Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani, reporters, trade jabs at the Inner Circle show
It was a “Free-for-All” at the annual parody musical – and the mayor even teamed up with old rival Curtis Sliwa.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani sang - briefly - and City & State's Jeff Coltin performed as Mamdani, backed by a chorus of Elizabeth Street Garden flowers Anthony Behar/The Inner Circle
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani may have skipped the Tax the Rich rally this weekend, but he addressed the rich directly on Saturday night at the annual Inner Circle show at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown.
“I haven't been this close to the 1% since the Emerson poll in February 2025,” the mayor told the crowd at the charity dinner where the city’s press corps roasted him with two hours of song and dance. “There is no other room of Andrew Cuomo voters where I’d rather be.”
Mamdani also poked fun at his City Hall team’s youth, saying he was pushing for universal child care to “ensure that many of my top aides finally have someone to take care of them during the day.”
It was the first time Mamdani had attended the musical sketch show, which has been put on by the city’s press corps since 1923. City & State Editor-in-Chief Jeff Coltin played hizzoner, opening the show shirtless with just an apron on, a reference to Mamdani’s 2019 rap video “Nani.” The show was dubbed “Free-For-All,” a dig at the mayor’s generous policy proposals.
Reporters pilloried “Mamdani Math” to the tune of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” called Council Member Vickie Paladino a “bigot one-man band” to the tune of Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” and explored the delicate alliance between NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mamdani with “Jessie’s World” to the tune of Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl.”
“In November things changed and he came out on top. He became mayor and I wanna stay a cop,” sang Tisch, played by NY1’s Jillian Jorgensen.
Recent mayors have gone all out with their rebuttals. Remember when Donald Trump motorboated Mayor Rudy Giuliani in drag? No? Mamdani produced a trailer for a horror movie “Smile: Municipal Grin” in which he haunted City Hall with his inescapable joy.
He recorded another video with former mayoral race rival Curtis Sliwa, with the Republican playing a doctor giving Mamdani his cat allergy shots. “I’m a content creator,” Mamdani said, “but I do a little governing on the side.”
That video got some Sliwa haters heated, angry that the man they blame for not dropping out of the 2025 general election to help Andrew Cuomo would then fraternize with the democratic socialist mayor.
The radio host brushed it off, telling the New York Post the video was “the only contact I’ve had with Zohran since the election,” Sliwa said.
This story has been updated with videos of Mamdani’s performance.
NEXT STORY: St. John’s basketball carries the hopes of these political alums