Well, I Just Had To Laugh by Maxwell Hammer - A Pair Of Flip Flops, Stand Up Comedian, Newsstand - Short, Historical

Ah, the famous Beatles album cover photoshoot. That's a good story to focus on and I enjoyed the read. Sid and Eddie were likeable enough and you could tell their relationship was strained.

I don't see much of the villain being the hero though. He stole Paul McCartney's sandals for sure, but there is no evidence he was a bad guy. His father didn't even see the harm.

However, the criteria for these challenges are becoming increasingly difficult so I'll let it fly and just say thanks for an entertaining read.

-Mark

A refreshing historical read. So much conspiracy about that Abby Road photo and this was  an intriguing new take. Wonder if any other people/locations were real as well (i.e. the Comedy Club).

This also might work better if allowed to be drawn out some. A few parts seemed forced/unbelievable (Paul showing up at the end), but oh ok. A clever idea still.

I figured the Beatles but was almost thinking Sex Pistols when I saw the characters Sid and Nancy but, of course, the ages weren't right. Almost a little slight of hand there.

Cool little story. Does the writer have a little insight to this event? Or totally fictitious? Regardless, enjoyed the read. Theme-wise, Eric wasn't really a villain. More like an opportunist as I might've done the same thing!

I liked this, it was an easy quick read with decent characters and a nice setup.

Some of it felt a little bit too convenient and if I were being picky, which I'm not... flip-flops and sandals aren't the same thing, but I guess close enough for the challenge.

Agree with above, don't really see him as a villain.

Good effort.

Ah, Beatles! I’ve already read some of the other scripts but not reviewed them yet - there is another with Beatles ref in it. Nice!

Yeah this was entertaining, a ‘what if’ moment.  Funny how Paul going barefoot was a big part of the Paul Is Dead thing which came later that year.  He only wore sandals that day as the weather was good and he walked from his house nearby!  Lol

That you were able to get anything out of that set of prompts is commendable. Newsstand wasn't really critical to the story, but you won't see me scoring down for it, that's for sure. It was there, and for round 4, that's enough for me.

Fun story. A lttle disjointed, but in a logical sort of way. (It made sense as it flowed from one step to the next.)

Good effort. Thanks for sharing.

Hi,

That surprised me in a really good way. Good historical set up and use of actual history.
Nice interplay between father and son and use of McCartney at the end.
Good work.

Well done.

Great story. Perfect for the genre. Well written, easy to read. I liked the opening scene with Sid and Eric.

My only gripe is with the theme, which is a huge part of this challenge. Not sure a sandal swiper is a "villain".

Nice story though. I definitely enjoyed it.

So if I don't correctly guess who wrote this, I will eat a bug.

Well, maybe a metaphorical bug. I always hedge my bets.

I too thought this was going to be about Sid Vicious when I heard the name Nancy and I thought why is he 60 years old in 1969 with a child named Eric?

So Eric's definitely not a villain, and he's not a comedian. He tried his hand at standup comedy for the first time.  And that is one of several competing threads in this story which really don't tie together. It seems at first like we're going to get a father and son drama with the back ad forth between Sid and Eric, and that's left hanging... then Eric does standup comedy which we don't get to see (totally get it - 5 pages) and which is not resolved to the story... and then of course there's the famous sandal (flip flop) swipe and McCartney just kind of hanging out at a bar afterwards...

I had no idea McCartney was barefoot on the Abbey cover. Shame on me. I looked it up and he seems as if he was just uncomfortable that day and kicked them off. Not sure how hot asphalt is better, but hey, who am I to say...

So tying Eric's "crime" to that famous event was clever... before that I was on the fence about this one. Newsstand was fine, and definitely tough criteria otherwise, so nice work for getting it all in.

AJR

A cute little story adjacent to a well-known event, so it's firmly in the "historical" genre. Newstand: check. Flip-flops: close enough. Stand-up comedian: fine. Theme: The problem is that it was merely a cute story, no real villain here except for that killjoy American couple.