‘History of the World: Part II’ editing team on how the show creators’ advice ‘elevated the scenes’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Charles Bright
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The editors for the Hulu sketch comedy series, “History of the World: Part II,” had experience from all over the map but little in terms of sketch comedy. For George Mandl, Angel Gamboa Bryant and Daniel Flesher most of their past experience comes from half-hour and multi-camera comedies and variety programming like stand-up specials. But the presence of showrunners Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen served as a massive help in the editing process. “When we got in the edit bay and got the chance to work with them, if we asked a question about a scene or we wanted to try something, they’d say ‘Try it. Let’s see.’ Every time it elevated the scene,” Bryant tells Gold Derby during our recent web chat (watch the exclusive video interview above).

“History of the World: Part II” is a follow-up of sorts to the famous 1981 Mel Brooks film with Brooks serving as executive producer. It’s done as a sketch comedy show where sketches play out over several episodes. Among the history that satirized includes the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, the story of Jesus Christ, D-Day and Shirley Chisholm’s historic 1972 presidential campaign. Along with the show’s nomination for Variety Picture Editing (along with Stephanie Filo) the show also scored a nomination for Best Character Voice-Over Performance for Brooks.

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Each of the editors had their own favorite sketches. Bryant was a huge fan of the sketches involving the Russian Revolution while Flesher loved the biblical parody, JC: Resurrection. Mandl had a very soft spot for Jews in Space because of how he got to edit it. “We were actually able to dig into Mel’s archives of film dailies and pull out some of the footage from his miniature shoots where he had Star of David shaped ships flying through space. It was such a blast to use that stuff and incorporate it into the story.”

The Emmy nomination for this group is the first career nod for each of them. That thrill was tripled for Bryant who also scored two nods in the Multi-Camera Comedy Editing category for her work on “The Upshaws.” At 8:30 AM on the day of the nominations she started receiving text messages from a ton of friends and colleagues. “I think it’s very rewarding and very gratifying when you’ve had a long career to have that kind of news and share with your colleagues and your peers and this team.” Mandl found out the news while on vacation as he was about to get into a kayak with his kids and Flesher got the notice from Bryant but then couldn’t find out any additional information online, leading him to think it might have been a mistake.

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