ABC’s of Memory
10 - 60 minutes
1 - 50 M or F
1F, 1M, Aging, Betrayal, Collection, College, College, Coming of Age, Community, Community, Compassion, Depression, Dramatic Interpretation, Family Relationships, Family Roles, Greed, Growing Up, High School, High School, Joy of Life, Lenny Lianne, Life's Struggles, Making Choices, Marriage, Max 15+, Middle School, Min 1, Prejudice, Reader's Theatre, Script, Seniors, Streaming, Survival, Tolerance, Unicorn Bay Press, Valuing Others| Cast Size: | |
|---|---|
| Run Time: | |
| Play Type: | Auditions, Monologue, Reader's Theater, spoken word, Spoken Word Theatre, Variable Length |
ELEGY FOR A PITCHMAN
Fellow vendors pulled the plug
on the versatile Vita-Mix blender,
set aside the Miracle Blade III,
squeezed dry ShamWows
and closed the Keepeez Lids
in countless county and state
fairs, in a myriad of home shows,
to mark the passing of a master
—one of their own tribe—
with a moment or two of silence
even though the late Billy Mays,
as seen on TV, was repeatedly
loud, like a faith healer hollering
for the dark forces of the devil
to rise out of the foul and the frail.
An industrial-strength shouter
pitching Oxi-Clean or Lint-Be-Gone,
he’d grasped that the key to sales
was simply in selling himself first,
belting out, “Hi, Billy Mays here”
before proclaiming the merits
of Mighty Mendit or Kaboom
to an audience needing to believe
their earthly life would be easier
with the miracles he preached.
Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, 7th December 2022
Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, 7th December 2022
Lianne’s ABCs of Memory touch on cultural milestones such as Elvis, Nancy Drew, Wonder Bread, 9-11, and Ty Cobb, as well as personal memories of family life. These poems both celebrate and mourn America’s past and present.
These are dramatic poems. Life happens. Events occur. Here is an elegy for our American Dream. As such. these poems are naturals for forensics, scene study, and spoken word events.
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Play Details
ELEGY FOR A PITCHMAN
Fellow vendors pulled the plug
on the versatile Vita-Mix blender,
set aside the Miracle Blade III,
squeezed dry ShamWows
and closed the Keepeez Lids
in countless county and state
fairs, in a myriad of home shows,
to mark the passing of a master
—one of their own tribe—
with a moment or two of silence
even though the late Billy Mays,
as seen on TV, was repeatedly
loud, like a faith healer hollering
for the dark forces of the devil
to rise out of the foul and the frail.
An industrial-strength shouter
pitching Oxi-Clean or Lint-Be-Gone,
he’d grasped that the key to sales
was simply in selling himself first,
belting out, “Hi, Billy Mays here”
before proclaiming the merits
of Mighty Mendit or Kaboom
to an audience needing to believe
their earthly life would be easier
with the miracles he preached.
Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, 7th December 2022
Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, 7th December 2022