the misfortunes of gerald

Despite his humble factory origins, Gerald was no ordinary marketable toy monster. Having miraculously survived a turbulent sea passage within the confines of a cramped pallet, he later suffered a humiliating sales return before being spotted by an animatronics talent scout and granted a bursary to the prestigious acting school ’Training for Anthropomorphic Toys’ (TAT). His aptitude for the screen soon became apparent through a collaboration with the ineffaceable robot Clone Clooney and between them they landed a deal with Jitterbug Studios to produce a sitcom pilot, resulting in the highly-acclaimed television show ’Monster and Robot Wars’ (a story based on the dichotomous relationship between androids and living beasts).After the final series the double-act parted cordially as Clooney’s zany crowd-pleasing antics began to overshadow his partner’s less mainstream-appeal and after fulfilling his contractual obligations with Jitterbug Studios, Gerald bucked the commercial trend in search of more meaningful work. However the desire to graduate from the limitations of the monster/robot genre quickly backfired and with diminishing royalties he began to spiral into debt, rapidly shedding his cohort of parasitical friends. With little exchange or use-value, this hapless monster - like many other novelty toys predestined only to provide short-term gratification - soon became marginalized, drifting into the extreme fringes of society after countless rejections by charity shops. This irrevocable step towards obscurity was compounded after Gerald was visibly shunned by Clooney and his entourage at a red-carpet event outside a fashionable Regent’s Street toy shop late one evening - resulting in a highly-publicized altercation. With criminal charges pending, Gerald was unable to secure further acting roles - even as an uncredited extra - and was forced to pursue other avenues of work. He currently exists amongst a plethora of discarded objects - an enlightening experience that has furnished him with a greater sensibility for his craft - while he continues to write songs with his guitar and Tenori-on for his forthcoming autobiographical theatre project, ’Zillion Secrets of the Monster’.