You know what time it is?Auto Focus · 2002 — Chapter 10 of 16 · 3'12" · B1
Bob's Party and Career Blowup, Explained: dead air
A wild party, a talk about the thrill of it, and then the morning-after truth: the career is stalling. "I've worked and I've worked, and I got dead air," is the complaint, and when someone suggests dinner theater, the answer is blunt: "Maybe I need a new agent. Maybe you're the problem."
What happens
At a party, Bob meets a woman who says stripping is only her side job. Later he tries to describe the thrill to a friend, comparing it to the drop of a roller coaster, but the talk turns to work. Out of a job, he grows angry when dinner theater is suggested, and finally blames his agent.
Listen for
out of workswear to Goddead airdinner theater
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Phrase of the scene
dead air
广播里没有声音的空白时段；冷场、停滞
脱衣舞俱乐部里，鲍勃拿电台术语跟梅丽莎解释自己的困境：节目里最怕的就是一片死寂的空白。
The host panicked and played music to avoid dead air.
Also in this scene
- out of work
unemployed, having no job
- swear to God
I swear it's true
- dinner theater
边吃晚饭边看演出的剧场餐厅
Everything marked in this scene
19 notes across 47 lines
It's fuck time.unemployed, having no job
Rotten to be out of work.You've been bad.I know what to do with boys like you.Well, stripping is a part-time thing for me.It's hard to explain, Carp.You ever been on a roller coaster?You know that feeling you get when you take that first plunge?That's what it's like.There's no way to compare it.I swear it's true
I swear to God,Oh, I hate it.- Dinner theater. - [raps on table]Why? You've done summer theater.That was to keep busy, not something to do during prime time!That was to keep busy, not something to do during prime time!Dick Van Dyke does dinner theater and Jim Nabors, Andy Griffith.Maybe I need a new agent. Maybe you're the problem.Bob's Party and Career Blowup, explained
What's really going on
The scene keeps switching between pleasure and its price. The party offers escape and appetite, and Bob reaches for a roller coaster to explain the rush because ordinary words will not do. Then the subject shifts to work, and the same man turns sour: "I've worked and I've worked, and I got dead air." The phrase comes from radio, where silence is the one mistake a professional cannot make, and it fits a career that has gone quiet. When dinner theater is floated as an option, his pride refuses it, and the argument ends where it always does: "Maybe I need a new agent. Maybe you're the problem." The fun and the blame are two faces of the same restlessness.
Theme
AmbitionA man who wants prime time refuses the smaller stages, even after the work has dried up.
IdentityThe party persona and the career role both show someone trying on selves he cannot quite keep.
What you'll learn
- Say out of work for a job gap
- Hear dead air as deadly silence
- Reject filler work with prime time
That was to keep busy, not something to do during prime time!His defense of his pride: a low-status gig was only a way to pass time, not the work he is meant to be doing.
Maybe I need a new agent. Maybe you're the problem.The argument's real target: rather than accept the fall, he blames the person meant to be fixing it.
I've worked and I've worked, and I got dead air.A radio phrase turned confession: despite all the effort, the result is silence and no work.
Dead air. It's the one thing every disc jockey knows.The one rule of radio, used as a metaphor for a career that must never stall, which is exactly what his has done.
Questions about this scene
What is "dead air" in this scene?
In radio it is a stretch of silence, the thing no disc jockey can afford. Bob borrows the phrase to describe his career going quiet despite all his work.
Why does Bob reject dinner theater?
Because he sees it as beneath him. He insists his summer theater was only to keep busy, not the kind of work a prime-time actor should take.
Who is he angry at by the end?
His agent. When dinner theater fails to win him over, he snaps that he may need a new agent and that the agent may be the problem.
What does the party add to the scene?
It shows the appetite and escape that run alongside his stalled career, and sets the high of the night against the morning-after disappointment.
Who is Mistress Victoria?
She is a woman at the party who says stripping is only her side job. Her real persona, she insists, is a dominatrix, a kind of role-playing that fits Bob's world of performance.
Auto Focus · 16 chapters
All chapters →
Up next · Chapter 11Run it by meJohn's Wild Idea and Bob's Big Call
Chapter 1a career-killerLenny Pitches Bob a Sitcom
Chapter 2get the messageAnne Confronts Bob About the Magazines
Chapter 3always been my thingBob Meets the VTR Salesman
Chapter 4copaceticBob and John's Party Night
Chapter 5light years ahead ofBob Crane's New Video Camera
Chapter 6clear enough for youBob Catches John on Tape
Chapter 7pull a stunt like thisThe Demo Fails Spectacularly
Chapter 8what went downJohn Carpenter Repairs Bob's VTR
Chapter 9go around onceBob's Wife Accepts an Open Marriage
Watching · Chapter 10dead airBob's Party and Career Blowup
Chapter 11Run it by meJohn's Wild Idea and Bob's Big Call
Chapter 12word gets aroundLenny Warns Bob About a Scandal
Chapter 13a complete professionalBob Goes Too Far on Live TV
Chapter 14get in circulationBob Asks His Agent for Work
Chapter 15take it for grantedBob Visits His Son
Chapter 16lower the boomBob and Carpenter's Falling OutChapter 10 of 16 · about 14 min to go