A Natural Disaster

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A Natural Disaster[1]
Series
In The Dark
Original Broadcast Date
1994
Cast
Joe Frank, Arthur Miller, Ryan Cutrona, Larry Block
Format
Absurd Monologue, Telephone, 30 minutes
Preceded by: Hit Man
Followed by: That Night

"I'm at 1305 Lindbrook Road, about three houses past the blinking traffic light."

A Natural Disaster is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series In The Dark. It was originally broadcast in 1994.

Synopsis

A man (Arthur Miller) makes a phone call to the void, asking for help. An earthquake has caused his home to collapse, he's buried under it. He speaks calmly. His address changes the 3 times he tells it.

2:20: Joe describes what happens in earthquakes, blames the earth, takes vengeance on a pile of dirt by stabbing it.

4:20: A street preacher (Ryan Cutrona) tells people the awful things that will happen to them in the apocalypse, thinks the earthquake is funny, a harbinger of the punishment God will inflict on them.

6:50: Crazy preacher (David Franks) calls person (sounds like a woman to me; preacher addresses him/her as 'brother'), leads him/her in a crazy prayer ('Clytemnestra's daughter ... African Eurasian tiger pussycats'… [1] [2]

11:50: Joe talks about fire, lights a match, describes the damage it can do. He puts out the match, demonstrating his superiority to it.

14:20: Joe talks about hurricanes and tornadoes, the damage air can do. He punishes it by capturing it in balloons, sucking it up with his vacuum cleaner.

17:30: Joe takes retribution on water for the floods it has caused by boiling some and smashing ice with a hammer.

18:10: A man (Larry Block) describes making love in a building destroyed by the earthquake, how great it was. They go to other destroyed places to make love in.

20:30: Joe lists notable earthquakes of history and their mortalities.

[3]

Legacy Synposis


  • A man trapped in his house calmly telephones for help long after an earthquake.
  • Monologue: taking vengeance upon the earth for natural disasters; stabbing earth with a knife.
  • Old man preacher character prophesies doom, laughs at the earthquake.
  • Prank telephone spirit and prayer call ("Repeat after me.").
  • Monologue: an address to a lit match; contemplating fire. Imprisoning the air in balloons as revenge for Hurricanes and tornadoes; torturing air by passing it through a filthy vacuum cleaner.
  • Larry describes making love in the rubble after an earthquake.
  • Joe reads a list of historical earthquakes and their death tolls.

Music

Commentary

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Footnotes

  1. Larry Masset claims he got this tape from Andrei Codrescu, gave it to Joe. https://hearingvoices.com/2008/12/hv040-spirit-world/
  2. re-used in Prayer and Holy Land
  3. I notice Joe talks about disasters caused by the 4 classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire.