the IDIOT

here’s one from ’88 — an audio drama! link at bottom, but if you’re going to listen you should probably get the background:

when i was growing up in virginia we’d hang out regularly with a family down the street. i’d babysit their kids, they had weekly volleyball parties, the father taught me to drive a manual transmission, they gave my brother and me our first car (i bought out his half) — a used VW rabbit… blah blah blah. after they moved to the philly suburbs, we’d sometimes vacation with them in vermont and new york. they had a son named jamie… or at least he used to be jamie. he did something like i did midway through childhood (changing my name from kevin to charley — middle to first), and announced one day that he was no longer jamie; he wanted to be called chris. the funny part was that chris wasn’t one of his birth names. anyway, he was about 15 at the time of our last vacation together, and very annoying with his know-it-all tone and general bullish stupidity (simply because of the age; he was otherwise a good guy).

the following winter chris was in philadelphia with a friend to do some christmas shopping. they were approached by a rastafarian with a strange story — complete with mystical malarkey, as i recall — of how he was being chased by something or someone, and he showed the boys a big wad of money (probably paper with a real bill on the top). they went into a restaurant to sit and talk, and he asked if they’d hold on to the money for a little bit until things smoothed over. they said they would, but then he voiced misgiving about being able to trust them. perhaps it would be better, he surmised, if they gave him their x-mas gifts as collateral. they gave him all their stuff and he said he’d return in about half an hour. when about to leave, he asked if they had a “tick-tock”. chris assumed he meant a watch, and said what i say on the tape (with a rube mindset if not a rube accent). rasta said he would take that as well, and poor chris gave it to him. shocker finish: rasta man had given them a worthless bundle. they didn’t see him again.

knowing i had a recording studio and liked making gag tapes, chris’s father asked if i’d put together some shtick with reggae music in the background or whatever to make fun of the situation.

here’s the result (.MP3, 5 MB).

not so hilarious if you don’t know the guy, but i had fun doing the voices and background “music” .

[outro is jimmy cliff.]

Tags: new york, virginia

Posted 20071218 04:12 under Uncategorized. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are closed.