Studio Reader Stan runs into an old friend, an assistant to a studio executive, who's in denial.
Studio Reader Stan enters the coffee shop and sees a guy he knows standing in line.
Studio Reader Stan: Hey Lou, long time no see. What are you doing these days?
Lou: I’m still in the movie business. Y'know, meetings, power lunches. It’s go, go, go all the time.
Studio Reader Stan: Good for you. Last time we talked you were an assistant to that horrible exec, Mr. Bricks.
Lou: That's still what I do.
Studio Reader Stan: Oh, sorry... He actually lets you go to meetings and power lunches?
Lou: Yeah. I wait in the car and pick him up as soon as he leaves. It saves lots on valet parking.
Studio Reader Stan: Lou, forgive my bluntness, but I don’t understand why would you work for a guy who treats you like he does. You got an MBA from Harvard.
Lou: Because to make it in this business, my man, you have to be connected. That’s why you’re wasting your time as a studio reader. I’m in the room with the Big Man, while you spend most of your time at home or in a coffee shop.
Studio Reader Stan: But the Big Man makes you clip his toenails because he doesn’t think his back is built for bending down.
Lou: Maybe his back isn’t built for it. Not everyone has a perfect vertebrae.
Studio Reader Stan: Is that something you learned at Harvard?
Lou: I learned by surviving moments like clipping toenails, that I will be successful myself one day, and then I will make someone else clip my toenails. It’s like the circle of life.
Studio Reader Stan: How long have you been in this circle with him?
Lou: Two years. But I get plenty of vacations.
Studio Reader Stan: You mean the time off every time he fires you for something like having a crooked stapler on your desk?
Lou: He always takes me back.
Studio Reader Stan: That’s because your replacements refuse to clip toenails.
Lou: And what do they have to show for it?
Studio Reader Stan: Their dignity?
Lou: Are you suggesting I don't have my dignity?
Studio Reader Stan: Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting.
Lou: Well you'd be very wrong.
Lou’s beeper goes off and he looks at a text message.
Lou: Now if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Bricks’ wife’s favorite soap opera comes on in ten minutes – and I have to hand her the remote so she doesn’t have to get up.
Lou, and his dignity, leave.
Tune in next week for more of Studio Reader Stan's adventures...
Fractured Frazzled Folk Fables and Fairy Farces is adult literature that satirizes famous children's stories, fables and fairy tales. The work is Jay Dubya's twenty-first e-book available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook.
