Some times you have bad experiences that are so extreme you think 'I'll remember this so I can tell it to someone.' And some times those war stories work their way into a tv show...like EVIL.
My second episode of EVIL aired on Thursday. It's based around hospital horrors and it got me to thinking about how my medical experiences from 15 years ago. For this EVIL episode, I relayed several experiences that worked their way into the story treatment. In 2004 I was in the hospital for something very simple: appendicitis. Cut that sucker out and let's move on, right? Ohhh, no. Hahahaha nononono. My karma was like 'it's time for a reckoning.' Two weeks later after a botched surgery, a screaming roommate who just had his legs amputated, followed by a racist roommate who would 'stage whisper' to his relatives about his worries that I might try to steal and/or beat him up (b/c it's not like I'm sick and in a hospital bed and trying not to die), internal bleeding, infections, being sent home with questionable medicine, and having to go back to the hospital, ending up with a hole in my stomach that took another two weeks to heal as I walked around the August NYC streets sweating and with gauze falling out of my insides like a used teddy bear, I thought 'well that was an experience.'
Of course, the cherry-on-top of all bad American hospital experiences is an enormous bill from a prolonged stay, even if it's due to medical negligence. There was that added chef's kiss as I headed into my last year of grad school, working 3 jobs, and getting calls from creditors asking 'well, can't you get a fourth job?' And yes, I had insurance so I was lucky. This was a good scenario. Pity the poor students who don't have insurance.
When I was back in school that fall I wrote BLEED, an absurd comedy about a man with a hole in his stomach who slowly bleeds to death on his birthday while a magical negro janitor narrates. And now I got to write ep 111 of EVIL. So I guess I got a lot of mileage out of that ridiculous summer. It's one of the advantages of being a writer. No matter how awful things get, there is a part of the mind thinking 'this is an interesting predicament for our protagonist. I wonder what's going to happen next.'
My second episode of EVIL aired on Thursday. It's based around hospital horrors and it got me to thinking about how my medical experiences from 15 years ago. For this EVIL episode, I relayed several experiences that worked their way into the story treatment. In 2004 I was in the hospital for something very simple: appendicitis. Cut that sucker out and let's move on, right? Ohhh, no. Hahahaha nononono. My karma was like 'it's time for a reckoning.' Two weeks later after a botched surgery, a screaming roommate who just had his legs amputated, followed by a racist roommate who would 'stage whisper' to his relatives about his worries that I might try to steal and/or beat him up (b/c it's not like I'm sick and in a hospital bed and trying not to die), internal bleeding, infections, being sent home with questionable medicine, and having to go back to the hospital, ending up with a hole in my stomach that took another two weeks to heal as I walked around the August NYC streets sweating and with gauze falling out of my insides like a used teddy bear, I thought 'well that was an experience.'
Of course, the cherry-on-top of all bad American hospital experiences is an enormous bill from a prolonged stay, even if it's due to medical negligence. There was that added chef's kiss as I headed into my last year of grad school, working 3 jobs, and getting calls from creditors asking 'well, can't you get a fourth job?' And yes, I had insurance so I was lucky. This was a good scenario. Pity the poor students who don't have insurance.
When I was back in school that fall I wrote BLEED, an absurd comedy about a man with a hole in his stomach who slowly bleeds to death on his birthday while a magical negro janitor narrates. And now I got to write ep 111 of EVIL. So I guess I got a lot of mileage out of that ridiculous summer. It's one of the advantages of being a writer. No matter how awful things get, there is a part of the mind thinking 'this is an interesting predicament for our protagonist. I wonder what's going to happen next.'
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