Middle Men

Excerpts:

From “Elephant Doors”: afternoon of a production assistant.

V.Elephant.a

From “Elephant Doors”: meeting Max.

V.Elephant.b

From “Elephant Doors”: Max plans a visit to his dog.

V.Elephant.c

From “Costello”: an evening at home.

V.Costello.a

Mordantly comic stories about young and old men struggling to make their way in the world. Nobodies, has-beens, and wannabes, working as plumbers, production assistants, or car parts salesmen, deal with the indignities the of post-industrial marketplace, and the banal suburban culture of present-day California.

I narrate three stories in the collection.
The story “Elephant Doors” follows a young production assistant in Hollywood during his work behind the scenes on a “Jeopardy”-type show – including his increasingly bizarre involvement in the private tribulations of the show’s eccentric host – and his fledgling, and disastrous, attempts to begin a career as a stand-up comic.
The linked stories “The Luau” and “Costello” follow a young man’s apprenticeship as a salesman of plumbing parts in central California, and a few days in the life of his widowed father, working in the same profession, puttering about his suburban house and yard as he waits to hear if he might have won a salesman-of-the-year award.