Showing posts with label script. Show all posts
Showing posts with label script. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

"Love's First Kiss"

Following on from last week's blog, I'd like to share another script.
Please enjoy.

[Pulls Up Barstool, Adjusts mic, etc.]
[Reads from script]
Thank You!
I’m Rusty Pliers.
You might remember…
I told the story about fellatio last time..
[Applause?]
Thank you.
I told that story from the heart.
[Pause]
Tonight’s story is also from the heart.
But has no fellatio.
Sorry.

[Clear throat.
Big breath.
Be Rusty …]

It’s called…
Love’s First Kiss”

[Prologue]

In 1967 (when I was 14 years old)… the flutist of the Olive Vista Junior High School orchestra was Stephanie Poznanski.
I was in the orchestra too, playing second trumpet.
[Matter-of-Factly]
It may surprise you to learn that the second trumpet in a large junior high school orchestra doesn’t play his instrument constantly during a song. There are many times in classical pieces particularly where you just sit and wait
[Pause]
It was then that I would look longingly at Stephanie Poznanski
She sat across from the brass section, down at the front with the woodwinds.
[Wistfully] 
Sigh… She was so beautiful! 
With long blonde hair and a smile that was pure sunshine. 

[Act I]
Stephanie lived on a ranch in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley… where on this day I was visiting for the first time. 
My mom dropped me off and said be a good boy, Rusty.
But that’s okay… she always said that.
[Pause]
We had a nice time, Stephanie and me, listening to records and talking about school. She had a great sense of humor that made me laugh.
After some milk and cookies with her mom in the kitchen, Stephanie and I excused ourselves and went outside.
C’mon,”  she said, taking my hand. “I’ll show you the horses!”
We’d never held hands before. 

[Act II]
It was a warm afternoon. Dusty light beamed through the eucalyptus trees that lined the way. We strolled hand in hand beside an emerald pasture where prancing horses played in the sun. 
To my amazement, they trotted over at Stephanie’s call
“I thought only dogs could do that,” I said.
Don’t be silly,” replied Stephanie. “Horses are way smarter than dogs.” 
Now maybe that’s true and maybe it isn’t… I’ve met people in the fifty years since who’ve argued it both ways… but I didn't care one bit because I was smitten all over with Stephanie Poznanski.
[Slight Pause]
I had very different feelings for horses though
In fact I was afraid of horses, but I tried to hide this from Stephanie.
I wanted to make a good impression.
“I like horses too,” I lied.
Really?” answered Stephanie. “Barbara from History class said you said you hated horses. ‘Big, stupid, smelly things,’ she said you said.”
[Aside]
That sounded like something I would say… 
[Full Voice, Trailing Off]
Not me!” I insisted. “I love horses! They’re so…so big and strong. You know … uh, horsepower and stuff…”
[Slight Pause]
Stephanie laughed at my foolishness… as Eve must have laughed with Adam in the garden… and my young heart grew wings and flew away…


[Act III]  
Then Stephanie stepped closer to me
[Pause]
Her blonde hair played about her face in the warm California breezes. 
Some strands of it caught in her mouth
With a laugh she reached up and hooked them away. 
[Slight Pause]
That’s when I asked if I could kiss her.
Okay,” she said. “If you want to.” 
She closed her eyes and lifted her chin. Her lips parted slightly. I could see her little tongue behind her teeth, waiting
“I want to!” I said.
Leaning forward I closed my eyes…
 … and our lips touched.
[Pause] 
“Love’s first kiss.”
[Long Pause] 
Ah friends… kissing Stephanie Poznanski was like kissing an angel!
[Pause] 
It was something else too, for as we kissed I began to feel a strange tingling sensation running up and down my body that eventually settled in my middle area.
Towards the front.
Mmmm-mmmm,” I said as I wrapped my arms around Stephanie and pulled her closer…


[Act IV]
At this Stephanie sighed…
… whether from boredom or love I’ll never know… for her father caught us kissing and boy, did he give me a chewing out!
Go to your room, young lady!” he ordered Stephanie.
“Stay right where you are, buster!” he ordered me.
He gave me a piece of his mind, you might call it, about Stephanie and her chastity.
Then he phoned my mother.

[Act V]
You’re too young to be kissing anybody that way,” said my mom, driving me home. “That comes later, honey, with love.”
Love! That was my mother’s cornball idea. 
I wanted romance and adventure
[Pause]
And let’s not forget the tingling sensation in my lower front, but I didn't mention that to my mom.
We weren’t doing anything wrong,” I said, hoping in my heart it wasn’t completely true.

[Epilogue]
Stephanie seemed to lose interest in me after that.
For which I mostly blame her father
Although for awhile I tortured myself wondering if maybe I was a faulty kisser or something
[Slight Pause]
As you can imagine Music class wasn’t as much fun anymore. All I could do was sigh and watch Stephanie from my place in the brass section, an impossible chasm yawning between us
Geez, I thought, it was just like Romeo and Julie
Rusty!” barked Mr Olinski. He was the music teacher. “Wake up! Please pay attention.”
“I wasn’t asleep, sir,” I objected.
You were giving a pretty good imitation of it,” quipped Mr O.  
The class laughed. Everybody liked Mr Olinski. 
“Now, young man,” he said to me. “Give me an f sharp!”
[Wistfully]
Alas, my tootling lips went wanting for warm human contact that semester and I had to make do with the cold, indifferent mouthpiece of my St Louie Brand b flat student trumpet.
I gave Mr Olinski an f sharp.
[Pause] 
We moved to New Zealand at the end of the year and I never saw Stephanie again.


[Applause?]

Thank You!
You made it fun!
I’m Rusty Pliers!
Goodnight!


Friday, November 13, 2015

A Star is Porn!

This week I thought I'd share my script from the short story "A Star is Porn!"
I say script, because I rewrote the story as a performance piece specifically for speaking aloud..
Which I did at Stardust Video & Coffee in Orlando, Florida.
Last month sometime.
I hope you enjoy it today. 


[Reads from script]
Thank You.
I’m Rusty Pliers.
If you could please hold your, uh, applause,
until the end … 
I’d appreciate it.
Thank you.
(Laugh gently.
Clear throat.
Big breath.
Be Rusty …)
A Star is Porn!
or
How With the Aid of 
Kitchen Counter Serendipity
I Acquired the Non de Plume of … 
Rusty Pliers!

[Prologue]

     It all started in the 1970s when I’d been bumming around Europe for a couple of years, trying to make my living as a film animator.
     I say trying to make my living as an animator because sadly, to be an animator in this world is to learn the true meaning of the term …
   …Art for Art’s Sake.
[Pause]
   So, when I was flat broke in Paris I answered a want ad in a Left Bank newspaper and, after a most memorable job interview (which unfortunately we haven’t got time to go into now)…
  … I was hired as an actor in pornographic films. 
[Matter-of-Factly]
  I signed a one-picture deal with a three-month option and they told me to be in Stockholm by the end of the week.
[Reflective]
  That night, sitting alone on the train to Sweden, I stared out the window and listened to the wheels rolling rat-ta-tat-tat rat-a-tat-tat rat-a-tat-tat …  and I thought, not for the first time since becoming an animator…
   “What have I got to lose?”

[Act I]
[Eye Patch Gag Here?]
   So I found myself in Stockholm with my pants down… trying to make a buck, you’ll pardon the expression, the hard way.
[Pause]
   Ah, but the gods love a fool because while we were filming that week a wondrous thing occurred! 
   A thing called serendipity!
[Pause]
   It was during the kitchen counter fellatio scene.
   While my partner was down getting her close-up I happened to notice, just off-camera beside me on the counter, a pair of stainless-steel vice grips.
   They gleamed beautifully in the bright studio lights.
   Right then and there, serendipity struck me! 
   I introduced the vice grips into the scene.
   My partner, whose name was Heidi, found this quite stimulating so as the cameras rolled Heidi and I improvised with the vice grips while the crew looked on in amazement and, I like to think, in awe
[Slight Pause]
   The scene was very successful.
[Pause]
   Especially the happy ending.
[Pause to let it sink in]  
   We got it in one take
[Up Tempo]
   “VOILA!” cried the director, who was French.
   “Bueno!” added the asst director, who was Spanish.
   “My close-up, it was good?” asked Heidi, who was German
   “A star… she is born!” predicted the director.
   Only he didn’t mean Heidi.
   He didn’t mean me.
   He meant the vice grips.

[Act II]  
   That night I got to know the cast and crew a little better over a few drinks at Zum Franziskaner, an ancient pub just around the corner from the studio in downtown Stockholm. It was here, in the cozy beer cellar running up a ruinous tab, that I acquired the non de plume of Rusty Pliers.
   Everybody in the business had a non de plume, Heidi explained. Now that I was in the business, I needed one too.
   So we had a few beers and we thought about it.
   “How about Lonesome Orgasms?” I suggested.
   But nobody liked that one.
   “Bob Drillin?”  
   Nobody liked that one, either.
   After about the eighth beer the cameraman suggested Holden McGroin which made us laugh, but then guess what?
   Serendipity struck again and without thinking I said, “How about Rusty Pliers?”
   Everyone liked that, including Heidi.
   “Rusty Pliers,” she purred, trying it out in her luscious porno mouth.
[Pause]
   She said it suited me to a tee.

[Act III]
    At the wrap party later everybody predicted the movie would be a box-office smash. 
   “I smell a big hit!” said the producer, who was Hungarian. He liked it so much he picked up our options and gave the crew the green light to make a dozen more films. 
   That pleased everybody because, as I said at the beginning of my story… it’s a wonderful thing to find steady work in show business. 
[Pause]
   So, over the next three months we made seven toolbox movies in Stockholm, and four in Paris
   Oh. And one on the overnight train to Paris.
   That was a quickie, as we called it.
[Pause]
   They even hired a scriptwriter. You should’ve seen the crazy situations he invented to have a man with a toolbox arrive and fornicate repeatedly with a beautiful actress and / or her friends and the hand tools they so desperately craved!
[Laughs]
   Oh boy! It makes me laugh to this day!
[Reflective]
   (Sigh)… Show Business …
   … there really IS no business like it
[Pause]
    ….But no animal acts!
    I was very particular in that respect!

[Epilogue]
 Well, that’s the story of how Rusty Pliers got his name.
   If there was any kind of deep wisdom or high moral to be learned from this story… then this would be the place you’d expect to hear it, isn’t it?
[Pause]
   I’d like to thank you for listening
   It felt good to tell it. 
   To let it out, so to speak.
   You know, I’ve been calling myself Rusty Pliers for so long I can hardly remember what my real name ever was…
[Big Smile]
   But that’s okay … I like being Rusty Pliers!
[Pause]


Thank You!
You made it fun!
If you enjoyed my story,
Please follow me on social media.
If you didn’t enjoy it … 
… Thanks for not throwing things!
I’m Rusty Pliers!
Goodnight!

[Time; Around 5 Min?]