Who Let The Twins Out? — ‘Bush Twins Party Hour’ Brings Truth Back Home

Interview With Jenny Purple, BTPH Creator

LOS ANGELES, Calif. What would happen if President Bush’s party animal daughters got their own late night television talk show?

Ask the media, and you’ll probably hear how the fraternal twins are now as stale as day old beer.

The title of Skip Hollandsworth’s shmoozefest in the November 2007 edition of Texas Monthly should prove my point:

“Girl Gone Mild.”

But ask Jenny Purple and Rose Auerbach, and you’ll get straight-edge in-your-face honest-to-God-damn hardcore truth:

“The most successful political dynasty in American history” is made up of dishonest pieces of trash looking for places to hide.

If the Bush family had no wealth and privilege, they’d have been hauled off to jail a la Rupert Murdock’s Cops by now.

Okay, Purple and Auerbach didn’t say all that specifically when the Iconoclast contacted them.

I did it here myself.

Their sketch comedy show Bush Twins Party Hour takes a more subtle approach.

The idea for Party Hour grew from a 30-second sketch in Purple’s live political satire show, Sketchy Patriot Acts, in Los Angeles.

In it, Purple and Auerback parodied the Bush twins who by the end of their father’s first term had become notorious for their run-ins with Johnny Law.

Both young women were charged with misdemeanors related to alcohol possession, pleading no contest every time.

In the fall of 2004, Purple starred as Jenna Bush, the blonde twin, with Auerbach as Barbara Bush, the brunette one.

“Everybody loved the dynamic of us just being completely drunk and giving away the family secrets,” Purple said.

So she and Auerbach decided to create an entire weekly live show around the characters by adding the talk show element with a few minor tweaks.

“Instead of having a band leader that they do banter with, they banter with a guy we call ‘Hot Bartender’ who is serving them drinks and setting them straight about the political stuff they don’t quite understand,” Purple noted.

For their first year doing live performances around LA, the satirical Bush twins interviewed their extended family members.

There were more and enough scandals involving the family to carry the show.

But on stage now, the fake Jenna and Barbara involve themselves more in the politics than the real Bush twins do in reality, or so it would seem when it’s convenient.

But why carry on the image of the First Twins as drunken buffoons?

“It’s a lot of fun, the audience loves it, and it’s a great way to reveal the family secrets,” Purple quipped.

What family secrets?

Here are three: