater when his videos broke big — did a couple of songs pretty much as they were, without political rewrites. He opened with “Let Me Entertain You” from “Gypsy” and later performed “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” a song about prejudice from “South Pacific.”

Rainbow devotees, take note: He said that he has a new video coming out Monday. Alas, he didn’t perform the new creation or give a sneak preview on Friday.

That didn’t seem to bother the folks that packed the Garde, who were wild about Rainbow.

They aren’t the only ones. The 90-minute show began with clips of celebrity fans offering their Rainbow praise, from Barry Manilow to Ed Asner to Debra Messing.

That fandom reflects how, over the past few years, Rainbow’s parodies have reached an impressive level of success. His YouTube comedy series “The Randy Rainbow Show” was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series in 2019. The New York Times included Rainbow among “Best Performances of 2019.”

Oh, and here’s some very recent news: Rainbow signed with the powerful CAA talent agency for worldwide representation. That’s a big deal. And it means you’ll be seeing lots more of Randy Rainbow in the future.

k.dorsey@theday.com