Downfall

Series
UnFictional
Original Broadcast Date
10/19/2015
Cast
Ryan Cutrona, David Cross, Joe Frank
Format
Serious Monologue, Mock Interview, 27 minutes
Chronology
Preceded by:	The Poor Are Always With Us
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"Some native peoples, they would have a name like Soar Like An Eagle, that's the person's name..."

Downfall is a radio program produced by Joe Frank and broadcast on KCRW's UnFictional Series. It originally aired on October 19, 2015. This was Joe's final program.

Synopsis

0:50: A man (Ryan Cutrona) and Joe talk about Native American names, such as 'Soar Like An Eagle', 'Spotted Mouse', 'Hat Stench'.

3:00: Joe, hosting an episode of 'Travels across America' interviews Solomon Hicks (David Cross), mayor of Sand Hill, Georgia, which he has mismanaged to its ruin: potholes and craters in its streets, the collapse of a bridge, the roof of the elementary school auditorium, pollution of a lake. Hicks has facetious explanations, plans to build the world's largest amusement park to divert Sand Hillers' attention.

7:50: Joe goes home, takes a bath, feels himself melting, dreams of playing chess with a mysterious cowled man while riding in a horse cart - 'a wheel came off the wagon, and a coffin fell out, spilling clocks ticking without hands. And I watched legions of professionally-maimed and disfigured beggars follow tourists to their hotels and wait underneath their cars.'

9:20: Joe's lying on his back, lying beside a woman. She gets up, rends her clothes, smears ashes on her forehead, cries out, "Where is God?"

10:00: They have just watched a report of a plane crashing in the South China Sea. Joe wonders how the relatives of the victims feel. A letter was found in the wreckage, addressed to Joe, apparently from a girlfriend who wanted to break up with him. Joe remembers the beginning of their relationship. 2 weeks after they moved in together, he came home to find everything gone.

13:00P: Joe lists places where one can and can't sing the blues.

14:00: Man (Cutrona) talks about a primitive Amazon tribe, that wealthy people are often unhappier.

16:20: Joe tells about seeing a therapist. Their relationship evolved into a friendship; she ended up telling Joe more about her life than Joe told her about his. She remembered her seventh birthday party, at which her father died. Then she broke off the relationship.

18:50: Man (Cutrona) tells Joe about talking to his imaginary friend.

19:40: Joe notices people talking on their cellphones while they're driving. Joe wonders whether it's because they're lonely or trying to impress others.

20:40: Joe asks Hicks about his affair with the wife of his opponent in the upcoming mayoral election.

23:40: 'I'm looking for a small, screw-top plastic container. I believe I left it on my desk next to my notebooks beside a cup of coffee and a Danish, but I may have left it in the Fairmont Hotel's bathroom, because Dr. Nierenberg at the food table as I was eating some Kasha with kiwi fruit salad and pickled Vidalia onions said he required a urine sample immediately, and I was directed to follow the wrought iron fence facing the small gazebo at the end of the gravel path.'

24:40: Joe tells of being in the mens' room, comparing his urine stream to that of a robust young man, noticing the behavior of others.

25:50: Joe recounts that when he was 5, his father gave him 2 silver dollars, which he buried in the front yard. A woman asked him what he was doing, said the silver dollars were hers, took them.

26:40: Joe and Hicks talk about prayer.

Legacy Synopsis

Downfall from Joe Frank consists of the interview of a mayor facing charges of incompetence and corruption, interspersed with contemplative conversations and dreamlike events… which is to say that Downfall is a comic program of dubious value, limited merit, debatable and problematic. In lieu of flowers please bathe more frequently. - KCRW

Music

• "The Watcher - Instrumental" - Dr. Dre (from 2001, 1999) | YouTube [2:40]
• "Funky For You" - Deadbeats (from Lounging, 2000) | YouTube [7:35]

• "Your Place" - Zero 7 (from The Garden, 2006) | YouTube [16:03]

Additional credits

• Mixed by Ray Guarna
• Special thanks to Michal Story.

External links

• "Downfall" on Joe's YouTube channel
• "Downfall" streaming audio at KCRW