Creative Writing Exercise #3: A One-Act Humor Story

Premise: Write a one-act play with at least three characters with the objective to make people laugh out loud in their seats.

The prompt: A bored employee takes over the social media accounts of the dentist they work for, determined to become an online celebrity.

Photo by Daniel Frank on Unsplash

It was a bright May afternoon. Nick Colran was sitting at his workplace, bored out of his skull. Nothing seemed to be clicking for the young man, but he had hopes. Being a dentist is not horrible, but it was not what Nick had aspired for. He wanted to be a celebrity, someone who would make people smile no matter the circumstance.

I observed Nick for quite some time now, sending him gifts of despair as often as I could. That’s what any well-meaning angel of despair would do. Nonetheless, that day was different.

You see, angels and demons both have roles to fulfill but sometimes we like to do a small switcharoo – a sort of social experiment when we try to get in each other’s shoes to see what it means to be the other. For this reason, I decided to pay Nick a visit. Not to appear rude, I came up with a present.

It involved a collaboration of Nick’s boss, the good ol’ Ronald Jenkins. Ronald’s a clever man. He knows how to drill holes in innocent people’s mouths causing them excruciating pain. Later, he charges them for that — a man of my liking. On that day Ronald was sitting in his usual turning chairs stuffing his face with leftover Cheetos. The day was calm and what else could he do? His greasy fingers were either filling his mouth with chips, scratching the area below the naval, or picking his nose. Miraculously, sometimes it happened all at once.

Being an angel rendered me invisible but not mute. I came up to the four-eyes too plump for his own good Nicks boss and began to whisper in his ear: ‘Ronald, you have to go. Your wife is waiting for you. Her water has broken. Soon, you’ll be a father Run Ronald, run!’ The man quickly stood up, rushed to the door, and put on his jacket. As he was bolting through the door I began I felt a bit sorry for him:

‘I wonder what’ll happen when he realizes that he doesn’t have a wife?’ I wondered

Nonetheless, what’s been done is done. The stage was clear. Now we required our last player, Nick himself. Leaving the clinic so abruptly Ronald forgot to close his computer. Everything to be proud and ashamed of was there: the dirty little secrets, the unabridged footage of what used to happen in the clinic after dark, and even the pictures of Ronald’s 40th anniversary. How cute he looked with his little party hat!

Scanning the clinic for where Nick might be I notice some odd seismic activity on the ground floor of the building. Inspecting the scene from closer I realized that Nick had seized the opportunity of the calm afternoon and had unapologetically fallen asleep. Entering his dream I stated:

‘Go to Ronald’s computer… It’s finally time for you to realize your dream! I have left a gift there for you… Now is the time for you to seize your destiny. It’s time for you to become a celebrity!’

Dazed and confused Nick walked to Ronald’s old laptop. As he woke it from a seemingly eternal snooze, a beam of surprise shot through Nick’s eyes. How has all this footage of his boss dressed as a fairy godmother come to be there? And why at the end it is written: “To all my Cindarellas I wish you well”?

The idea that his new life as an online celebrity was just a few clicks away made Nick hesitate. What will he do when he’ll be best friends with Russel Crow and Tom Cruise? How will he spend his days with Bill Gates and Natalie Portman? There’s only one way to figure out. :)

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