Mike Hughes' blog

Watch “Soul Campaign” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 134: “Not-So-Good Vibrations!”

hughster1 — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:55:47 +0000

As we finished up our readthrough Thursday night for Top Story! Weekly, we realized we didn’t have a particularly strong political sketch for that week’s show. Then we saw the video from that night of President Obama singing at the Apollo Theater:

And from there, writing the Republican candidates singing their own versions of 70′s soul hits became pretty easy. All the actors really nailed this one.

SOUL CAMPAIGN by Michael Hughes

Starring Matthew Harris (Barack Obama), Brian Vestal (Mitt Romney), Brent Pope (Newt Gingrich), Phillip Wilburn (Rick Perry) and Sean Cowhig (Announcer)

Directed by Michael Hughes

Watch “Pardon Me!” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 133: “The Bain of Mitt’s Existence”

hughster1 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:33:47 +0000

When I sent this sketch, based on the whole Haley Barbour pardon kerfuffle, in to Top Story! Weekly, I didn’t think much of it, but to my surprise it made the show. And a rewrite by Kristina Adelmeyer made it better. It’s still too long, but a return appearance by Derek Reid’s Rapey Raperson (first seen in this pirate sketch with Parvesh Cheena, which you should check out), made it worthwhile.

PARDON ME by Michael Hughes and Kristina Adelmeyer

Starring Phillip Wilburn (Haley Barbour), Jen Cain (Alice), Sean Cowhig (Warren), Kipleigh Brown (Lucinda), Derek Reid (Rapey Raperson) and Matthew Harris (O.J. Simpson)

Directed by Kristina Adelmeyer

Watch “Don Jong in Hell” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 132: “Santorum Comes from Behind”

hughster1 — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:46:53 +0000

Our first show of 2012 was also our first show since the death of Kim Jong-Il. And given that we had our Kim, our Gaddafi, our Diego, and even our Chuck Beanster in the cast, the stars were aligned for the perfect sendoff to our favorite crazy bloodthirsty dictator. Even at 8 and a half minutes, it came out pretty “hilarious”.

DON JONG IN HELL by Michael Hughes

Starring Phillip Wilburn (Muammar Gaddafi), Tommy Bechtold (Diego), Artemis Pebdani (Kim Jong-Il) and Phil Ranta (Chuck Beanster)

Directed by Michael Hughes

Watch “How (Not) To Write A Holiday Classic” From Top Story! Weekly Episode 131: “So This Is Christmas”

hughster1 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:28:37 +0000

Christmas gave me the chance to write the least topical thing I’ve written in a while, spurred by a comment at our writers’ meeting by Colin Hughes (no relation) about how many Christmas songs are sad. To be honest, I think some of the rewriting done here didn’t help things – Judy and Bing shouldn’t have been singing at either the top or bottom of the sketch, for instance – and the actors weren’t as precise as I would have liked. But Kipleigh Brown’s Judy Garland is a thing of beauty!

HOW (NOT) TO WRITE A HOLIDAY CLASSIC by Michael Hughes

Starring Phillip Wilburn (Bing Crosby), Kipleigh Brown (Judy Garland), Gregg Lopez (Frank Loesser) Brent Pope (Hoagy Carmichael) and Jimmy Guidish (Walter Winchell)

Directed by Kristina Adelmeyer

Watch “Golden Sentence” From Top Story! Weekly Episode 130: “Leaving the Jet Plane”

hughster1 — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:26:50 +0000

When Rod Blagojevich got sentenced last week, I figured I’d throw myself into the cast of Top Story! Weekly to reprise my role. Jimmy and James did a great job with the pace of this one.

GOLDEN SENTENCE by Michael Hughes

Starring Michael Hughes (Rod Blagojevich), James Warfield (Sheldon Sorosky), and Sean Cowhig (Judge James Zagel)

Directed by Tom Repetto

Watch “Words with Alec” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 130: “Leaving a Jet Plane”

hughster1 — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:13:22 +0000

The Alec Baldwin “Words with Friends” incident was almost a self-parody, so this sketch is pretty straightforward. Fun fact: Sean Cowhig was actually tweeting while on stage.

WORDS WITH ALEC by Michael Hughes

Starring Phillip Wilburn (Alec Baldwin), Kipleigh Brown (Stacy), Artemis Pebdani (Gwen), James Warfield (Pilot), Jimmy Guidish (Passenger) and Sean Cowhig (Passenger)

Directed by Tom Repetto

Watch “El Alcalde Es Occupado” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 129: “Maybe Cain Isn’t Able”!!

hughster1 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:20:03 +0000

Mayor Villaraigosa negotiates the end of the “Occupy L.A.” protests the same week that Top Story! Weekly has Neil Garguilo (Principal Cox from MTV’s “Awkward” and iO West‘s Dr. God, and one of our regular cast members as well) in the cast? That makes it time to revisit one of our favorite recurring sketches – the telenovela with Los Angeles’ Mayor, “El Alcalde de la Pasion!!”

EL ALCALDE ES OCCUPADO by Michael Hughes

Starring Neil Garguilo (Antonio Villaraigosa), John Druska (Police Chief Charlie Beck), Jen Cain (Mae), Kipleigh Brown (Tiffany), Jimmy Guidish (Troy), Tammie Smalls (Gloria), Derek Reid (Donovan) and Phillip Wilburn (Announcer),

Directed by Michael Hughes

Watch “Occupy Greendale!” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 128: “Out-Regis!”

hughster1 — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:40:07 +0000

Last Tuesday my Facebook news feed blew up with people commenting on a news story. Occupy Wall Street? The elections? Syria or Egypt? No – the decision by NBC to take “Community” off its schedule. Thus I was inspired for this sketch – and thanks to Wikipedia for filling in the gaps in my “Community” knowledge!

OCCUPY GREENDALE! by Michael Hughes

Starring Grasie Mercedes (Karen), Damien Fahey (Sam), Christopher Biewer (Jack) and Sean Cowhig (Mark)

Directed by Michael Hughes

Watch “TS!W 720: Natalie Wood Investigation” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 128: “Out-Regis!”

hughster1 — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:18:21 +0000

When the reopening of the investigation of Natalie Wood’s death became such a huge story on Thursday and Friday – after our submission deadline – I had to think fast of a way to address it. Friday morning it hit me – have Matt Moore play Bernardo from “West Side Story.” And later I remembered that “West Side Story” has a very famous song that’s an argument…

TS!W 720: NATALIE WOOD INVESTIGATION by Michael Hughes and Phil Ranta

Starring Matt Moore (Bernardo Nunez) and Phillip Wilburn (Phillip)

Watch “The Brett Ratner Acting School” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 127: “Oops!”

hughster1 — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:02:14 +0000

When Brett Ratner stepped down from producing next year’s Oscars due to some ill-advised comments, I thought that a scene set in the acting class we had done just the week before would be a good venue. And the real highlight of this sketch was the relationship between Phillip Wilburn’s Byron Shelbyford and Brent Pope’s put-upon Lee.

THE BRETT RATNER ACTING SCHOOL by Michael Hughes

Starring Neil Garguilo (Brett Ratner), Phillip Wilburn (Byron Shelbyford), Brent Pope (Lee), Matt Moore (Peter), Kipleigh Brown (Lori) and Jen Cain (Sarah)

Directed by Michael Hughes