AustinvilleStorylineDyingMan

"A Fine Day in Austinville"

Storyline #4: Ted Lives Life to the Fullest

Ted Lives Life to the Fullest: Ted, the night watchman at a local office complex, resolves to spend the day doing everything he'd ever put off doing.

Status: One sketch is written (Ted & bungee jumping), and the lazzi of "have Ted do all the things he ever wanted" will give us more. However, we still don't have a solid picture of either how his day starts (the motivational speaker) or ends (the office robbery).

Protagonist

(Why is it immediately apparent that this character is different from all other characters?)

• Quiet, timid, and reserved by nature.
• Either is or comes across as middle-aged.
• Unfashionable. Uncool. Awkward.

• Strong moral compass.

  • Often sways people with an "I'm disappointed in you" kind of speech.
• Cheap gray suit! Horn-rimmed glasses!
• Very logical and reasonable, but also ignorant and uninformed, so it kind of amounts to stupidity.

Scenes

1. Ted works security for a motivational-speaker.

   • What is the shape of this scene, though?

2. Ted has a near-death experience.

   • He gets shot at?

     • (where the bullets come from can be a plot hook for later)
   • He gets trapped in a room with a bomb?
   • He gets accosted by mobsters who are briefly convinced he's their target?
   • He nearly gets run over by a car?

3. Ted tries to buy drugs.

   • He doesn't know any of the lingo.

     • (It's like the malapropisms in "Keep Your Parents Off the Web".)
   • He has no idea how much to pay.
   • He requests "just, like, the variety pack".
   • He doesn't really know what he's looking for.
   • He has to convince the dealer that he (Ted) is not a cop.
   • Finally takes the kid to task for his rudeness.
   • Reveal at the end that he has no idea what to do with the drugs now that he has them.
   • Note that we could run this scene with several different drug dealers, with Ted failing for different reasons each time.
4. Ted tries bungee-jumping.

5. Ted convinces two bungling would-be thieves to rob the office complex.

   • Open with Ted distracted by (say) searching the Internet for how to 'smoke the pot'.
   • The thieves, as it turns out, are just menial employees trying to steal some incriminating videotape from their boss's office.

   • Ted convinces them to make off with a big pile of money.

     • We could retcon this with Ted having some sort of conflict with his boss.

   • Ted assumes they're just holding out for a larger cut.

     • Chastises them for being mean.

   • They eventually feel bad for him and go along with the plan.

     • We can develop the "big heist" storyline later.

Scene #4: Ted Goes Bungee Jumping

Done!

Questions

• What are some other I've-always-meant-to-do-this things for Ted to do?

  • Something involving a prostitute?
  • Singing at a karaoke club?
  • Getting in an argument with a fundamentalist?

• How exactly does the robbery go down? (Note that we can put this off for a while.)

  • What complications befall the robbery?
  • Is the robbery successful?
  • Only after we have the general shape of the robbery sorted out: can we involve outside characters in the robbery? If so, how?

• What finally happens to Ted?

  • Some run-in with the motivational speaker shows that the speaker is a sham, but Ted is really living by the guy's precepts.
  • I feel like this should end with Ted making a more fundamental change in his life (say, a career change, or moving to a new city) instead of these more desparate, silly efforts.

Footnotes