Post 1: Having a Wounderful Time by Aurthor Kober

Having A wonderful Time

By Arthur Kober

Chick, aspiring young lawyer, is bitter about conditions and his 

lack of success.

Chick: Gee, I remember when I was a kid I had the world by the tail. 

I used to see rich men in their automobiles and I’d say to myself. 

“Don’t worry, Chick. Some day you’ll have a boat like that-only better. 

With your full name on the side, not just your initials.” Or else I’d read 

about some famous man and I’d say, “ O.K, O.K.., Chick. There’s no 

hurry. Shh! Just take it easy. You’ll get there an you’ll be even more 

famous.” 

Funny, when you’re a kid nothing seems impossible. . Y’know, 

even after I was admitted to the bar I still though I was a big shot. I 

was a professional man, see? I had a sheepskin with my name on it 

in fancy letter- Charles Kessler, LL.B. The world was waiting for me! 

[Snorts.] Sure it was! It was waiting- with a club in each hand . . . So 

now I have an education and a degree, and what the hell good is it? 

I can’t even get a job as relief-investigator at twenty-five smackers a 

week. There’re too many other lawyers ahead of me . . . It’s a lotta 

baloney. Study hard they tell you. Get a lotta knowledge- knowledge 

is power. A lotta bunk is what I say!

Last semester, for my Voice and Diction class, we where required to choose a monologue out of a book and perform it in front of the class. For me this particular monologue spoke to me on a personal level. I share a lot of Chicks cynicism, about education, about dreams, about the lies we're taught to believe growing up. I often fear that all this hard work im putting into my studies, and all the money, will go to waste once im thrust into the real world. It seems silly to have worked so hard and get a job sweeping floors or washing dishes, when i could have done it with out all the stress and crushing debt. The way I identified with this character, the fact that i already believed the things he said, helped me perform in front of the class. I didn't rehearse to much but i gave him just a bit of nasality, to make him sound a bit like a wiseguy and cynical.  I was going for that sort of classic Hollywood actor sound. As an example, i stole my pronunciation of the word Lawyer from Josesph Cottin in Citizen Kane,  This is a monologue i hope to perform again for this course. To get a better understanding of the character, i will be reading the entire play and giving my reactions to it, and to the character of Chick, in a later post.