Hey y'all This is an ooold story of mine. I wrote it right when The Smartest Man in the World came out and True Jackson VP was still on tv. It's pretty straight forward and I highly doubt it'll ever be longer than it is but I wanted to post it. This is a RPF (Real Person Fiction) so if that's not your thing maybe you should turn back now. Anyway hope you enjoy.
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True was possibly the luckiest girl in the world. She had great friends, went to a great school, and had a great job. She was a seventeen-year-old VP of a multi-million dollar fashion corporation, Mad Styles.
One thing that True never considered was that she had a great boss as well. She considered herself and Max to be close, and she hated to see him upset, but True never realized all that Max did for her. Max should have fired her for half a dozen things on her first day – in fact he should have never hired her in the first place. That is something Amanda had been trying to tell her for two years now. True Jackson; too young to drink or have sex, but is one of the most influential VPs in America… all because of Max.
True and Lulu never worked on the second and last Friday of the month, no matter how much they had to do. The few times that they tried to go into the office the elevators where closed for servicing. This never seemed odd to the duo, as they knew nothing about elevators. They never took the stairs because True's office was on the thirty-fifth floor – much too far to walk! However one late Thursday night True was walking a design for a new dress shirt up to Max' office when she heard him muttering, not in his normal, somewhat mad rambling about the weather or the colour blue. She stopped outside his sliding door, just past the fogged glass so Max wouldn't see her. This is what she heard:
"…And that's Fucking funny, and that's what the people of Egypt did, by going into that square; by carrying plaquards by calling for the ousting of someone who had been dictator for thirty years, and had every intention of handing it off to his Ratty son. They where sure to hang separately and hundreds of people did, in fact, pay the ultimate price for that revolution. But if you watched it on TV you might have noticed that not only where young and old there; but men and women, women with children! And by the end every one…"
True had never heard Max swear before, excepted for saying Kittens in a way that could be taken as a cuss that is… She had no idea what he could be talking about. 'Women and children?' It made no sense. Not that Max usually made sense but this was even worse then normal!
True could never remember how long she stood in silence outside of Max's office that night, but Max could. He found True just a few moments after stopping his monolog practise – he heard the floor creak. As he slid the door open, True jumped in surprise and shrieked in a way that often got on Amanda and Max' nerves. Max sighed and asked True in his best slightly loopy cross-boss voice what she was doing outside his office – at one o'clock Friday morning no less!
"Is it really Friday already Mr. Madigan? I didn't even notice!" True stumbled over her words – she really hadn't noticed that it was after midnight! Max made it clear that she wasn't to stay at the office after eleven because of her age and she had school most mornings anyway, "I wanted to give you my design before I went home, after all if I didn't you wouldn't get it until Sunday and I didn't want to keep you waiting." After a beat she blurted out" what where you just talking about Mr. Madigan? What were the Women and Children doing?"
Max sighed to himself knowing that he couldn't get away with lying to True anymore, and he couldn't fire her, after two years working at Mad Styles she knew enough dirt about the company and its CO to sell if she wanted to. Not that Max really thought she would but he was a cynic and she was a child. Resignedly Max asked her, "Have you ever heard of the show 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' or the Comedian Greg Proops?" True shook her head in confusion. Max should have known. She would have been less than ten when the show was taken off the air after all, still he couldn't help but feel a bit sad about how obscure he had become. This fashion gig was taking up too much of his time.
Max led her into his office to the television monitor mounted on the far wall. He slid a DVD disk into a hidden slot on the side and selected the scene he wanted to play. It started with a man in a bad suit sitting behind a desk with a tacky neon light bordering it. He was saying 'we will start with a game called superheroes' he went on to ask the audience what kind of superhero Greg should be. It was decided that Greg would be Quick Rick, and then the camera angle changes and True saw the newly minted 'Quick Rick' for the first time and gasped! It was Max Madigan himself! though he did look quite a bit younger.
The show went on, the crises that Quick Rick had to fix was the worlds shoes where turning blue! There was a tall man on the set wearing very large blue shoes the Madigan on screen made some cheep joke about him faking injuries, True thought it was to make him stop but he just kept going! The next man to come onto the stage was mostly bald and wearing what looked like a bad Hawaiian shirt. The blue-shoes man called him a coward, True thought that was mean. The bald man hid under a piano. (True was left wondering why he went onto the stage in the first place, if he was so scared) the last man to come onto the stage was a handsome black man. The bald man said something about the show stopping number as he started to sing. His singing somehow made the shoes happy and no longer blue. Mr Madigan sent him off to cheer all the other shoes up too. The bald man used a miss direct to run off stage. The Blue-Shoes man left as well with some excuse of a sore groin. At the sound of a buzzer Max walked off too. Mr. Madigan sighed murmuring, "Clive used to let me end the game with a quip."
While True was watching this becoming more and more confused Mr. Madigan was stood beside her laughing softly, as you would at a happy memory. The four performers jogged back to a row of seats at the back of the stage that True really hadn't noticed until that point. The young Madigan sat at the end beside the black man, who was beside the bald man who was beside the man in blue shoes. The man behind the desk made a quip about the blue mans shoes again while complementing the black mans song.
At this point Max paused the DVD and pointed at the players in order, starting with himself, "That's me, Greg Proops, beside me is Wayne Brady, to his left is Colin Mochrie, and on the end there is Ryan Stiles we make up four of the best Improvational Comedians in America. The man behind the desk is Drew Carey." Max knew that True was looking at him like he grew a second, or perhaps third, head. "Just keep watching, True, For me" at the end he was almost pleading.
"You say what now..." was the oddly quite exclamation at Max's words. True turned her eyes back to the screen as Max resumed the play. The next game was introduced as Multiple personalities the Max on screen walked up with Wayne Brady and Ryan Stiles to get a small gas can, a map and a flashlight as Drew Carey described the scean. The person, he said, holding the gas can is Richard Simmonds. True remembered that he was the effeminate (or posibly gay) exercize coatch. The man with the map was that Wild West actor John Wayne and the man with the Flashlight was Scoobydoo.
The actors where told that there car had broken down in a forest. As True watched she couldn't stop laughing at the impressions and when Ryan had both the flashlight and the map True almost lost her balance. As the game ended and the trio walked back to there chairs Max once again paused the video.
Turning to look at his young VP Max held her gaze in seriousness, "True," he said, "you can never tell anyone what you just saw, it could end me as a comedian and a designer." That statement brought True back to the present.
"That still doesn't explain what you were talking about before, with the women and children..." True said nothing in the way of a promise still trying not to laugh at the antics she had just witnessed. "I mean, what did that old video of you have to do with Egypt?"
Max smiled a small smile, nothing like his normal manic grin, "what you heard me practising is a pod cast that I am set to record tomorrow in Los Angeles. The reason that I showed you that video, by way of explanation, is that the man in the video is who I really am. My name is Greg Proops and I am a standup comedian and Improv Player. I lived for four years in London playing on a show called Whose line is it Anyway? And I loved it. Then I moved back here. Do you remember me telling you about that line I joned?" at True's nod Max continued, "when they asked for my name I gave them an alias from the show –Mr. Madigan' I chose Max because it was easy to remember. As an improv artist I was able to fake my way through the interview, I gave Ryan and Paul Merton as my referances. Paul was also on the show. That is how I became two people. Now every second and last Friday of the month I fly out to LA, where Greg Proops is said to live, and make a 'proop-cast' called The Smartest Man in the World. It's fairly straight forward. Only Amanda and Jimmy know from Max's life, you too now. And For Greg, Ryan, Colin, Paul, and a few others know of my dual lives. Would you like to come with me later today to LA? You could wear that shirt you just brought me? Or you could get something from the vault? Who Knows Ryan might be in town too" Max looked at True with smiling eyes.
"Please, please can I come Mr. Madigan? I promise I won't tell anyone, not even Lulu or anyone!" max knew that even though that wasn't the most eliquint of promises True would keep it. She was like that.
Max warned True that she could never refure to him as anything but Greg in LA and Max in New York. He also said that Max Madigan never swore, it went against his prinsiples, where Greg Proops saw nothing wrong with cussing, drinking, smoking or marijuana. He told True about growing up in San Fransisco and his days on Whose Line. As the hours passed True texted Lulu telling her that she wouldn't be able to hang out until Saturday at the earliest. At four in the morning Max and True slunk out of his office and down the stairs to the lobby, from there they took the elevator the the place that they met as True sold her sandwiches that summer two years earlier. As they climbed into a small – but nice – hybrid car Max told true what his new pod cast was about. He kept to the part that she had over heard so that, when she was at the recording, it would still be new.
"You see True, in the Middle East right now there are a number of revolutions going on, and the one that you heard me talking about was the Egyptian revolution. It only just started and it is very popular with the people and the armies. You should see the camps!" Max's eyes seemed to glow in the harsh streetlights. "That is what you heard me talking about. I love that the people would do this. But I hate how the American media shows it to the masses, so I use my pod cast to try to counteract the media in the only why I know how. Biting sarcasm and sharp satire." Max grinned as he said that and True got the feeling that she was talking to Greg-the-Comic not Max-the-Boss.
True had never been to LA before, she went to Paris that one time with Lulu, and she had been to Disney World with her family, but most of her life was spent in New York. When the pair landed in LAX she couldn't help stairing all about her. The sun was just coming up over the Hollywood Hills. Max- or Greg now –ushered True into a waiting taxi and called out an address. In the back Greg turned to true saying, "True there is something I have to tell you, the reason that I did not apreciate your setup with your librarian is," he paused and took a deep breth, "I'm married. I have been for years, Jen and I love each other very much, and she knows about Mad Styles. She comes to see me when ever she can, and I do the same. So we are on our way to the Proops resedence!" Gregs grin was so wide that True thought he might split his face in half, but some how it was completely different then Mr. Madigans own.
"Okay Mr. Proops-"
"No! you can't call me that!" Greg looked shocked at the idea, "I am Greg, not Mister anybody! I don't even like it when my emploees call me Madigan! I mean at one time Mr. A called me Mr. P, but that was on the show so that's different…" Greg trailed off in thought.
"I've called ahead and the guest room has been made up if you would like it. You have been up for quite a while. And you're not on drugs so they won't help you stay up," Greg laughed.
True, feeling a little lost around this new side of her boss just nodded. "Anyway True, when we get to the house don't be too surprised if you recognise her. Like I said, she does come by Mad Styles sometimes. I don't think you've met though." Greg paid their driver and the duo walked up to a modist looking spanish house, He pulled from an inner pocket a set of keys with a G on the chain, True remembered seeing those keys on Max's desk once or twice before. Walking into the house Greg removed his shoes and strolled into the kitchen, True followed his lead padding in sock feet behind him. Only to find that in the time it took her to take off her shoes Greg had located his wife and pulled her into a hug. Not wanting to intrude true hung by the door for what felt like a few years.
Greg relessed his wife and turned to True, "True this is Jeniffer, Jen True. Now who wants some coffee? I am just dieing! True and I stayed up all night talking about the show. It took a bit of convinsing but she now believes that I am an international improv comedy star and a standup and even the Smartist Man In the World" Greg said laughing as he set about making the three of them coffee.
Jeniffer, after shaking True's hand warmly, walked her over to the island where four tall stools sat. She introduced herself to True as Jenifer Canaga; artist and long suffering wife to Greg Proops. As the two women talked Greg was on the other side of the island pooring coffee into three cups, a white one to which he added two scoops of sugar and a little bit of milk (True's cup), a blue one with what looked to True like hand painted figures that he gave to Jen black, and finaly a small chinacup with cream for himself.
"Why do you do that M-Greg?" True enquired
"Do what?"
"You drink Coffee from a teacup. Aren't they for tea?" True elaborated with a frown.
Greg glanced at his hand in surprise, as if he couldn't believe there was a cup supported by it's digits but it was Jen who answered True's question, "Greg use to work with a man in England. Clive Anderson was very proper; coffee in a mug tea in a teacup everything had its place. So just to annoy him Greg started to drink tea from a mug and Coffee from a teacup. He's been doing it for almost twenty years now."
"And it still bugs the fuck out'a Clive when I see him" Greg added grinning. True just nodded feeling her world spin, the fact that happy, mad Max Madigan could do something like that just to bug a man was almost too much. "I don't even think about it now. And when ever I serve Mr. A himself I give him the substance appropriate despiser. When I was younger I just wanted to fuck with his Englishness."
About an hour later, after another cup of coffee or three and some toast all around Greg approached True as Jen cleaned up the kitchen, "how are you doing, this isn't too much for you is it?" and suddenly True no longer saw bizarre emotions colouring Max' familiar face, instead True saw Max the way that he was the day they met. She realized that Max and Greg were one and the same. True thought of the old saying two sides of the same coin but almost immediately corrected that thinking; Greg and Max were the same. Like a lake, the water looks different in the morning than it does at noon.
"I'll be okay Greg, I just need a little time to get use to this." True smiled knowing that she would be. "I was just starting to think that you couldn't surprise me anymore -"
"Good! Lets go then I have a city to show you!" Greg pulled her up and toward the door saying, "Jen will meet up with us for dinner but for now we have to go shopping and we have to stop at Bar Lubitsch so that you can attend the show tonight." At True's confused glance Greg elaborated, "Bar Lubitsch is a bar and you are only seventeen so you can't drink. As a rule they card you at the door. I'm going to ask if you can attend so long as you don't order or accept any drinks. Sadly Ryan isn't in town today, we missed him by a few hours! When I text'd him he said he had just left." Through Greg's monolog he half led half dragged True through the house pausing only long enough for them both to stuff their feet into shoes.
Not ten minutes later the two where cruising up and down streets True's eyes glued to the windows of passing shops. The pair where headed to the LA Fashion District. Greg had a bit of work to do as Max and he thought that True might enjoy the experience.
They turned down some random streets into what appeared to be a factory district. True didn't question Greg though: he lived here after all. The car stopped outside a two story red brick block that had seen better days. There were thick fingers of ivy creeping up the northern wall. A few were inching their way around the north-west corner above the door. A few of the windows on the second floor were cracked. True swallowed nervously as she followed Greg out of the car.
It turned out that the building was the studio of Max's first client. The reason he called his company 'Mad Styles'. His client was none other than Alice Cooper's daughter Calico Cooper. She designed all of Mad Style's Goth clothing. She was a secret designer under the pseudonym of Copper Marble. True didn't have much to do with the meeting she mostly just stood back and listened, always trying to learn, while also covering up her yawns.
Greg eyed True as they left the red brick and ivy in the dust. She was falling asleep in her chair! This wouldn't do, it was only 10:40 and they weren't due to anywhere until 1:00 they could both use some sleep after all. He made the decision to go home in about 5 seconds.
When asked later, True would be unable to recall the next hour and a half. She just remembered waking up in Greg's spare room with a steaming mug of tea on the bedside table.
The pair arrived at the café at about 1:10. Greg wasn't use to driving in LA just yet. There was a surprise for the two of them: Ryan was sitting at a table with three seats. True suspected that it normally only had two. As they sat down a waiter scurried out stammering that Greg's regular table was all that was left when Ryan and Jen had arrived, he hoped that the squished nature didn't put them off too much. All the while the poor man was stammering apologies. Greg just waved him away saying it was fine.
He grinned at True saying "Both Ryan and I are quite famous in this place. When it first opened we would raise money for them by doing gigs here."
Turning to the other man Greg laughed and asked him if he had pulled a U-turn on the free-way or if he had waited for a cut off, when Ryan laughed and nodded Greg asked him about his charity golf tournament for children with burns. True took the chance to take a look at Ryan. He hadn't changed much from the old video that Greg showed her. He was dressed in a nice dress shirt, that pale blue colour that True thought too many men wore. She could help but think he would look better in a black button down shirt with those faded blue jeans. She kept her mouth shut though. Ryan turned from Greg to True and she noted that he had a few wrinkles around his eyes and mouth from laughing and smiling. True knew that he got most of them from his work. She couldn't help but hope that she had wrinkles like that when she got older.
"So True," Ryan started, "I'm Ryan. Greg here told me that he was bringing one of his best employees with him but he failed to mention that she happens to be my daughter's age." He shot Greg a look before smiling at True again, "if I had known I would have brought her to meet you."
"Oh that would have gone well. How old is she now? 16? Are you still wishing she was gay?" Greg asked sarcastically. The pair laughed as True felt over whelmed. She was feeling really out of place with these two old friends exchanging inside jokes so she turned to her menu. She was the only one with one at the table.
Ryan must have noticed her discomfort because at that minute he turned to her and said, "the Ruben is quite good here." The gentle giant followed up with, "how long have you and Greg worked together? He never tells me much about the company."
True sent him a grateful smile feeling more at ease then before: Ryan only knew a little more about her than she did him! "I've worked for Mr. Mad-Greg for almost two years now. It will be two years in the summer. And there's only a few months of school left." The three had a nice getting to know you conversation with Greg acting as a prompt and telling far too many embarrassing stories for True's taste.
True ended up getting the Ruben and really enjoying it. The rest of lunch went by pleasantly. It was mostly small talk but True found out that Ryan ran a theater in Washington State that had its own Improv classes and groups. He had business people from the cities come to his theater to improve their people skills. She talked to him, and Greg, about maybe taking some classes herself – closer to home. Beyond that lunch was fairly low key.
Greg and True bid Ryan a happy goodbye. They still had a few hours to kill, it was 3:30 by the time they left the restaurant and Greg's show was set to start at 8, but he wanted to get to the bar by 6:30 to ensure that True could attend and to warm up the crowd.
"Well True, what do you want to do?" True thought about LA, she didn't know too much about the city besides Hollywood. She had heard that the view from up there was amazing though. That's what they did. It took a half hour to get there and about an hour to get back. By which time they had to head over to the bar.
The pair walked in the front door of Bar Lubitsch. There were very few patrons at 6:45 only two older men sitting in a booth sipping beer and a younger man sitting at the bar watching a baseball game on the TV. Greg lead True toward the hostess, a pretty blond lady in a modified skirt suit. "Lily!" Greg exclaimed, "How are you darling? This is True Jackson; she is my wife's best friend's daughter and she really wants to be here for the show but she's only 17, is there some way we can do this?" True stood beside him looking hopeful.
In the end it was a very straight forward fix. Lily had some bright yellow ribbons behind the bar that were used to identify underage patrons during events like music or comedy. She told Greg that they were used every once and a while for his shows, he had just never noticed. She also put a yellow stamp on True's hand while everyone else had a purple one.
The show was uneventful after that – True just found out that her boss drank a LOT of vodka. At least True thought it was a lot. Having a full time job by the age of fifteen really cut out any social underage drinking True might have done.
The two (plus Jennifer) left the bar sometime after eleven and tumbled into beds at the Proops Residence. True had a wide smile on her face. The next day Greg and True took an afternoon flight back to New York New York and True was home in time for dinner.