Unfair and imbalanced

Frank Payne has lost his Limbaugh. While fellow actors check cellphone messages, smoke cigarettes or run their lines one last time, Payne ducks around the corner to practice his Rush Limbaugh impersonation.

No worries; by show time, Payne’s managed to rally his inner Rush for a brief sketch in which the right-wing talk-radio host, fresh out of rehab, starts broadcasting Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”

All in a night’s work for “Big News,” a loose collective of writers and actors who, for 51 of the last 52 Thursdays (they had Thanksgiving off), have been skewering the previous week’s news and newsmakers from their outpost at the ImprovOlympic West theater in Hollywood. The rotating pool of actors learn their Limbaugh and handle their (Paris) Hilton on the fly because the show material is rarely more than a few days -- and in some cases a few hours -- old.

The brainchild of former “Saturday Night Live” writer and Second City alumnus Michael McCarthy, “Big News” is a full-tilt scramble through the news of the preceding week, unraveled through a series of comedy sketches, song, dance and the occasional audiovisual aid.

It starts with an introductory sketch plucked from the week’s headlines (for the week ending Dec. 4 it was “Trampled,” a riff on the Wal-Mart stampede for cheap DVD players in which a woman claims to have been injured). Then, in a soothing Mister Rogers-meets-Dan Rather voice, McCarthy offers to serve as a “tour guide as we stop momentarily at landmarks that jut out from the topography of last week’s news.”

With that, he turns the stage over to a handful of talented actors and writers who mercilessly flog anything that dared rear its head in the headlines of the previous week, from the Bushes to the Beatles and from Fox’s “The Simple Life” to NPR’s “This American Life.”

The half-hour wind sprint through the news (20 minutes of news-inspired sketches and a 10-minute “news medley” anchored by two actors), directed by McCarthy and Ron West, invites comparison to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” but “Big News” charts its own territory. The show plays up two advantages: It often tackles local topics and it has the ability to address extremely current news. A recent show referenced the previous day’s freak thunderstorm in downtown L.A. by making it a political talking point for then-Gov.-elect (“Arnold Schwarzenegger has personally contacted the god of thunder in hopes that, in his administration, the weather and the state of California can work together”).

The writing staff meets on Sunday night to bat around ideas, and finished sketches are sent to McCarthy by Monday. There’s a read-through on Tuesday and by Wednesday actors are off memorizing their lines. On Thursday cast and crew squeeze in two rehearsals, and then it’s show time at 8 p.m. Breaking news is filtered in along the way.

It’s hard to mock the news these days without a couple of key players, and “Big News” has rounded up a few of the usual suspects, including the U.S. president (played to squinty, baffled perfection by Phillip Wilburn), an arrogant Donald Rumsfeld (John Judy) and California’s governor, portrayed as a carved block of idiocy (Mark Dorsey). The other half a dozen or so actors are consummate utility players, none more dedicated than Artemis Pebdani, a fearless blur of wigs and fake mustaches who has appeared as everyone from Al Sharpton to Barbara Walters and Linda Tripp to Saddam Hussein.

The comic strength of the show lies less in the predictable sketches (a Saddam Hussein-President Bush sing-along to the tune of “Somewhere Out There” or a CNN debate in which topics get personal) and more in the writers’ ability to deliciously juxtapose the news of the day with the popular culture landscape.

In the “Big News” world, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore argues with Gollum (from the “Lord of the Rings” movies) over a donated bag of cash, Ira Glass from “This American Life” interviews the McDonald’s Hamburglar, and former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda plays the opening chords of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” in a Guitar Center.

In this parallel news universe, Bert the chimney sweep from “Mary Poppins” reports on the Buckingham Palace scandal with a risque version of “Chim Chim Cheree,” John Hinckley appears in a Blockbuster public service announcement and “The Simple Life” sequel casts two “handicapable young men who get a job in a steel mill.”

Tonight, McCarthy and company celebrate the first anniversary of their adventure through the looking glass of weekly news by recapping the best sketches of the year, throwing in a special celebrity guest (unknown as of press time), and tackling the headlines head-on for the 52nd time.

A marathon of mockery that mines Iraq’s coalition provisional authority administrator Paul Bremer, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and CBS President Les Moonves for laughs as easily as Hilton, Martha Stewart and Bush, “Big News” shows no signs of slowing down.

Adam Tschorn can be contacted at weekend@latimes.com.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

All the news that’s fit to mock

Over the last year, “Big News” has traveled from Middle America to the Middle East and skewered everyone from Michael Jackson to Martha Stewart. A few “Big News” takes on the daily news appear below.

On Toy Safety

The holidays are upon us, and the consumer federation has put out its annual list of unsafe toys. And, for the third year in a row, America’s most unsafe plaything is daddy’s gun.

On President Bush

In a speech in Great Britain, the president once again used the term “evildoers.” White House staff plans to release a new synonym for “enemy” in time for Christmas. Possible official synonyms are foes, witches, super-villains, meanies, nasties and boogeymen.

On Arnold Schwarzenegger

In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as governor on Monday. It was a low-key event until the Capitol was invaded by robots from the future.

*

Big News

Where: ImprovOlympic West, 6366 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.

When: Thursdays, 8 p.m.

Cost: $5

Info: (323) 962-7560 or www.iowest.com/bignews.htm