"John Morressy - Last Jerry Fagin Show" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

for their planet but rather what their planet can do for the galaxy," he said.
There was polite applause. Twelve looked pleased, but he wasn't in the
business. The applause was the kind that sounds in every performer's ears like
a death rattle.
"Gee, that's just the way my daddy used to put it," Jerry said, turning
to the audience.
That drew the first laugh of the evening. Everyone recognized the tag
line of one of Jerry's oldest characters, Dummy Lummox the Clumsy Cop. It gave
the audience something safe and familiar to deal with. They knew how to react
now.
"But in a higher sense, this night represents only the beginning of what
I venture to call the Galactic Age," Twelve went on, "for there is much to be
done before we march together with arms linked in friendship and trust to meet
the challenge of the future."
"That sounds mighty good, but we do it different back home," Jerry said.
The audience caught that one, too, and gladdened my heart. It was the
tag line of my very own character, Elmo Klunk the Shitkicker Aboard. Elmo was
one of Jerry's dependables, sure to make an appearance at least once very two
weeks. The audience loosened up and laughed a bit louder, and longer.
I poured another drink, a bigger one, and edged forward on my chair. It
isn't every night that you get to see an alien visitor turned into a stooge.
"We're honored by your tribute, Mr.

Ambassador," Jerry said, "but I'm sure you understand our audience's curiosity
about your planet and its customs. For instance, I'm told that you have no
comedy on your world."
"It is correct, we have no comedy."
Jerry nodded sympathetically. "I've run into the same problem. You must
need new writers."
I felt that one right between the shoulders. Welcome to Pearl Harbor,
this is your host. Jerry Fagin. If my glass hadn't been nearly full. I would
have thrown it at the screen.
Twelve, after a pause, burbled, "It is correct, we have no writers."
"I'll let you have mine. You still won't have any comedy, but you'll be
getting a great bowling team."
Again Twelve paused amid the laughter to evaluate Jerry's line and said,
"I know this bowling that is the work of your Saturdays in the regressing
hailumes. We have no bowling."
"No comedy, no writers, no bowling. Tell me, Mr. Ambassador, what do
your people do for entertainment?"
"It is correct, we have no entertainment. I do not grasp the concept."
"It's simple. Entertainment is what you do when you're not working."
Twelve was silent for a longer time. Clearly he was having trouble with
Jerry's lines, which weren't saying what they appeared to be saying. The
audience tittered with anticipation. Finally, in a gurgle that already sounded
to me to be a bit defensive. Twelve said, "When we are not
working, we sleep."

"Like all those people who used to watch the other networks. I see. But
seriously, Mr. Ambassador . . ." And Jerry went on, a little faster now,