Triple Espresso is a vaudeville style comedy which opened in 1996. The plot revolves around three show-biz has-beens: lounge singer Hugh Butternut, an exuberant musician with a vulnerable soul who has spent the past two and a half decades performing in a coffee bar; the titular Triple Espresso; Bobby Bean, an irrepressible, but not-too-sharp entertainer; and taciturn magician Buzz Maxwell; the group's straight man and the brains behind the "unintentional" comedy team within the show. The three gather on Hugh’s 25th anniversary at the coffeehouse to retell and memorialize their mediocre show-business careers, including a final disastrous outing on The Mike Douglas Show. The plot is designed to make room for a series of comedic sketches which showcase the talents of the three-man cast, originally the show's writers: musician Michael Pearce Donley, humorist/mime Bob Stromberg and magician/comedian Bill Arnold.