PERRY PERSOFF
“Halloween Roundtable” 1 track (8:52)
This is what I would call a short entertaining radio play which Perry Persoff originally produced in 2005 for a public radio newsmagazine called Sunrise on WUML
(UMass, Lowell radio 91.5fm). Though the show went off the air in 2008, this piece still manages to get airplay in late October.
After a spooky a cappella rendition of “This is Halloween,” Bob Ellis, the play-by-play radio guy for UMass Lowell hockey, acts as the moderator who interviews Count Dracula, the Wolfman, Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein and his monster in a secret mountain hideaway in the middle of the night. Perry does the voices for all the interviewees. The topic of the roundtable discussion is whether or not Halloween should still be celebrated with spirits and monsters in the 21st century. Dr. Frankenstein, with a Boris Karloff accent believes that without monsters in the spooky holiday the world’s economy would suffer—“Take the monsters out of Halloween and say goodbye to jobs.” Wolfman growls. Count Dracula, with his Transylvanian tonality, claims that back in the day he could put away one pint of fermented blood and be flying all night long and wonders how his friends put up with him. Wolfman growls. A leprechaun crashes the interview and throws in his Celtic two-cents, stating that about 2500 years ago they celebrated the end of the summer, the return of the dearly departed, and New Year’s Eve all on the same night. That must have been some party! The moderator has Dr. Frankenstein explain how civilization went went from point a to point b in the commercialization of Halloween. One point that isn’t covered was the origin of “trick or treat”—I can imagine that it may come from neighbors sharing food before the long hard winter. At the end of the play the wind whips up and there is some sort of catastrophe in the making.
The whole audio essay is a fun way to learn about a subject which, at least I don’t know a whole lot about. Have a happy Halloween. (T Max)