Non Stop Drop

By: Simon Mackness

Sitcom Mission 2012 finalist

Jamie Hurley had the world at his feet. Young, talented and in demand as an actor, he was the Daniel Radcliffe of his day. Sadly that was 1988 - and it's been downhill ever since.

When puberty hit, Jamie discovered girls, booze and partying. The roles dried up, his name was dirt and several unmentionable incidents on set left him uninsurable.

But an ego has to make a living and Jamie found himself in the world of informercials, low budget mid-afternoon advertising and finally his home of seven years, the TV Shopping Channel 'MegaDrop TV'. Thankfully Jamie is wildly deluded and believes that just one call from his agent and he's out of his purgatory and back off to Hollywood. Helping his ego along is the young, optimistic researcher Gayle - she is the sweet and positive Yin to Jamie's bitter and weary Yang.

Jamie is constantly brought back to earth by Mikey, the number one salesman and arch irritant to Jamie's dreams. When a promising call from the agent finally arrives, Jamie is a little surprised at Mikey's support and baffled by the producer Bob's reluctance to accept his resignation. While Bob enchants Mikey with his tassled loafers and Audi company car, there's a mysterious new executive called Charlie flying in from America to shake things up for everyone - especially Jamie. Will he ever escape daytime TV hell? His ego will die trying, that's for sure.

Credits

Cast		Character
Rob Talbot	...	Jamie
Olivia Thomas	...	Gayle
Nicholas Keith	...	Mikey
Steven Kent	...	Bob
Jenny Walters	...	Charlie

Simon Mackness

Simon Mackness graduated from Brighton University with a degree in Graphic Design and a lifelong apathy towards... well, graphic design actually.

After years shivering and struggling as an artist, Simon realised he was producing more and more word based, humorous artwork and perhaps being an artist wasn't the right path to follow. The work caught the eye of several top advertising agencies and he found himself creative copywriting and being paid to come up with ideas.

He is a Founding Partner in the creative collective www.fleetoffoot.co.uk where he specialises in creative copy and scripts for advertising content.

Simon is proud to be in the last 16 and dreams of a career in comedy as he loves making people laugh. Trying his hand at stand-up is on the agenda, but Simon is an awful blusher so would only perform under red lights, so everyone looks the same.

In his spare time Simon loves golf and blames his mother smoking during pregnancy for the below average height that dashed his Pro-Tour dreams. Simon also has a passion for foreign supermarkets and will always make a beeline for these before wasting time seeing a new city's cultural landmarks.

Simon's favourite comedian of all time is Mitch Hedberg and favourite sitcom is The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

Note

Performed in Heat 1