The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death

This live performance, based on the novel by NPR commentator Daniel Pinkwater, was produced for radio. Anyone who has heard Pinkwater speak may well wonder why Pinkwater--a wonderfully understated narrator in his own right--doesn't take part in the reading. Brent Spiner ("Data" of "Star Trek: The Next Generation") is the headliner, but his role is small and unremarkable. The real stars are Mike Wollensack, John David and Abigail Sher, who play three high school students who regularly sneak out for late night trips to a downtown movie house. In the course of their bohemian adventures, they meet up with an assortment of eccentrics, including the world's greatest detective, Osgood Sigerson (Spiner). The performance is fun and amusing, if at times chaotic. Stay close to the volume knob--the dialogue is sometimes indecipherably quiet, at other times painfully loud. S.E.S. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine