Transcript
ANNOUNCER: The Oxford English Dictionary, the standard of the English language, defines a 'nebbish' as 'An insignificant or ineffectual person; a nobody; a nonentity.' How right they are. The Nebbish operates behind the scenes. He is
exempt, immune; for the world at large, The Nebbish does not exist. Only a select few are aware of the actions taken by
the Nebbish and E.B.B., the secret organization that he works for in an attempt to halt entropy in its very tracks. The
Nebbish has undergone intense training in the mountains of Tibet, and with the License to Change granted him by the yoga
masters of E.B.B., he influences a world which cannot influence him.
THE NEBBISH: The universe is slowly winding down, like a music box with no key. This is inevitable; however, my charge is to slow it down. I am the Nebbish, and I must use all of the resources available to me in my quest to slow the eventual heat
death of the universe! (MUSIC
ANNOUNCER: This week-- THE CONFESSION! (MUSIC)
NEBBISH: Maxwell Nefastis and I were hiking into a rustic village in the mountains to relax and get some fermented goat's milk. It had been a long day training in the secret EBB headquarters in Tibet. Max was a new recruit. When I first became an
agent of E.B.B., Maxwell's father was the agent who took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. John disappeared
in the jungles of the Amazon years earlier, and now it was my turn to return the favor he'd granted me all those years
ago.
(SFX: WIND, FOOTSTEPS)
MAXWELL: I tell you, baby, I don't know if I'm getting the hang of this License to Change. My brainmeats can't get used to the idea that I can change anything I want.
NEBBISH: Don't beat yourself up about it, Max. You're already better than you were a month ago. It's the kind of thing where you have to learn by practicing. You've been training long enough that you might be ready to come along on a mission one
of these days!
MAXWELL: Dang, baby! I'll finally clock some real time fighting evil! I'll plant the iron glove of justice right in their selfish goddamn faces!
NEBBISH: Ha, ha! I don't know if you're quite there yet, chum. You're good with your License to Change, but you need to get your imagination working overtime. Let's say that you're fighting a group of FLOW agents. In their attempt to hurry
entropy and further their twisted hedonistic agenda, they've built a factory, to manufacture illegal aerosol spray cans of
giggle gas-- nitrous oxide. They're selling the spray-cans on the black market, turning a tidy profit, and destroying the
ozone in the process. You've infiltrated the group, and you're ready to call in the cavalry, when they suddenly discover
who you are and knock you out! When you wake up, you're tied to a chair in the factory! What do you do?
MAXWELL: I concentrate, meditate, and Change the ropes into whips. Then I use the whips and my strong kung-fu to beat some FLOW ass!
NEBBISH: Ha ha! That might just work, Max, but let me tell you what your father did. He Changed the contents of those spray cans, and all the canisters in the warehouse, into helium! All of those light aluminum cans floated up to the ceiling. The
supplying canisters of nitrous and aerosol started venting helium into the air like a busted fireplug on a summer day! All of
the cans that were ready to be packaged floated to the ceiling as well. Your father changed his ropes, dove under a table
in the confusion, and Changed the helium into water. The canisters started to flood the warehouse. The cans rained down
from the ceiling onto all the FLOW agents, knocking most of them unconscious. John took on the last few in hand-to-hand
combat and then called in EBB to clean up the mess. All of it done quickly and easily, and leaving the ozone as intact as it
could get!
MAXWELL Dang! That's so clever!
NEBBISH: You're halfway there already, friend.
(BEEP)
NEBBISH: My two-way wrist radio!
(BEEP)
NEBBISH: This is the Nebbish, calling E.B.B... This is the Nebbish, calling E.B.B... come in, E.B.B.
VOICE: Please recite your agent number, today's passphrase, and your classification.
NEBBISH: Nineteen. Lemoncello. Sickle.
LADY: Message begins.
OLD MANS VOICE OVER PHONE: Nebbish! Come back to the monastery! Something terrible has just happened!
LADY: Message ends.
NEBBISH: I guess we won't be having fermented goat's milk cocktails today, Max!
(MUSIC)
OLD MAN: Nebbish, thank God youve arrived! Number six just arrived, and the poor boys in bad shape!
NUMBER SIX: (coughing)
NEBBISH: Good lord! This mans been shot!
NUMBER SIX: Not much time. (coughing) Theres a FLOW plot. I was helping Nate Unusual with his music, working on a sound collage with him. FLOW agents broke down the door to the studio and shot poor Nate in the head!
NEBBISH: Good god, man!
NUMBER SIX: They shot me too, but I got to the door before they could finish me off, used my License to change so I cameout here instead of there. They were furious-- (cough) the recording has a confession-- a FLOW agent confesses to
NEBBISH: Confesses to what, Six? Confesses to what?
NUMBER SIX: Confesses to-- confesses to-- Agggh!
OLD MAN: Hes dead, old bean!
MAXWELL: What's that in his got in that death grip?
NEBBISH: It looks like-- yes! A compact disc!
(MUSIC)
NEBBISH: Now, Nate Unusual was an interesting guy. He'd been an EBB agent, but he retired to work on his music. And it was some music! Nate would always walk around carrying an audio recorder, and would turn it on whenever he heard anything
interesting. Periodically, he'd gather up his samples and patch them all together into expansive sound collages. We put the
disc on the stereo, anxious to hear what Nate had cooked up this time.
(SOUND COLLAGE)
NEBBISH: Wow. There's supposed to be a confession in that tape somewhere? I couldn't hear a damn thing that sounded like a confession.
OLD MAN: I am completely baffled!
MAXWELL: I dug it.I could definitely dance to that. Get a little twisty on some hard cider, dance around--
NEBBISH: Yes, but how will we ever isolate the confession from that jumbled masterpiece?
MAXWELL: I got no idea, baby!
NEBBISH: Remember your father and the hydrogen, Max?
MAXWELL: Dang, that's right! I can do any damn thing I want! Let me just concentrate here--
(SFX: POP!)
NEBBISH: What the devil is that, Maxwell?
MAXWELL: You like it, baby? I just created it! I call it the Flange-O-Vouty. It's a machine that'll isolate single tracks from recordings!
NEBBISH: How does that work?
NEBBISH: Well, I'll put the disc in here, and turn it on--
(AUDIO: TRAIN, RAIN, VOICES)
VOICE 1: It's good to see you again, Andrew. What have you been working on?
SCOTCH EGG: It's pretty hush-hush. I shouldnt talk about it.
VOICE 1: Who are you talking to, J. Edgar Hoover? Who am I going to tell?
SCOTCH EGG: Aye, but I've got to keep it under wraps. Im the head honcho for this little experiment and I really need to make sure everything goes right according to plan.
VOICE 1: Come on, you jerk, tell me.
SCOTCH EGG: All right, fine. You know who the Immortality Worm is?
VOICE 1: I think so?
SCOTCH EGG: The Immortality Worm is pretty small-time. What he does is, he bites people. When he bites them, theyre suddenly extra aware of their own mortality-- that theyre going to die, someday, like. Fills you with this sense of ennui.
He did it to me once on a dare and I tell you, its real depressing. Like looking into the abyss.
VOICE 1: Wow. So he does this to people and then they become his slaves? Or he does it to people, and then he feeds off of their anguish? Or what?
SCOTCH EGG: Nah, he doesnt have that much imagination. When theyre caught up weeping in existentialist awareness, he coshes them over the head and takes their wallets.
VOICE 1: Really? That's it?
SCOTCH EGG: Like I said, small time. But this time he stumbled on something big. He just doesn't know how to use it yet. There are two parts: a machine and a chemical. The chemical is this weird bit some Germans discovered. If someone has a
dream about flying, the chemical is produced by the brain and runs through your bloodstream. If you wake someone up and
draw blood immediately, and centrifuge it, you can get a pure version of the chemical. The chemical by itself does nothing.
He also made this machine, right? You turn it on and turn it on, and everyone in a five-mile radius who's on
the drug falls asleep. But here's where it gets real weird. The Worm was running tests and accidentally took the drug
himself, and when he fell asleep, he discovered that every other person who's on the drug and sleeping is in the same
place-- a collective dream.
VOICE 1: Jesus!
SCOTCH EGG: Right. So he figured, whoops, whatever. When he starts putting the drug in a city's water supply, just remember to drink bottled water. The Worm was going to contaminate a city's water supply and then turn on the machine
and just wander around taking people's wallets
VOICE 1: Strictly small time!
SCOTCH EGG: Aye. He did it once in this tiny town in Iowa, and it took him days to go get all the wallets. He got bored and tired of walking when he had a few grand and gave up, gave me the machine and the drug. And now, well, for the past six
months, a few of the fellas and I have been sneaking it into the donut supply of a certain city called Eau Claire in a
certain Wisconsin.
VOICE 1: Excellent!
SCOTCH EGG: Aye. The whole city is supplied by the same bulk food distributor. It's easy enough to put the drug in the powdered sugar. The genius is that we hit everyone at once-- Dunkin' Donuts, Crispy Crème, Donutland, you name it.
VOICE 1: Brilliant!
SCOTCH EGG: Aye. The fellas are strictly small-time. They aren't going to take the drug. They're just going to drive around the city raiding homes and wallets. Which is fine, like, they'll get plenty of scratch. But me, I'm going to take the drug. I'm
going to enter the collective dream. Then I'm going to have one of the lads shoot me in the head. When my body dies, I'll
be in the dream world!
VOICE 1: Does that really work?
SCOTCH EGG: Aye, I tried it with a dog. It works.
VOICE 1: I have been having dreams about a--
SCOTCH EGG: Border collie, yeah?
VOICE 1: He just wants me to feed him and play with him.
SCOTCH EGG: Now, me, when I'm in there, I'm going to rule it with an iron fist. I'll be immortal, forever, and I'll be the king of the collective unconscious!
(MUSIC SWELLS)
MAXWELL: That's where that track ends.
NEBBISH: I recognize that voice--that's the Scotch Egg!
OLD MAN: Good lord! (choke)
MAXWELL: Who?
THE NEBBISH: He's an upper level FLOW agent. No super powers, but a lot of dedication to his work.
MAXWELL: Why y'all call him the Scotch Egg?
THE NEBBISH: Because he HATES IT! Max, we don't have time for this right now-- can you tell me when that was recorded?
MAXWELL: Looks like-- last Wednesday, daddy-o!
NEBBISH: We've got no time to waste! Weve got to get to Eau Claire right now!
NEBBISH: Eau Claire's a beautiful city. Peaceful, rustic. Unfortunately, when we got there, everybody was already asleep! The machine was hidden away somewhere, as was the Scotch Egg. We searched around, finding people snoring peacefully
away in front of their television sets, behind the wheels of their parked cars, even passed out in the middle of the street.
We couldn't find the machine, or the Scotch Egg--the closest we ever came was seeing a group of hoodlums in ski masks
carrying enormous sacks with dollar signs on them. We searched for hours, and came up completely empty-handed.
MAXWELL: Dang, I'm hungry.
NEBBISH: Me too, old chum. Let's stop and grab a bite to eat.
MAXWELL: Aw hell yeah. Lets go in here!
NEBBISH: No, old chum, stop! Dunkin' Donuts is off limits!
MAXWELL: Dang, these nasty-ass stale crullers look foul! But they'll have to do!
NEBBISH: NO!
THE NEBBISH: I was too late. Maxwell had already eaten half of the stale cruller, and fallen to the floor in a heap. At first I was horrified-- Maxwell was not equipped to enter a shared hallucination! I sat there, tapping my fingers on the counter,
looking down at his peacefully sleeping form. Then I realized that maybe we'd accidentally found a way to get through our
problems by entering the collective dreaming, we could go head-to-head with the Scotch Egg, and defeat him in that
domain. My and Maxwell's training with the license to change gave us a leg up on inexperienced dreamers. I grabbed a
maple glazed, steeled myself for the forthcoming adventure, and took a bite. (MUSIC)
(DREAM MUSIC)
MAXWELL: Where the hell are we, Paulie?
NEBBISH: When you bit into that stale cruller, you opened up the doors of perception! The German sleep chemical, Maxthe powdered sugar!
MAXWELL: (GASP) So we're-- we're IN-- the dream?
NEBBISH: I think so, Max. That would explain that Rhinoctopus!
(SFX: RHINOCTOPUS)
NEBBISH: And that god-awful vermicious Ka-nid!
(SFX: VERMICIOUS KNID)
SCOTCH EGG: You wee bastard, Nebbish!
NEBBISH: SCOTCH EGG!
SCOTCH EGG: Don't call me that, you ass! My name is Andrew!
NEBBISH: You're a bad egg, Andrew!
SCOTCH EGG: Oh, that's clever.
NEBBISH: Don't play hard-boiled with me!
SCOTCH EGG: I swear to God.
NEBBISH: What's the matter, Egg? Thin-shelled?
SCOTCH EGG: You forget, Nebbish-- in this realm, I am king! I draw power from the collective unconscious! I am lucid to the point of madness! Insult me again and you will only hasten your own bloody demise! (MUSIC)
NEBBISH: It was at this point that I realized he was right. I looked around the dreamscape, and the blighted, blasted world was worse than I could have imagined. He had the whole population of dreamers enslaved, working to fulfill his every whim!
Those not in chains were passed out, exhausted! As I watched, The Scotch Egg grew a pair of dragon wings and soared
into the air!
SCOTCH EGG: Nebbish, you never were the brightest tulip in the garden. Don't you get it? You couldn't stop me with all the bloody licenses to change in the universe! I've injected the dream drug straight into my brain! I'm leeching the psychic
energy from my army of dreamers. Here, I rule supreme! Now sleep, you bastards! Sleep!
MAXWELL: Where are we, baby?
NEBBISH: We're in a prison of the mind, old chum. The Scotch Egg's sick, twisted, overcooked brain! I've searched the cell for a way out, but for some reason, his bricks and mortar override my license to change.
MAXWELL: Who's that guy?
PRISONER: Yeah, I'm Tom.
MAXWELL: Hi, Tom.
NEBBISH: Tom was one of the Scotch Egg's henchmen. He was the one that was supposed to shoot the Scotch Egg, kill his material body and put him here forever.
PRISONER: Yeah, I accidentally ate some donuts. He was PISSED. 'Blah blah blah, Tom, yeh let meh doon! Naih theres a voolnrabiliteh thet the nebbish can use! Blah blah blah.' What an ass.
MAXWELL: So we aren't totally lost! There's still a chance we can get out of here!
NEBBISH: I don't know, friend. If we stay here long enough, our bodies will die, and then we'll be stuck here, in this dank cell, forever.
MAXWELL: You sound like the Immortality Worm just too a big bite out you tushy, baby!
NEBBISH: I'm actually immune to the Immortality Worm. This is the real deal, Max.
MAXWELL: Wait up, daddy-o! If someone turns off the machine, we're gonna wake up in the real world!
PRISONER: Yeah, he keeps it in the basement of the courthouse. There's a generator powering it. There's enough fuel in the generator to keep it going long enough for all of us to die.
MAXWELL: Someones got to notice! I'm sure that some people in Eau Claire don't even like donuts!
NEBBISH: I appreciate your optimism, Max, but Wisconsin loves its donuts!
MAXWELL: Man, that sounds good right now. I'm so hungry! My belly's a-screamin', daddy-o! Look at my hands-- they're getting so pale from lack of nutrition! Look at this!
(SFX: POP!)
MAXWELL: Oh, snap, baby, a cream-filled long-john! Dang but that looks delicious! Mmmm.
NEBBISH: Maxwell, how did you do that?
MAXWELL: I dunno, baby, I was just looking at the back of my hand, and wishing I had a donut!
NEBBISH: Max! You're a genius.
MAXWELL: Oh yeah?
NEBBISH: Yeah! That's the old lucid-dreaming trick! Look at the back of your hand, and you can start to control your dreams! Let me try!
(SFX: POP! POP!)
PRISONER: Damn, that's a lot of donuts, guys! Can I have some?
NEBBISH: Sure!
MAXWELL: Whoa, baby, I feel funny! I feel like I could punch the moon! I feel like I could throw a Volkswagen a whole half block!
(SFX: EXPLOSION)
PRISONER: Holy crap! I just punched through this wall!
NEBBISH: Maxie, you're a double genius! Those donuts you lucid dreamed into existence were jam-packed with the German dream chemicals! Now we can take on the Scotch Egg and bring his expiration date to NOW!
SCOTCH EGG: (giving orders) PAINT MY FEET! WASH MY CLOTHES! DANCE FOR ME! Dance for poppa. Do a little dance! A little dancey dance! Thats right!
(SFX: EXPLOSION)
SCOTCH EGG: What the crap?
NEBBISH: The jig is up! It's back to the henhouse for you, Scotch Egg!
SCOTCH EGG: Jesus Christ, why do you do that?
MAXWELL: FREEZE!
NEBBISH: Max! What are you doing? Where did you get that gun?
MAXWELL: Hold still, Nebbish! I just need to shoot you in the head.
(SFX: GUNSHOT)
NEBBISH: MAX-- why? why? (cough)
SCOTCH EGG: Good on you, Maxwell! Im glad youve come around! F.L.O.W. is the way to go!
MAXWELL: Don't move, you son of a bitch! By killing him here, I sent him back there-- to turn off your infernal machine!
SCOTCH EGG: Oh, you wee bugger!
MAXWELL: Now I'm going to shoot myself in the head, and I'll go back there!
(SFX: SHOT)
(MUSIC)
(SFX: DOOR SLAMMING)
JAILOR: You're going away for a long, long time
SCOTCH EGG: I'll get you for this, Nebbish! I'll get you for this, Maxwell! I swear to all that's unholy, you havent seen the last of the Scotch Egg!
MAXWELL: Smells like sulfur-- is that a rotten egg, baby?
ALL: (LAUGHING)
(MUSIC)
Director's Commentary
Many of these characters are characters that I've been dealing with for years-- the Nebbish and Maxwell, mostly, and the Immortality Worm to a lesser extent. The Nebbish and Maxwell are characters that play an important role in my Young adult
novels in progress, "Maxwell's Sloth" and "Maxwell's Jest." Within the context of those novels, the Nebbish is a fictional
character, starring in radio plays and comic books. Having the opportunity to actually create an audible radio play about
these characters has been a magnificent experience.
This business about being exempt and immune is an homage to the Richard Farina novel, "Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up To Me." The main character of that novel desperately wants to be completely uninfluenced by the world.
This initial introduction has been run through a ProTools filter that replicates a telephone. This is in homage to the old-time radio character "The Shadow." Whenever he spoke, it sounded like it was run through a telephone-- and this fact is
remarked upon by Doctor Hilarius in Thomas Pynchon's "Crying of Lot 49," which is one of the texts referenced by these characters.
I love this idea-- two competing entities, E.B.B. and F.L.O.W. The yin and yang, one trying to conserve resources and the other trying to enjoy everything while the world still exists to enjoy. The common thread is an acknowledgement that the world,
and life by extension, cannot last forever.
This idea of slowing or halting entropy owes a lot to the works of Thomas Pynchon.
The backing music here is zither music from "The Third Man." The Third Man is a wonderful film, directed by Carol Reed and starring Orson Welles, who played The Shadow in the old-time radio series. He also played his Third Man character, Harry
Lime, in an old-time radio series that ran for a year in 1951-1952. It's one of the best OTR series, and this is an homage.
Orson Welles is perhaps the best-known old-time radio star, and one of the best in the field.
"John Nefastis" is the name of a character in Thomas Pynchon's 'The Crying of Lot 49.' He's created a device called "Maxwell's Demon," based on the plans of James Clerk Maxwell; Maxwell's Demon is a theoretical device that can sort hot and cold
molecules into separate compartments of a box-- the idea being that such a device could violate the second law of
thermodynamics. Violating the second law of thermodynamics, of course, would be completely contradictory to the rules of
entropy.
Maxwell's slang, speaking style, and personality are a mixture of Slim Gaillard and Lord Buckley, two recording artists from the 1940s and 1950s. Slim Gaillard was a jazz musician, who made up his own language, that he called "Vout."
To read more about Slim Gaillard, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Gaillard
Lord Buckley was a spoken word artist, who told old, familiar stories in a "beatnik" style.
To learn more about Lord Buckley, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buckley
The License to Change is the "super-power" enjoyed by the agents of E.B.B. Simply put, once you are granted a Licenseto Change, you can meditate and focus the influence and pressures of the world to 'change' anything-- whether it be
to change it into something else, or to create something from the raw materials of the world.
This scenario, where F.L.O.W. is selling illegal CFC spray cans of a recreational drug, is sort of a flagship move by the group.It's a combination of lack of caring about the environment-- the CFC will hurry along the hole in the ozone layer, bringing
about global warming that much faster-- and the fact that they're selling nitrous oxide itself, a hedonistic drug that has
been twisted from its initial purpose as anaesthetic. This combination of hurrying entropy and advanced hedonism is
characteristic of F.L.O.W.
John's Changing of the contents of the canisters and cans into Helium is an inspired move on his part. Other E.B.B. agentshave used their licenses to change in some interesting ways-- the Nebbish himself was once drowning and being dragged
along the bottom of a river; he Changed the blue, oxygen-depleted blood into red, oxygen-rich blood and returned to life.
Bill, talking about his inspiration for the voice of the Nebbish, described it as "William Shatner meets The Tick."
Use of the two-way wrist-radio is a standard convention in old-timey radio. Captain Midnight had one. Dick Tracy had one.
"Good Lord! This man's been shot!" follows a long line of characters in audio-only presentations belaboring the obvious--because the audience can't see Number Six's wounds.
This is another standard storytelling device, where the hero is alerted to danger by someone who can only give sketchy detailsbefore dying, leaving some mystery and some time to advance the plot.
See also: "Good Lord! This man's been shot!"
Using a compact disc as a plot device was a risky move-- by removing it from the timeless status of most Old-Time Radio.
"Nate Unusual" is a reference to the techno and noise musician Nate Unique.
For detailed analysis of the noise piece, please see "Sound Effects and Music Commentary."
In the original script, E.B.B. went through an elaborate scenario where they first tried to use a computer with an audio editingsuite. They were unable to isolate the track, and then Maxwell used his License to isolate the track.
I prefer the "Flange-O-Vouty" because it maintains the Old-Time Radio tradition of bizarre machinery-- like the two-way
wrist radio.
"Andrew" in this case was played by Andrew Shearer. Andrew was raised in Scotland, which aided immensely.
The Immortality Worm makes his first appearance in a comic book in "Maxwell's Jest." He looks like an enormous maggotwearing overalls.
The Immortality Worm is also a reference to Richard Farina's "Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up To Me." The main
character is struggling to maintain is immunity and exemption, and suddenly is struck with terror and existential awareness.
One of the other characters says, "It sounds like the immortality worm has been chewing." When asked how to combat
this, the character says "bite back." The Nebbish, due to his immunity, just laughs and bites back when he is bitten.
The German dream chamical does not actually exist. This is a reference to a presentation given in RTF 331R, "Dream and Delirium." A student presented a slideshow about how he had read an article in a German journal, describing the blood
purification procedure.
A continuation of the magical realist technology aspect.
I've done a lot of reading about the nature of the collective unconscuous, the nature of presque vu-- the opposite of deja vu,where you experience something that you know you will experience in the future. It's a fascinating area.
I'm not sure why it takes six months of preparation to give Eau Claire residents the drug that works on Maxwell instantaneously.
This part makes me laugh every time.
The Scotch Egg hates that nickname because Scotch Eggs isn't actually Scottish-- it was created in London. The Scotch Egg loathes any stereotyping or negative connotations to Scottish people or behavior.
This really didn't translate to audio very well-- the line in the script is "OLD MAN: Good lord! (choke)" which is a referenceto the old EC horror comics from the 1950s-- "Tales From the Crypt," "Vault of Horror," that sort of thing. Whenever
a character in those old comics is completely horrified, he always said "Good lord! Choke."
"A group of hoodlums in ski masks carrying sacks with dollar signs on them." Too corny?
This selective hearing-- Maxwell can't hear the Nebbish admonishing him-- is also characteristic of OTR.
Maxwell refers to The Nebbish as "Paulie." This is intentional.
Ah, the Rhinoctopus and Vermicious Knid. In the original script, this was followed up with the following dialogue:MAXWELL: And that crepe with wings!
THE NEBBISH: A... bald... pastry-gle?
This series of terrible puns originally went on much longer.
"I am lucid to the point of madness" may be one of the best lines in the script.
Because the Scotch Egg has injected the drug into his brain, he can override the less-drugged-up Licenses to Change.
This is completely true. Wisconsin cannot get enough donuts.
This is a reference to the lucid dreaming maneuver-- if you want to be able to control your dreams, and become aware withinthe dreamspace, some dream therapists claim that looing at your hand will break the spell and allow you to take control.
"I could throw a volkswagen a whole half block" is a line from the DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince song "I Think I CouldBeat Mike Tyson."
I once had a job in the Galleria Mall in Houston. A creepy co-worker would always ask me to "Dance for Poppa."It is my pleasure to share this horror with you.
"What the crap?" is a hilarious semi-curse from the film version of "The Crow."
Another example of this radio play's obsession with shooting people in the head. I didn't recognize this until the first versionwas recorded.
Ah, the elaborate death scene.
Maxwell doesn't really have any evidence that this will work-- although it's been shown that killing someone in real life willstrand them in the collective dream, there is nothing to indicate that the opposite is true. Faulty logic at work!
Another shot in the head-- this one a suicide.
Brian Ledden played both Tom, the Prisoner, and the Jailor here. Just a wee bit of irony.
This is the first time that The Scotch Egg refers to himself as such-- it's an indicator of his increased frustration and madness.
Another terrible pun. The laughter after this line always strikes me as genuine and makes me smile.
This radio play is actually the first ever appearance of The Scotch Egg. It's his introductory story. It sets him up for laterappearances. I'm planning to bring him back in a series of radio plays in the fall of 2007 surrounding the Nebbish.
However, since they will take place after this encounter, there will be some fairly drastic changes.
For example-- and this is an exclusive here-- due to the massive amounts of German sleep chemicals injected straight
into the Scotch Egg's fevered brain, and the ridiculous amount of time that he's spent in the collective dream,
I'm imagining that when he does make his return, it will be with super powers. Perhaps he'll have the ability to project a
sphere around himself that will replicate the conditions inside the dreaming, or perhaps he'll be able to make others
hallucinate. There's still time, but I feel that the character is ripe for continuation.
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