A Moment of Gambler’s Clarity

My friend Joe Brooks and I wrote this script for a short film some years back, after a trip to Vegas. I’m not sure where the title character came from. But I’m pretty sure he’s real.

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Note on characters:  Guy is a man.  Brent Huffman, on the other hand is a stuffed peccary mounted on a wheeled board with casters and a twine string to pull him with.  All the characters in the play react to Brent as though they can hear him.  The audience cannot.  The Dealer, the Waiter, Second Dealer and the Mob Boss can be played by one actor

SCENE ONE – EVENING AT A BLACKJACK TABLE AT THE SAHARA IN LAS VEGAS
The dealer, Paul, Guy and Brent Huffman are sitting around the table.

DEALER
Sir?

Paul makes a waving motion with his hand, Guy scrapes table with cards

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Excerpts from News is Entertainment and Entertainment is Work

In honor of the passing of my friend, I am republishing my Joe posts

These are excerpts from “News is Entertainment and Entertainment is Work,” which was built out of email exchanges with my friends, including Joe.

Oh, man — “Segway.” Jesus. Joe, tell them your know how to “rite” like “kreyzee” “cuhz” “U” “A” “D” “baughme.” And explain to them that you do not want to have to jump up with them merely because you have been slamming and jamming on their old ladies’ funks. Instead perhaps you could all go out and catch some jumpies. Word to the mother. Man, I’d love to see Joe’s script for a 30 minute teen show set in an SF club. I imagine there would be robots . . .

I don’t think there’s any need to book a room. If I get a message back saying: Joe is creep, no Joe, then we will look for the Do-You-Got-Five-Dollars-For-Gas-For-My-Car-I-Godda-Get-To-Gilroy-Man-My-Fuckin-Cousin-Was-Subos’ta-Put-Gas-In-Man-Phew-Wait-Til-I-See-That-Mutherfuckr-Again-I’ll-Fuckin-Kick-His-Ass Motel in downtown Boiling. Until then, presume a nestling into the sneaky sheets of downtown Kangauterus Inn . . .

Joe Brooks, RIP

One of my best friends, Joe Brooks, died yesterday. In the photo above, Joe is on the right above and I’m on the left. We were working together in Boston for a company whose honest-to-G-d name was Pandick. This is one of the copy centers they ran for a law firm in the Bank of Boston building. So many years ago.

I just deleted a whole bunch of stuff I wrote because it was stupid and wholly insufficient. If you knew Joe or are interested in what it looks like when so many people love you, visit Joe’s Facebook page.