One Night Stand

Rick Overton doesn’t bother with traditional setup-punchline mechanics so much as he stages a solo radio drama at the microphone, darting between pitch-shifted voices, mouth-made sound effects, and strange sci-fi detours. The centerpiece of the set imagines George H.W. Bush struggling with the end of the Cold War, grumbling that cooperative Russians ruined a profitable defense-budget racket before shooing Dan Quayle back into the car because the vice president was only brought along as assassination insurance.

Taped at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, the half-hour broadcast opened the third season of HBO’s showcase in February 1991. Overton was already a fixture on late-night panels and a recognizable character actor in films like Willow and The Rocketeer, though this set catches him before his Emmy-winning run writing for Dennis Miller Live.

He also spins out an ecological forecast where traditional politics collapses into just two factions: the wealthy sealed inside an oxygen dome, and everyone else pounding on the glass to get in.