Incident 4: ECHOES
Time: About 4 minutes
MIKEE takes his chair and places on stage next to lamp. Ideally he would use a stool rather than a folding chair. He has a microphone. JIM will sample his words and use them against him.
JIM should use his judgement as to how many times a line must be played back for the audience to comprehend it.
Lines to be sampled are underlined. The playback of the line is in bold. The reversed playback is normal. If the reversed playback is used again, it is in bold. If you would like to get the feel of this piece, say the underlined words into a sound editing program on your computer, then reverse the sample and listen to it as the response. Some of these samples must be said in a special way if they are to reverse correctly. This piece is sort of the "aria" of "Wood Owl," in which Mike says the words in a precise way while Jim captures and plays them back with great care.
MIKEE turns on lamp. For some moments he sits quietly. JIM has previously sampled JIM’s first line, which he plays back.
Jim. Is the presentation almost done?
Mikee. It’s coming along, sir. Very close. I still need to show it to someone in marketing, when they’re not busy. (pronounce nah-ought busy)
Jim. not busy. is it done?
Mikee. Is it done? It’s very close. Should be ready soon.
Jim. is it done?
Mikee. I’ve been collaborating with Zagrodny on it. He feels it just needs polishing.
Jim. feels it? it’s late! it’s late!
Mikee. I could have it ready by the end of the day, but I’d rather do a good job if we have the time, because this seems—
Jim. good job? botched it! botched it!
Mikee. "Bahj did?" Botched it? I don’t think I botched it—I do have to take responsibility for the delay, because I—
Jim. botched it!
(MIKEE’s next line is a journey on the way to the words "botched it." At each pause he considers which way the sentence should turn. As he approaches the destination he speaks more quickly, then slows so as to deliver the last words perfectly.)
Mikee. (long pause) This presentation is getting a lot of attention from other departments (beat) I think, and so (beat) it may turn out to be useful to a lot of other people and so (beat, then faster) it would be a shame if because of time pressures we (pause, then carefully) botched it.
Jim. botched it? good job!
Mikee. Thank you sir. I feel I owe the company my best.
Jim. good job!
(MIKEE should say a few more lines of false humility to provoke more "good job!"s, as long as comedy allows. If the original sample is imperfect, he should say "Yeah, I wouldn’t want people to say that design botched it" to give JIM a chance to resample.)
(Now it should be clear that MIKEE has learned how to control the echoes. In the following sections, he can say the words to be reversed in an exaggerated or weird way if it makes the reversal clearer.)
Mikee. A project like this needs time to grow seein’ as how its impact may be major.
Jim. grow seein’. nice work.
Mikee. (Smiles coquettishly) Well.
Jim. nice work.
Mikee. You know, on this project Zagrodny was around, but he served me not. I did most of it by myself.
Jim. served me not. i’m impressed.
Mikee. Really nothing to be impressed by. (carefully) But I wonder if we could levy some sort of charge on the other departments because they’ll be using the project, too. (rhetorically) Will I go over budget? With the expanded scope of the presentation, and without a levy, yaw, I might.
Jim. levy yaw i might. am i evil?
Mikee. (shaken) Evil, sire? Um, (carefully, as an incantation) Thed oot’na sinkiss.
Jim. sickness unto death.
Mikee. Pardon? (in desperation, carefully) Why don’t we know any wood owl?
Jim. why don’t we know any wood owl? why don’t we know any wood owl?
(JIM plays the above several times.)
Mikee. (less carefully, so it won’t reverse to itself) Why don’t we know any wood owl.
JIM continues to echo MIKEE's phrases, while MIKEE does his best to echo the echo. The phrase should eventually break down, as should MIKEE. STAGE MANAGER enters, turns off lamp. STAGE MANAGER and MIKEE exeunt.