Coworkers engage in a lively discussion around a table. FRED enters the area and walks briskly across room reading a document.

BLYTHE: I absolutely hate that show.

GREG: And you can’t take your eyes off it.

BLYTHE: So true.

FRED opens and searches through file cabinet, oblivious to the conversation.

CLAIRE: I heard there’s a new one called “Real Housekeepers.”

GREG: That actually sounds fun.

BLYTHE: For them. They can get $10,000 an episode—for cleaning toilets.

GREG: Just for being themselves ten times a day.

BLYTHE: Would you do a reality show if someone asked?

GREG: My life’s not that interesting, and I only have one “toi-lette.”

CLAIRE: Hey, I would. “Real Shoppers.”

FRED files document. As he heads back, the people at the table lean forward and start whispering. He stops and looks at them.

BLYTHE: What?

FRED: You’re whispering.

BLYTHE: That’s what sophisticated intellectuals do when they don’t want others to hear what they’re saying.

FRED: Hemingway called whispering the loudest talk.

GREG: Who’s Hemingway?

FRED: Clearly you haven’t seen Woody Allen’s Paris movie.

CLAIRE: Who’s Woody Allen?

Black out. Curtain falls.

— THE END —

Playful Conversations [Author’s Commentary]

Bio: Jack Cooper