You are in for a treat. I'm Warren, and a few years ago I was at a garage sale in Santa Fe with my friend Liz, when I stumbled upon a Talkboy. You may remember this device taking center stage as Kevin's weapon of choice against The Wet Bandits in Home Alone 2. So, needless to say, I was excited and purchased it for a measly fifty cents. I had no idea what kind of deal I was getting.
Liz and I got back in the car and discovered that there was a tape in the Talkboy. I popped in the tape and was greeted by the voice of a boy. “I’d like to play a piece for you called African.” After 30 seconds of what I could only assume was a keyboard demo, the voice came back and introduced himself as Marcos. He played another piece called Brodka(?). Then, much to my delight, he played another and another. Marcos introduced us to 39 very unique "peices" (each one lasting exactly 30 seconds) in alphabetical order by title.
Not everything goes as planned for our host. He forgets to say the name of a song once and calls the song "Clouds" "Cruisin" then corects himself. When introducing the piece “Intensity” you hear a “yaaaa” in the background, to which Marcos snaps back a whispered “shutup.” Then he explains “That was my Co-Worker.” After that things go smoothly, save a few bumbled words like you might hear on the nightly news. But at track 36 something goes horribly wrong. From what I can tell the show gets hijacked by some of Marco’s friends or siblings. “Dakota is a frito!” they gleefully chant over and over. But then the show resumes as if nothing has happened.
My brother and I have made the tape into mp3s and I plan on selling CDs in the near future. If you like what you hear and would like a copy in its entirety send me a message. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible. I love using it as background music at parties. It’s a great icebreaker and it progresses quite hysterically. I will eventually go back to the house where I bought that Talkboy in hopes of meeting or at least contacting the grown-up Marcos and letting him know how he has changed the lives of all that have had the pleasure of listening to his little collection of pieces.
