Monday, May 23, 2011

Son of the Singing Brain

MANDY
Well little Tillie, she's such a dear, I mean she talks a blue streak, she's such a sweet little package, I just want to pick her up and run away with her. Oh, someday...

BRAIN
Someday -what, darling?

MANDY
Oh, nothing, nothing

BRAIN
Mandy...

MANDY
I'm so sorry, Charles, ever so sorry

BRAIN
Mandy, please...

MANDY
I've never regretted marrying you. Never thought twice. I meant it, you know in all those interviews when I said I was the luckiest woman in the world -especially for a Hollywood wife. I love you, Charles.

BRAIN
I know, Amanda. And I love you. Supposing there was a way for us to...

MANDY
You mean like getting a dog ?

BRAIN
No. A way...

MANDY
A cat ?

BRAIN
No. Wait, listen...

MANDY
Oh please, not Ham again. I know you worked together, but he's such a little monkey.

BRAIN
No. Not a monkey. Wait. Listen. A way for you...

MANDY
Oh no. Charles. Oh no. Please don't say it

BRAIN
Wait, not just any child

MANDY
Peter Lawford's?

BRAIN
No. Not Peter Lawford. Wait, what?

MANDY
What? You said not just any child.

BRAIN
What? Yes. Not just any child. My child.

MANDY
Your child.

BRAIN
Yes.

MANDY
You.

BRAIN
Yes.

MANDY
Me.

BRAIN
Yes.

MANDY
Now?

BRAIN
Well, whenever, really.

MANDY
How?

BRAIN
Well. Supposing. Just for a minute that there was more of me.

MANDY
Really? Where?


BRAIN
Oh not here. Suppose they saved more of me.

MANDY
You mean, your body!

BRAIN
Not that much.

MANDY
Oh. So your...

BRAIN
Yes

MANDY
And your

BRAIN
Yes

MANDY
They kept it?

BRAIN
Yes

MANDY
They kept it?

BRAIN
Yes

MANDY
Why did they keep it?


BRAIN
Science

MANDY
Does it still...

BRAIN
Presumably. I mean it always worked before

MANDY
Of course. And how would I...

BRAIN
However you thought was... whatever you felt like...

MANDY
Would you want me to...

BRAIN
You could...

MANDY
And...

BRAIN
That would probably help

MANDY
And then I would

BRAIN
Yes, that would be next

MANDY
And it would

BRAIN
All things being equal

MANDY
And then

BRAIN
Inevitably

MANDY
Really?

BRAIN
I'm sorry I mentioned it. Please forgive me. I just want you to be happy.

MANDY
Oh, but I am happy, Charles

BRAIN
I'll never mention it again, I'm so ashamed

MANDY
Please don't be, my love

BRAIN
I just thought I'd tell you, so you would know -everything. I didn't tell you before because, I didn't think you'd be interested.

MANDY
Oh Charles, my dear sweet Charles. I love you just the way you are. I didn't fall in love with you for any other reason or any other way.

BRAIN
Thank you.

MANDY
Charles... since you brought it up... supposing I was interested...

BRAIN
Oh?

MANDY
Well, curious.

BRAIN
Oh Amanda, you don't have to...

MANDY
Curious for myself, Charles. I mean, I am your wife. I've never even...

BRAIN
We'd have to find it.

MANDY
Oh. Well, how would we start looking?

BRAIN
Well, we'd start with my address book

MANDY
Am I looking for a receipt, or a ticket or something?

BRAIN
No, no, we'd need to make some calls

MANDY
What's the first number?

BRAIN
Dr. Cory -Patrick. Wait, Amanda, stop. I don't need you to do this for me.

MANDY
Charles, not everything a wife does is just for her husband's benefit

BRAIN
I don't know what to say

MANDY
It's ringing. -Well, don't say anything, dear, I'm on the phone.

Charles, I love you -Hello, this is Amanda Foster -yes the lady married to the Singing Brain...

Monday, May 9, 2011

CITIZEN BRAIN: THE SINGING BRAIN STORY

OPEN:

MELVIN
Wow. Sure is a lot of old junk in this garage. Old timey stuff. Lots of glamor photos, posters, costumes. Medals and awards. I wonder if they're worth anything?

RICH, BUT WEARY, CRACKED ORSON WELLES SOUNDING VOICE
Who's there? I can't see you. I can't hear you. But I know you're there.

MELVIN
Hey mister, sorry. I thought all this stuff was abandoned. They're tearing this place down, you know? Hey, you live here mister? In this old garage?

VOICE
Who says I'm alive?

I'm a ghost.

MELVIN
Ha ha. You're not really a ghost, are you mister?

VOICE
Come closer. I'm right in front of you. Lift up the curtain you see draped in front of you.

MELVIN
What I don't see anything. Just a dirty old aquarium.

VOICE
Come up to the glass

MELVIN
Holy Jeezus! It's a disembodied brain in a tank!

THE “SINGING” BRAIN (for it is he)
Nice to meet you, too.

MELVIN
Is this a trick?

BRAIN
Yeah, it's a trick. The cruelest trick ever played. What's your name, son?

MELVIN
Melvin, sir.

BRAIN
Melvin, you seem like a nice kid. How would you like to make a little money. A lot of money, actually.

MELVIN
Well that's kind of you to offer, sir. What sort of thing do I have to do?

BRAIN
Well, son, it may not look it, but I'm actually rich -quite rich. I'm probably the richest brain you'll ever meet. I was famous, too -but that was a long time ago.

You've stumbled into a treasure cave, into my tomb.

MELVIN
I'm sorry about that, sir.

BRAIN
Oh don't worry about it kid, it's not that kind of story. It's a good kind of story, a fairy tale.

I'm a genie in a bottle -and I'll grant you three wishes, if you let me out.

MELVIN
Uh, gee sir, I don't know.

BRAIN
C'mon kid. I'm not the devil. The devil doesn't live in a dusty old goldfish bowl off the 101. How about money? How would you like more money than you could spend in a lifetime? Or do all the rich kids nowadays go crawling around old storage sheds for kicks?

MELVIN
Heh, well sure, I'd like to be rich

BRAIN
How about cars? You like cars? Check out that roadster under the tarp.

MELVIN
Whoah. I never seen a car like that. Even in space.

BRAIN
They didn't make a lot of them. Just one for me and one for Batman. How about a penthouse? Houses, mansions, hotels –all over the world.

MELVIN
Ah, well, you gotta be pulling my leg...

BRAIN
Look at my face, Melvin. Does this face look like it makes a lot of jokes? I don't have any use for any of these things. They're all yours for the taking. I just need a little favor from you. One little favor.


MELVIN
Uh, yes, sir. What would that be now?


BRAIN
Kill me. I want you to kill me.


FAKE BRAIN as THE SINGING BRAIN in RKO's Citizen Brain




NARRATOR
Fame! Fortune! Science gone horribly wrong and love gone horribly right!

This is the true story that your parents never dared talk about! And now it can be told!

CITIZEN BRAIN: THE SINGING BRAIN STORY

NARRATOR
Hollywood, land of dreams with too much make up. The Singing Brain is hanging with the “Splat Pack” a group of Tinseltown's most unique and differently configured and instantiated stars: Candyman Homunculus, Dino the dipso dinosaur, Handsome Johnny the "One-Headed" Detective, Kuato,  Joey Bishop and Robby the Robot.


BISHOP
What can we pour on you, Brain?

BRAIN
Whatever Rocket Fuel Robby's pissing out -and keep 'em coming

CANDYMAN HOMONCULUS
Hey Roberto, how 'bout some cigs, too?

HANDSOME JOHNNY THE "ONE HEADED" DETECTIVE
We outta nuts down here

DINO
I'm gonna need some skins for later


KUATO
...and two hardboiled eggs

DINO
Don't forget the skins, now. Milady be waiting.

ROBBY
YOU GUYS: WHAT WOULD YOU EVER DO WITHOUT ME?

DINO
Well, I'd just do what I usually do: tape two hotel garbage bags together and tie 'em on: BECAUSE I'M A FUCK-ING DI-NO-SAUR!



Robby checks out his co-star Anne Francis with typical robot subtlety





NARRATOR
The story of a living, passionate brain that fights!


BRAIN
I'm not afraid of you, Bowser. Go ahead. Punch a man with glasses.

BOWSER
Ow! I broke my hand!

BRAIN
And there's plenty more where that came from, bub.






NARRATOR
A brain that seduces!

MANDY
I'm so sorry Mr. Foster! I just can't go on. When I think of the people listening, I just want to die. Oh, it's so silly! I must be crazy!

BRAIN
That doesn't sound silly to me, Mandy. I know how you feel. Even after all these shows, I feel the same way each time I go on. I guess you could say we're a couple of -headcases.

MANDY
Ha ha! -Is it okay to laugh?

BRAIN
For you, Mandy? Yes, you can laugh at my jokes.

MANDY
Oh, Mr. Foster. If I didn't know better, I'd say

BRAIN
Say what, Mandy?

MANDY
That you were flirting with me.

BRAIN
Oh come on, Mandy. You can see right through me.

MANDY
Ha ha! Oh, Mr. Foster!

BRAIN
Charles, please. And if I were flirting with you?

MANDY
Well, -Charles. I should think I'd be blushing up to my ears.

BRAIN
And are you, Mandy?

MANDY
Oh Charles...

BRAIN
You know, Mandy, when it comes to head cases, I'm something of an expert. I'd like to help you with your feelings of anxiety. I'd like to help you relax.

MANDY
I'll do anything you say, Charles. I trust you.

BRAIN
I want you to relax. Imagine you're in a peaceful place. Where are you?

MANDY
Um, in a peaceful place?

BRAIN
Well, okay. Good.




NARRATOR
A brain that loves!



BRAIN
I love you, Amanda. Body and soul. The soul is a picture of the human body and this is all I am.

MANDY
I love you. I want you. I need you.

BRAIN
There's just one thing, my love. Promise me, please promise me


MANDY
What, my love?


BRAIN
That when the time comes you'll let me go, really let me go. If you can't -well, it's better that we never met.




NARRATOR
That fights for love!

BRAIN
I'm more of a man than you'll ever be. A man's body is weak, it betrays him. His heart beats with fear, his guts desert him. His eyes  stray and so does his affections.

I cannot see, hear, touch or feel. Amanda is my whole world. I love this woman with all that I am and I'll die to protect her.




NARRATOR
For the first time in history a hero whose brawn is all brain!

BRAIN
And so we can see, gentlemen, that zero is an even number.

Oh, and one more thing Professor?

Is this your card?


NARRATOR
And whose brain is all brawn!


MANDY
Charles! We're going too fast!

BRAIN
I like it fast, baby. Faster than I can think.


NARRATOR
A tale of intrigue and espionage that is all true! Travel with the spy in the glass case as he jets from the Riviera to Siberia -and beyond!



CAPTAIN RUPPELT
We need you back at the Cape, Major.

BRAIN
If this is about the low Earth orbit zoo you guys are starting, count me out. My agent says no animal acts.

CAPTAIN SNEIDER
We understand that, Major. We just need your insight on something. A situation.

CAPTAIN RUPPELT
There's trouble on the high side, sir.

BRAIN
What are you guys on about? Vanguard? So what if the Soviets are first again? I hear that space is a big place.

CAPTAIN SNEIDER
There's something up there already, sir.


BRAIN
Oh? Anyone I know?

CAPTAIN RUPPELT
No, sir, not one of ours.

BRAIN
What, another Russian dog?

CAPTAIN RUPPELT
Not one of theirs either, sir.

CAPTAIN SNEIDER
Something Dr. Von Braun said you and Dr. Fermi used to talk about together. After hours. You follow us, Major?

BRAIN
You got a plane ready at the base? I'm taking my own car.  You boys try and keep up, now.



NARRATOR
This brain is far out! Way out in a cerebral high paced thriller whose thrills are all cerebrum!




MARCONI
You're smart, brain, I'll give you that. But did it ever cross that big brain of yours that someone might not like what you're doing and might do something about it?

BRAIN
Not really. I thought about it, but I couldn't think of anyone that stupid. You know anybody, Marconi?

MARCONI
I'd like it if it crossed your mind, Brain. In one side and out the other!

[Shots and ricochets]


BOWSER
Boss, the glass, the glass! The bullets bounced right off!


BRAIN
Go ahead, Marconi. You're still loaded. Try again. This time try to put a bullet in my heart. You know where my heart is? It's that pump you see before you. You can hear it. It brings blood with oxygen to keep me alive. Shoot that pump. Watch me die through the glass. Go ahead. Even a screw-up like you can't miss at this range.

MARCONI
Die, you canned bastard.

BRAIN
Argh! Finally, I die.

BOWSER
What do we do now, boss?

MARCONI
We throw the gun in the tank. Everybody knows the brain wanted to die. It'll look like suicide.

INSPECTOR SLAINY
Hold it right there, boys. Hands up.

BOWSER
Cheese it! The cops! And police!

MARCONI
Well, at least we got the goldfish

BRAIN
You are one dumb meatball, Marconi

MARCONI
You're still alive? I shot you in the heart!


BRAIN
Who told you I have a heart? I've no heart. I have a pump. Two of them, in fact. Man, you guys are dumb. Have one of the older boys at Sing-Sing show you how to hold a hammer without hurting yourselves


MANDY
Oh Brain! -I mean, Charles -I was so worried

BRAIN

It's all right dear -nothing a little Windex can't handle

MANDY
Oh god! When they shot you Charles, I thought I'd die! 

BRAIN
Oh Mandy,  I'm tougher than a glass of water. You know that.


MANDY
I'm sorry I don't mean to make such a fuss and be so emotional. It's just that I just learned -well, I'm pregnant, Charles. I'm going to have your baby.

BRAIN
I know, Amanda, I know.




NARRATOR
What the hell! If that doesn't creep you out a little, it probably should! How can Mandy be pregnant by the man in the tank? What about other details that seem unclear? Find out in SON OF THE SINGING BRAIN.