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Walt's Monologue About His Father from Breaking Bad

9/17/2016

 
I saw this contemporary dramatic monologue for men while watching Breaking Bad and it blew me away. You'll find the monologue within Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 10 at 23 minutes into the episode. The monologue is spoken by the character Walt who is in his forties.

The monologue is short under two minutes and exemplifies elements 1-6 and 8 of Monologue Writing 101. The night prior to the monologue Walt's son, Walt Jr., had come to his father's condo to check if everything was alright, because Walt had missed Walt Jr.'s 16th birthday celebration. Walt Jr. finds his father looking beat up, Walt's been in a fight, and drunk. In his drunken weakened state Walt had spoken briefly to his son and then passed out. The monologue takes place the next morning.

In the monologue Walt shares the story of his one real memory of his own father, who died of Huntington's disease when Walt was very young. Walt's memory is of a father who was very sick, barely hanging onto life, who could no longer speak, and who may no longer even have fully recognized him. Walt's only real memory of his father is of a shell of a man. Walt wants his own son, Walt Jr., to remember him at his best. Walt does not want Walt Jr. to remember him the way he was the night before; drunk, beaten, incoherent.

For actors auditioning for a dramatic role, who want to demonstrate they can achieve a layered, nuanced performance - this monologue delivers.

Per Monologue Writing 101, this monologue exemplifies the following elements:

Element 1: Walt has a strong desire for his son to have a positive memory of him. He wants his son to forget what he saw last night.

Element 2: Walt has at stake how his son sees and esteems him. As a father, Walt cares deeply how he will be remembered by his son when he is gone.

Element 3: Walt tries a few tactics to get his son to forget about his lapse in character. He apologizes to his son, he shows his son he feels ashamed, he uses self-deprecation, and finally he opens up about his own father. The memory he shares is something very personal that he has never told his son before.

Element 4: The opening of the monologue serves as an effective hook. It sets up the current state of the relationship dynamic and the want that the speaker has in that relationship. It pulls us in. We want to see if Walt will win over his son.
"I wish I could take back last night. It was your birthday, this shouldn’t be on your mind. No it’s not okay, I’m your father and I don’t want last night to be…. I mean you, you really … you can’t think of me like …"

Element 5: The close of the monologue has a solid "button" ending. It effectively connects the past action from Walt's childhood back to the present action between Walt and Walt Jr. and to the strong character want established at the start of the monologue. By the end of the monologue, Walt's want has more weight and has engaged the empathy of Walt Jr. "That is the only real memory that I have of my father. I don’t want you to think of me the way I was last night. I don’t want that to be the memory you have of me when I’m gone."

Element 6: This is an excellent example of a monologue that engages the senses. Walt remembers the smell in hospital where he visited his father, the "stench of Lysol and bleach." He remembers seeing his father lying in bed "all twisted up." And he remembers the sound of his father breathing like "this rattling sound. Like if you were shaking an empty spray paint can. Like there was nothing in him."

Element 8: Past action is used to drive home the present want of the monologist. Walt uses his memory as a tactic to engage his son's empathy, to persuade his son. The author does a good job keeping past action tied to present action.

Here is one example from the monologue where
Walt uses a specific detail from the past as a means to connect to his son in the present: "My mother would tell me so many stories about my father. I mean she would talk about him all the time. I knew about his personality, how he treated people, I even knew how he liked his steaks cooked. Medium rare, just like you."

The Pinkey Toe

9/11/2016

 
Comedic male monologue, age range 30's. Character Cosmo Kramer.

Monologue is from the fifth season of Seinfeld, episode 84 entitled "The Fire."

High energy, dynamic and funny. Kramer recounts the Herculean efforts he took to reunite a woman with her Pinky Toe.

The cause and effect of this monologue is awesome. Prior to the monologue Jerry has been booed during his standup act by a lady friend of Kramer's. In retaliation, Jerry goes to the office where she works and boos her. She gets upset and runs out of the office. The monologue begins by telling us what happened next.

Kramer tells Jerry and George how she was so distraught and distracted she stepped into the road and a street sweeper severed her pinkie toe. After the ambulance left, Kramer finds the toe. He packs it in ice in a Cracker Jack box and rushes to the hospital by jumping on a bus and yelling "step on it." On the bus a guy pulls a gun (probably to rob the people on the bus, but the monologue doesn't say) and Kramer has to knock him out to save the toe. In the commotion the bus driver has passed out and the bus is careening out of control. Kramer takes the wheel driving the bus. The robber wakes up and tries to attack Kramer. Kramer fends him off with one hand, while driving the bus with the other and making all the bus' usual stops! In the end, he gets to the hospital in time and his friend's toe is restored.

The high stakes situation, exaggerated action and imagery, the non-hero of Kramer in this heroic situation, the inclusion of incongruous mundane everyday elements (well if you're driving the bus of course you make all the usual stops!) makes this little monologue a mini masterpiece.

Suggest monologists performing this in audition say the lines that George and Jerry interject as if Kramer is hearing and repeating these questions back to them, since some of the questions serve as payoffs and punchlines to the humor embedded in the monologue.

The monologue is on disc 4 of the Seinfeld Season 5 DVD set in the episode entitled "The Fire."
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