On The Edge

On The Edge[1]

Series
Work In Progress
Original Broadcast Date
1991
Cast
Joe Frank
Format
Absurd Monologue, 57 minutes
Preceded by:	The Dictator (Part 3)
Followed by:	Summer Notes (Remix)

When I first came to L.A. I lived in a hotel on the beach.

On The Edge is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Work In Progress. It was originally broadcast in 1991

Also see On The Edge (Remix), from The Other Side.

Synopsis

Joe moves from the East coast to the West Coast; he plans to write a novel at his first house in Santa Monica, and he lives next door to a woman with a dog, Prince. For the first month after Joe moves in the woman is home all day; Prince does not bark. Then she gets a job at a hospital; Prince barks all day when she is away. When she is away Prince's bark is fierce, followed by whimpering. When someone is at the door Prince barks meekly. Joe is home all day trying to work on his show; he cannot stand the barking. Wanting to give Prince a chance to get used to her absence Joe waits 3 days to tell her. When he confronts the woman she says she is glad: that is what Prince is supposed to do. Prince scares burglars: every house in the neighborhood has been robbed recently except for her house; she credits Prince. She tells Joe that she is not going to do anything about it. Joe fantasizes about ways to kill Prince: buying a gun in another state and shooting it from the alley, putting rat poison in a slab of meat and throwing it over the fence…

13: A guy yells exasperatedly, 'I must transform an injustice into an absurdity…'

16: Joe speculates about the nature of death, imagines 'bought the farm', which goes awry when foreclosed upon.

26: Joe lambastes people who pay with checks at the supermarket, then laments the long waits at the post office, selfish football players, teenage dance shows

31: A guy yells exasperatedly, 'I must transform an injustice into an absurdity…'

34: Joe speculates about the nature of death, imagines 'gone fishing', which goes awry when an ash from his corncob pipe sparks a destructive fire, for which he is arrested, ends with a lynch mob calling for his blood.

38: Joe laments dirty public toilets, imagines organizing a hit squad to punish perpetrators by dumping a bucket of shit over their heads.

40: Joe laments the filth in movie theatres.

41: Joe laments beggars.

42: A guy yells exasperatedly, 'I must transform an injustice into an absurdity…'

44: Joe speculates about the nature of death, imagines 'going to the Hotel Paradise', which goes awry when guerillas destroy the regime that protects the hotel.

51: Joe talks about death, 'Death is a dancing mirage…'

Dog barking ends the show, and many segments.

Legacy Synopsis

In between each segment, a piece of dialog is inserted of a man shouting positive, self-help affirmations in a desperate voice.

• Joe moves from the east coast to the west coast, and in his first house in Santa Monica, he lives next door to a women with a dog named Prince. For the first month after Joe moves in, the woman is home all day so the dog does not bark. Then she gets a job at a hospital, and the dog barks all day when she is away. When she is away, the dog's bark is fierce, followed by whimpering. When someone is at the door, the dog does not have this style of barking. Joe is home all day trying to work on his show, and he cannot stand the barking. He waits 3 days to tell the woman because he wants to give the dog the benefit of the doubt. When he confronts the woman she said she is glad, and that is what he is supposed to do. The dog scares potential buglers, and since every house in the neighborhood has been robbed recently except for her house, and she credits the dog and its barking for this. She basically tells Joe that she is not going to do anything about it. Joe fantasizes about ways to kill the dog: buying a gun in another state and shooting it from the alley, or putting rat poising in a slab of meat and throwing it over the fence.
• What is death; what if the expression "bought the farm" were literally true? *Annoyances: waiting in line at supermarkets and post offices, athletes today, teenage dance shows.
• What if "gone fishing" were true?
• Annoyances: messes in public bathrooms, litter in movies, pan-handlers.
• Barking dog followed by gunshots.
• Death as hotel paradise.
• "Death is... "

Music

• "Romantic Love" - DJ Cam (from Mad Blunted Jazz, 1996) | YouTube [Intro] (Added later)
• "Caso" - Ambitious Lovers (from Greed, 1988) | YouTube [13:01]
• "Paradise" - Sade (from Paradise, 1988) | YouTube [21:25]
• "Can't Run But" - Paul Simon (from Rhythm Of The Saints, 1990) | YouTube [35:20]
• "Never Get Out Of The Boat (Gosh Mix)" - The Aloof (from Never Get Out Of The Boat, 1990) | YouTube [47:42]

Additional credits

The original broadcast credits state: "Created in collaboration with David Rapkin. Recorded by Theo Mondle and Jerry Summers, and mixed by Theo Mondle. Special thanks to Ariana Morgenstern."