Showing results by narrator "richard henzel" in All Categories

These five stories were previously released as stand-alone pieces. They've been compiled here into one collection.

Mark Twain, incensed by increasing religious and political imperialism around the globe, characterizes a large nation's invasion and occupation of a smaller country as the "strange and over-showy onslaught of an elephant upon a nest of field mice, on the pretext that the mice had squeaked an insolence at him conduct which 'no self-respecting government could allow to pass unavenged' as Mr. Chamberlain said. Was that a good pretext in a small case when it had not been a good pretext in a large one?- for only recently Russia had affronted the elephant three times and survived...."

This is the story of Mark Twain's brief career as a Confederate soldier at the beginning of the American Civil War. Mark Twain's "private history" is told from the viewpoint of "someone who set out to do something in the war, but didn't". What starts out as a kind of class reunion/camping trip quickly becomes a series of frightful near misses with a determined and deadly foe, and ends in painful, premature death for some and a lifetime of guilty regrets for others.

In this unabridged recording of one of Mark Twain's lesser-known short stories, the "campaign of crime" referred to was a rash of robberies, arson, racketeering, and murders in Connecticut, where the author was living at that time. Alternatively funny, disturbing, and self-revelatory, an abridged performance of this piece has been part of Richard Henzel's Jefferson Award nominated stage show Mark Twain In Person since 1979.

The death of Mark Twain's daughter, Jean Clemens, occurred early in the morning of December 24, 1909. A few hours later Twain was writing steadily. "I am setting it down," he said, "everything. It is a relief to me to write it. It furnishes me an excuse for thinking."

Life in the nursing home is boring, so you decide to just wander away one day in search of adventure and excitement. You find a golf cart that someone has left nearby, while they search for their lost ball. It's your ticket to freedon and you drive away with the cops not far behind on your trail. Not exactly a high-speed chase scenario, but you still leave chaos in your wake. It's a day the rest of the town will remember. You've left your mark, and now it's nap time.

You have lived with your sister all your life and now you're comfortable with your day to day routines. She dies and you feel lost. What else can go wrong? How about a break-in at your house while you're out? Burglars steal the one thing you could not live without. But wait, your sister may still be able to help with justice and retribution. But how's that possible?

Lillian opens the door and a man is standing there with a gun. He forces his way into her home and tells her he plans to kill her husband when he gets home. Why? What'd he ever do to this punk? Uh-oh, here comes her husband. Now what?

It's 1964. Philip Duran has been driving all night to make a sales meeting in the wee hours of the morning in Hollywood. Vern Grayson has the purchasing power at MGM. Mr. Duran's new invention could be just the thing MGM needs to pull ahead of its competitors, but can Duran convince Grayson to buy his contraption? Find out here, because Philip Duran will do, anything for a sale.

This ain't no Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie. A policeman patrols the downtown area during the Christmas season, checking knobs and keeping the neighborhood safe. His rounds take him past the bridge on the edge of town where he sees a man standing on the railing, contemplating jumping to his death. Can our friendly neighborhood cop talk him out of it and give him a reason to live? Sometimes it's better to just mind your own business.