All About Evil is an episode of Beyond Belief.
Audio[]
Patreon exclusive.
Cast[]
WorkJuice Players[]
- Frank Doyle - Paul F. Tompkins
- Sadie Doyle - Paget Brewster
- Bobo Brubaker - Craig Cackowski
- Minnie Fontaine - Busy Philipps
- Kieran Mazzley - Marc Evan Jackson
- Honey Emerex - Annie Savage
- Barney - Mark Gagliardi
- Something-Something Someone - Autumn Reeser
- Wilbert-Floyd Mortinsen - Hal Lublin
- Spooky Hal (Narrator) - Hal Lublin
Plot[]
The episode opens with Sadie asking Frank what he would like to do that night. Frank says that he is already doing it, and the two toast. Sadie asks if he ever wishes to go out in the world and see other things, but Frank tell her the view is better inside their apartment.
Sadie asks if he would like to go out and see a movie, but Frank says that the whole process of going to see one takes far too long, but once he realises that Sadie really does want to see one he agrees to go out.
Their plans are interrupted by a knock at the door. It’s Bobo and his girlfriend Minnie, and they need the Doyles help. The Doyles take an immediate liking to her, and question why someone like Minnie is with someone like Bobo.
Bobo claims to have turned over a new leaf since dating Minnie and says that he no longer runs cons but the Doyles are skeptical. Minnie says that they will be convinced once she and Bobo are married.Unfortunately, they can’t be married until the Doyles help her take care of a supernatural problem she’s having - she’s being haunted.
Since Bobo has previously used fake supernatural elements in his cons, this does not make the Doyles any less skeptical. Sadie asks Minnie if she’s seen the ghosts haunting her and Minnie says that she has, and claims that her acting experience in supernatural-themed movies helped her to identify what was happening.
At the mention of Minnie’s acting work (in Ghost Township), Sadie recognises Minnie as Minnie Fontaine, star of a certain era. Minnie claims that she cannot take all the credit, merely the lion’s share - the turtle’s share belongs to her co-stars, director and assistants who are now all dead.
The Doyles tell Minnie there is no set heaven and Minnie worries that the epic movie she and her now-dead friends had planned to make and star in will now never be. Their post-life movie was written by Minnie’s screenwriter friend Barney who was the last of her friends to die.
The movie, A WOMAN CONSPICUOUS, was to be about a young con man who, while pretending to pull a romance-angle con on a woman of a certain age truly does fall in love with her. The final twist of the movie is the woman discovering the deception. Bobo, nervous as to how the woman in the movie would uncover such a con, asks for more details but Minnie tells him that he will just have to die and buy a ticket to find out.
Minnie is somewhat excited to begin filming the movie in the afterlife, free of the burdens of budgets and studio heads, but she also fears that she will soon be dead. Her old director, Kieran Mazzley, is the ghost that has been haunting her, just as he haunted her other friends before her and, Minnie believes, caused their deaths.
Minnie isn’t ready to die, and Bobo has been attempting to defend her with an ouija board. Despite the Doyles continued skepticism over Bobo’s motivations, they agree to help Minnie.
The Doyles summon Mazzley to sort out the situation. The Doyles tell him to stop trying murder Minnie because she’s not ready to make A WOMAN CONSPICUOUS just yet. Mazzley says that he wasn’t trying to kill her, he’s been trying to have a conversation with her. They’ve decided to go into another direction with the lead role (younger) and won’t need her to make the movie after all.
Mazzley asks Sadie if she would like the lead role but she declines, angering Mazzley. Minnie warns the Doyles that Mazzley is working himself into a temper tantrum. Frank tells her that in his present ghostly state such a thing could be dangerous, and so Minnie steps in with a temper tantrum of her own, as she is displeased at being cut from the film.
The ensuing argument makes Mazzley reconsider his decision to cast Sadie, stating that he’ll go get another young lady from somewhere else. Bobo is worried that this means he’ll go kill someone else, pointing out that this is usually the sort of thing the Doyles are against.
Sadie agree that they are indeed against this sort of thing. She asks Minnie if Mazzley was always this difficult to work with and Minnie says that he was. Sadie suggests that perhaps the rest of Minnie’s old, dead, friends who are also set to work on the movie might also have their own disputes with production.
Sadie summons the rest of Minnie’s old friends - Honey, Barney, and Something-Something Someone. Minnie is delighted to see them again. The ghosts say they don’t really have a lot going on - they’d like to be haunting their families but Mazzley won’t let them. He wants them all to follow through on the promise they made to make this movie.
Barney says that they’ve changed their minds since they died, and Honey and Something-Something agree that they’d rather be doing other things with their afterlives. Frank points out that everyone’s moved on but Mazzley and Mazzley declares that he will find a way to make this movie.
Frank summons the ghost of their old studio head, Wilbert-Floyd Mortinsen. Mortinsen and Mazzley immediately being talking about future project ideas. Mazzley, excited by the prospect of working on new things with a whole new crew, lets the idea of A WOMAN CONSPICUOUS go. Mazzley and Mortinsen disappear into development hell.
Free from Mazzley’s hold, barney, Honey, and Something-Something are free to go enjoy their afterlives as they wish.
After they leave, Minnie has a new lease on life: she wants to make A WOMAN CONSPICUOUS now instead of waiting for the afterlife to do it. She dumps Bobo, to his utter surprise, having known he was conning her all along.
As he’s protesting, Bobo realises that he truly is in love with Minnie, but it’s too late. She is committed to dedicating the rest of her life to her craft. She leaves and, after some prompting, the Doyles manage to kick Bobo out as well. Franks asks Sadie if they’re adventure has sated her need for on-screen fancy and Sadie agrees that it has.
Notes[]
- Clink count: 4
Quotes[]
Sadie: Don't you ever wish to go out into the world and see things?
Frank: I'm seeing things right now and the view is better from here I promise you.
----
Bobo: [to Frank] Your skepticism is palpable dude.
----
Mazzley: Don't presume, lady. When you presume you make a president out of you and me.
----
Frank: I have a question -
Sadie: Yes, what is the movie about?
Frank: Alright, let's ask that, I guess.
----
Sadie: The only fancy I need is the one found in the bottle.
Frank: And the only one I need is here beside me.
Continuity[]
- This is the 214th episode of The Thrilling Adventure Hour.
- The previous episode is the Panel Episode - Bucatino Business 11 and the TAH Comikaze Panel.
- The next episode is Amelia Earhart, Fearless Flyer - From Time to Time.
- The previous Beyond Belief episode released on the podcast is The Thrilling Adventure Hour April Fools' Fun-Around part 3 (TAH #211), the script of which was Making Spirits Fight. This is not the previous episode in canon, however, no matter what K of the Cosmos says.
- The previous episode in Beyond Belief canon is Stabbin in the Woods (TAH #208).
- The next episode in Beyond Belief canon is It's a Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad World (TAH #218).
Production[]
This episode was recorded at Largo on March 7, 2015 and released on July 6, 2015.
- Writers: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
- Director: Aaron Ginsburg
- Music: Andy Paley Orchestra
- Sound Effects: Cayenne Chris Conroy
- Producers: Acker, Blacker, & Type 55 Films