The Policemen's Ball (Remix)

Series
Somewhere Out There
Original Broadcast Date
1/10/1996
Cast
Tim Jerome, Arthur Miller, Nick Ullett, Larry Block, Barbara Sohmers, Steve Friedman, Denny Partridge, Joe Frank
Format
Scripted Actors, Improv Actors, 56 minutes
Preceded by:	I'm Not Crazy (Remix)
Followed by:	Phone Therapy
Purchase /  Stream

"My high school gym teacher was the most, uh, oppressive out-front personality it's ever been my misfortune."

The Policemen's Ball (Remix) is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Somewhere Out There. It was originally broadcast in 1996.

Synopsis

• A guy talks about his high school gym teacher torturing a fat kid who later becomes a school sports enthusiast.
• Panel discussion: understanding the value of life by saving or destroying life.
• Actors: a man and woman (Steve Friedman and Denny Partridge) overlook a riot during the policemen's ball, shoot at people. People robbing robbers.
• Panel discussion: coexisting socialist and capitalist systems within one society.
• Presentation: a private security force protects an animal research lab.
• Panel discussion between critics and a security force proponent: modern security forces as city states, samurai, death squads. A modern secured house. The price of vigilance is freedom. Imprisoning oneself. A war between wealthy households.
• Actors: A concert by a charity orchestra at the (fictional) Helmsley Hills Foundation - the orchestra plays horrible music, then the orchestra hall comes under siege and dissolves into chaos.
• Panel discussion: The nature of theft, stealing and usurping property, the theft of a shiny stone.
• Actors: The riot continues. Aiming for legs. A play about class revolution that costs $100 a ticket. A man watches television coverage of the riot beneath his window.
• Actors: a DJ with a tinny voice set against percussive electronica reads poetry, urges the audience not to get shot, coughs and begins cawing like a bird.
• Joe Frank relates a long list of his crimes (homicide, assassination, ...)
• Panel discussion: a slick arsonist contrasted with an ordinary arsonist. Workplace theft. Traps and threats in everyday life - binoculars which stab the eyes, asphyxiating pillows, refrigerators that attack people, flesh eating socks. A list of criminals. Are we all criminals?
• Actors: a woman lists things that she likes against the sound of battle and percussive music.
• A man relates a long list of his crimes (embezzlement, theft, burglary, homicide, ...)

Music

This is an incomplete record of the music in this program. If you can add more information, please do.

• "Ho Renomo" - Cluster & Eno (from Cluster & Eno, 1977) | YouTube [4:52]
• "Brujo Magic (Remix)" - Suns Of Arqa (from Bugs On The Wire, 1987) | YouTube [34:48]
• "Red Beans & Rice" - Spearhead (from Home, 1994) | YouTube [36:09 in some recordings]

Shared material

• The Policemen's Ball

Miscellanea

The programs "Policemen's Ball" and "Policemen's Ball (Remix)" from joefrank.com are identical, but KCRW broadcast a longer version of the program with the "Remix" title in the mid-1990s.