Glengarry Glen Ross

If you want me to talk about

The books

And, you know

The situation with the books

Well…

Haha

I can’t talk about that

I know you’ve mostly been hearing from dead people

But some of us are still alive

And some of us still want careers

After this little—

What is this anyway?

A fact-finding mission?

Or is everybody just here

To get sentimental

Hug and cry

And sing ‘Michael Row the Boat Ashore?’

I did what I could

What what I had

I’ll say that much

Jim, the Artistic Director

Was not the easiest man to work with, okay?

He was brilliant

He was a genius

And he was good at making money

But he was a lot better at spending it

In the middle of the 29^th season

When he’s still all torn up over his lover dying

I go to him and say ‘Jim, we’re running out of money

We’ve been spending too much

And we have to cut back’

He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.  Glengarry will make money’

That was always his reasoning

That whatever show we were doing

Would pull us up out of the rut

That’s how artistic types remain eternally optimistic

Because there’s always another miracle project

Looming on the horizon

As a business person

I’m not programmed to think that way

I said, ‘Jim, it doesn’t matter if Glengarry Glen Ross makes money

We’re still going to be in the hole

We need to take drastic measures’

He asked me what I meant

And I said we needed to unload

Half the acting company

Now, this was a guy—okay?—this was a guy

Who fired two people

Everyday before breakfast

Just because

But all of a sudden

His lover is dead

And now he’s getting soft

And cuddly

He doesn’t want to let go of anyone

I said, ‘Jim, we are HEMORAGGHING money

I’m talking a possible closing of the doors here’

Forget that Clinton would be coming in

And everything would be fine and dandy again soon

At that moment, we were fucked

I told him that, and Jim put his hands on my shoulders

Looked me in the eye

And said—

‘We’re keeping everyone.  So find some other way to keep us going.’

It didn’t occur to me

Until later

When I was sitting at home

Finishing off a bottle of scotch

That he was telling me

To play with the numbers

Because, up until that point

I did NOT play with numbers

Ever

But…

You didn’t go against Jim

And I had essentially been given orders

To do whatever needed doing

So I did

But if you want someone to blame

Blame Jim

It’s not hard to find him

Everybody always called him Mr. Hollywood

Is it any wonder

That’s exactly where he wound up?

And me?

Ha

I’m just trying to stay afloat

The new AD came in

And sacked me

Right off

Said I was lucky he didn’t have me jailed

So I got out of there

And I’ve been surviving ever since

But you know what?

I’m good at that

Surviving

Because I do what I have to do

To make things fall in line

I guess I can give Jim credit

For helping to teach me that

Gotta give him credit for something, right?