The society in which we live never ceases to amaze me. Imperfections and unintentions surround us in our everyday lives. Most of us are able to accept these saddening abnormalities when they surface in ourselves or in others. It is a worrying fact that a few are unable to accept a displacement from normality and as a result their lives are wraught with agony and depression. It's downright puzzling as to how a morally retarded minority are able to exploit these enigma for financial gain.
These thoughts have been provoked by a stage act calling himself 'The smoker'. Now the smoker is a middle aged man whose boast is an extensive repertoir of infumational stunts. His finale being the simultaneous smoking of sixty eight cigarettes. He toured the country doing this.
I attended the smoker's somewhat exclusive act with my wife and two close friends as part of a cabaret. It would seem that we would eat while we watched this may lay down his lungs in the name of entertainment. This was a somewhat daunting thought to me but I do not like to make even the slightest of complaints. I like to avoid negativity where ever possible.
When the night came around I realised that my abhor was unfounded, we would eat at eight and the entertainment would begin at nine while we were served port, and cigars for the gentlemen. The venue was delightful, decorated in dark but very deep colours that made one feel so important. The food, too was good and the port was a vintage and very expensive. Typically I would enjoy a cigar after dinner but thinking of the spectacle about to begin, I decided not to smoke on this occaission. So the show began.
The smokers entrance was not a grand one. He looked tired and ill and maybe as old as eighty five years. He did his various tricks with pipes, cigars and cigarettes. I couldn't comprehend a single one of them. For sure I could see what he was doing but for the life of me I could not fathom whether it was funny or clever or what the attraction was regarded to be. His act followed it's weary course and at last we reached his grand finale.
The lights dimmed and a baby spot shone onto the performer. The organist to the edge of the stage struck a deep and haunting chord while the smoker removed first his jacket, then his shirt. It seemed a peculiar thing for him to do, but having done it we could all see why.
A large area of the epidermis of his chest had been replaced by a manufactured substance popular in modern surgery. Traditionally painted to resemble normal skin, the smoker had left his chest tastelessly transparent allowing the viewing of his internal organs.
As he smoked his sixty eight cigarettes with his mouth painfully stretched, you could actually see the frightening change in his heart rate and watch the discolouration of his lungs occurring, and then he dropped down dead right before us all. He just dropped down dead with these sixty eight cigarettes sticking out of his mouth, smouldering gently. No body attended him for they all thought that this was part of the act. Finally when everybody was getting restless, his face was covered with ash, and his heart hadn't beat for some considerable time, it was realised that this was a tragic and completely unintended death.
We were refunded our money as we left and the manager was most apologetic. Despite the fatality, I and all in my party agreed that it had been a peculiar but very entertaining show.
THE END.