I wrote this one pretty quickly – on a Saturday afternoon, actually, which is usually after our script is out. But the Del Close Awards meant I couldn’t get the script out Friday, and we needed more parts for women, and I had this idea about the controversy around whether “The Help” was another movie about how hard racism is on white people. The audience reaction isn’t as raucous as in other sketches, but I think they were on board, and Artemis Pebdani and Rebecca Stevens were great in this!
So this came out good…Mitt Romney’s “Corporations are people, my friend” gaffe was too good a gaffe to pass up without tackling a comedy sketch on the subject. In a lot of ways it’s a showcase for the actual beliefs of Brian O’Connell, as the words Sammy says are all pretty much things I’ve heard BOC actually says. He’s fantastic in this, as is Christopher Biewer, calibrating his performance between a precise impersonation of Mitt Romney and a concept of what Mitt Romney would be like as a kids’ show host. And don’t overlook the stellar work of Matt Moore and Rebecca Stevens as the other kids in the house. I’m very happy with this one.
Boy, having Michele Bachmann in the presidential race is making things fun! Especially since Kipleigh Brown does such an awesome characterization! Throw in Sean Cowhig’s hilarious Marcus Bachmann, Brian O’Connell as the photographer and that crazy Newsweek cover, and this one was easy to write!
My other sketch from this past week’s show, about the FAA shutdown. I’m happy, among other things, that it gave Peter Fluet the chance to reprise a classic line from the old Big News show: “Hot coffee! Cold milk! Warm half and half!”
Without question the edgiest sketch I’ve written in a while. If you don’t know about the Dreamboard case, count your blessings. If you do, you might be surprised to think I’d write a comedy sketch about it. But with the chance to write for Peter Fluet – who I know well from our days in “Those Who Oppose Us Will Stand Knee Deep in the Blood of Their Children” – I had an idea that I thought would work without being tasteless. I think we pulled it off. Everyone in this sketch is just great. (And yes, this sketch is work safe. Although Peter does get loud.)
Phillip Wilburn and Matt Moore went to a taping of “Conan” and chatted with Jimmy Pardo, who was booked as our guest comic for the July 31 show. Jimmy said he’d also do a sketch, and Phillip suggested one where he played a game show host. Since his “Conan” colleague Andrés du Bouchet was also in the cast it was a natural to put him in the sketch along with Matt and Phillip. I did a first pass, Phillip and Tommy Bechtold polished it up, and the result is the six minutes of hilarity you see here.
For the first time in a long time, I was an actor in Top Story! Weekly on July 20. And I was even in a sketch I wrote for myself, a fun little piece about the debt ceiling nonsense in which I was ably assisted by Deanna Russo and John Druska.
Mike Hughes' blog 
Watch “Last Tango with Beanster” with Andrés du Bouchet from “Conan” – from Top Story! Weekly Episode 115: “Planes, Buses and A Whole Lot of Fusses”
August 25, 2011I wasn’t going to write last week. But then on Thursday the final push into Tripoli began. And with Phil Ranta back from his five-month sojourn doing improv with Second City on cruise ships in Hawaii, I knew I had to write a Gadhafi sketch that could take us full circle to the first sketch we did back in March that introduced the world to the wonder that is Chuck Beanster!
LAST TANGO WITH BEANSTER by Michael Hughes
Starring Phillip Wilburn (Muammar Qadaffi), Andrés du Bouchet (Larry), Brent Pope (Steve Culpepper) and Phil Ranta (Chuck Beanster)
Directed by Tom Repetto
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