Laughing Back - A Movie For Radio

Series
WBAI And NPR Playhouse
Original Broadcast Date
11/29/1978
Cast
Joe Frank
Format
58 minutes
Chronology
Preceded by:	Jewish Blues
Followed by:	An American Hero Workshop
Purchase or  Stream

I work hard at my job.

Laughing Back - A Movie For Radio is a program produced by Joe Frank for NPR Options. It was originally broadcast November 29, 1978, and was released as a monthly premium at joefrank.com in December 2004.

Synopsis

This program features several Joe Frank stories. Mike Waters, the announcer, begins by comparing hearing Joe's work to watching a movie.

0:52: "The Night Watchman": the first person account of a night watchman who rises through the ranks of a company by inviting bosses to dinner, poisoning them, then burying them in the back yard. When Joe becomes the boss the new night watchman invites him to dinner.

7:55: "A Time On The Beach": Joe describes his life on a beach in Curaçao; though a diabetic, he eats a chocolate gun.

12:05: "Caldwell": a fitness nut who dies while climbing stairs in the 1977 blackout has an out of body experience. He travels down a long dark tunnel and emerges into a festive dinner party attended by dead family members. They do the carnival dance. Then he's resuscitated, to his regret.

17:26: "Isn't it true that we continue to strive all our lives in order to find peace and fulfillment ... life is not a game you can win, but a game that has no end, and all you do is die somewhere in the middle of it."

25:41: "Long Island Memories": Joe's childhood in Long Island. A child is open to experiences: Lady bugs, frogs, turtles, butterflies, campfire, grandmother's hollow chocolate-filled cookies, being in the countryside with a dog, walking to meet his father's car on its return home.

30:20: It's now almost 30 years later. Joe's promoting rock concerts, is driving from Binghamton to Syracuse. Because of the traffic on Route 81 he takes a country road, gets lost, runs out of gas, starts walking. He sees a car approaching in the distance, remembers meeting his father's car coming home from work when he was a boy. It's Murray Gwertzmann, director of A&R at Capitol Records, who had made the same mistake, picks Joe up in his limo; they celebrate with Dom Perignon.

33:59: "Beautiful Woman on Elevator": Joe's in an elevator with a beautiful woman; he fails to work up the nerve to talk to her. 'Hard Work' plays in the background. Joe says this happens to him almost daily.

53:54: "That was really wonderful, Alan - I've never heard it played quite that fast": a dispute between fast piano players.

Music

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

• "Banda" - Cyril Jackson (from Afro-Stereo, 1958) | YouTube [Intro]
• Original music by Richard Peaslee [8:14]
• "Evensong" - John Abercrombie (from Characters, 1978) | Spotify [14:48]
• "All My Tomorrows" - Frank Sinatra (from High Hopes, 1959) | YouTube [22:33]
• "Hard Work" - John Handy (from Hard Work, 1976) | YouTube [33:59]

Shared material

• "The Night Watchman" shares some text with Lies.
• "A Time On The Beach" and "Caldwell" appear in Emergency Room.
• The striving/fulfillment/futility essay appears at the end of He Hesitated.
• We hear another reference to Joe walking out to meet his father (Freddy) in Karma Memories.
• "Beautiful Woman on Elevator" is not the same material as the elevator encounter in Obsessions.
• The fastest piano players dispute appears in Arena, Arena (Remix), and Emergency Room.

Miscellanea

• About 16 minutes of the program is a distinct "Cartoon For Radio" segment by Mac Calhoun
• The background music to the elevator story ("Hard Work") is used often on Harry Shearer's Le Show.

External links

• The Nightwatchman - extended version at SoundCloud
• Worldcat