The Writing of The Dante Experience

by Scott D. Southard

"This is going to be Hell, I just know it."
- Mephistopheles, the Devil from Episode 6

The idea of The Dante Experience came to me while as a student at Aquinas College in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was a freshman at the time and we were reading The Divine Comedy by Dante. We were laboring through the first part, The Inferno, and I noticed something.

Dante was fainting.

He was fainting all the time.

I raised my hand and pointed that out to the teacher with an addition of "What a wimp!" As I listened to my fellow students agree and laugh at that concept a spark was lit in my head.

If TV has done anything for my generation it should get credit for de-sensitizing us to violence. Here was a classroom of students thinking a man a wimp for fainting at the sights of Hell. We see worse things every day on TV (And most of the time on FOX), so of course, we wouldn't be phased by it.

That idea started four years of notes and jokes that would become The Dante Experience.

"That's it! All right! Everyone just sit down. No more. Will, I said, no more. We are going to sit still and think of Hell. Stop smiling Steve! I said we are going to think of Hell."
-Dante from Episode 2

I have always loved radio comedy. As a kid I used to stay up late to hear the reruns of the classic 1940 shows on a local AM radio station. I was probably the only person listening in that town.

When I got older I discovered both Douglas Adams and Firesign Theater. They opened my mind to a whole new possibility of comedy. There is so much more you can do comically in radio that you can't accomplish on the screens or on paper. While at Aquinas I had my own radio show and I would produce my own thirty-minute radio stories. They were pretty much three of my friends (Erik, Tom and Erin) and me making silly voices into my uncle's recording equipment.

We called ourselves "The Y.I.B. Players"… We had no idea what "Y.I.B." stood for and it was a running gag for us on the show. My favorite ideas we came up with were "You in bra!" and "Youths in Bondage!" We only made six episodes. We had to stop when Erik wrecked one of the microphone heads by trying to shape it into a talking vagina… It was a long night of recording for all of us.

"Hey Cleopatra! If he doesn't take you in, I will. I know how to treat a fine woman like you."
-Man in Audience at the Freud Show in Episode 7

The radio shows we made were popular on the campus and I would get calls every time I played the episodes. I entered one of the radio scripts in The Midwest Radio Theater Workshop Script Competition. The script "A Camping Trip with Joe or My Search for the Meaning of It ALL" received Honorable Mention.

The next year I started graduate studies at Michigan State University. It was an odd year to be on campus. Students were rioting and starting bonfires to prove to the college officials that they should be able to drink on the college parking lots… No, that is a true story…

Yeah, I started looking for another college right away. I vividly remember a conversation I overheard at a table near me the next morning. It was a young woman complaining to one of her friends. "I couldn't believe. He dumped me at the riot. There we are flipping the police car and he dumps me!"

I had to stay on campus that winter break because of my job and I felt truly abandoned in the middle of no where. No one else was on campus and the silence was eerie…

So I began going through my old notebooks and folders of ideas and I came across a bunch of scribbled notes regarding The Dante Experience. Inspired by the surreal motives of the students around me and the concept of the de-sensitized young mind, that winter Dante became my project.

I completed it within only three weeks.

"All I am saying is if you take a fork and stab her in the leg it'll make you feel better. It'll make me feel better."
-Mephistopheles' Mother from Episode 6

About a year later I received a call from Joel Pierson. He wanted to direct a version of "A Camping Trip…" for the next Midwest Radio Theater Workshop… I asked if there was any money involved. They offered me a free trip to Missouri and I quickly agreed… I had confused Missouri with an exciting state, you see. At the workshop, I sat in on Joel's writing for radio class. On the last meeting I brought in a sample from Episode 6 and we acted it out… That was one of the great moments of my life. The reaction from the listeners and the readers was awesome. Joel was literally crying and one listener fell out of his chair because he was laughing so hard. We had to stop the reading twice so everyone could get control before we continued.

I knew at that moment I was onto something with the series.

"Man, this has to be the oddest week of my life. First, I get eaten by a lion, then I go to Hell, and now I learn that Alison is sleeping with everyone but me."
-Will from Episode 5

Last year I received an e-mail from Joel and Dana asking if The Dante Experience could be the next project for Minds' Ear.

I quickly agreed.

With my move to LA and my concentration turning to my screenplays, I knew there was no way I could attempt to get my movies made (See my Bio page) and also the radio series. Plus, I knew it would be in incredibly good hands with Joel and Dana.

The Dante Experience is one of my favorite works that I have written. It's a very unpredictable comedy. The fun aspect of it for me is the strange turns it takes and the even more strange interplays between the characters.

I hope you enjoy the work.

"Tell everyone I said goodbye, Dante. I have a more noble cause ahead of me. Tell them I'll go to the Mall of America with them next week."
-Susan from Episode 3

If you would like to contact Scott D. Southard feel free to e-mail him.

Scott D. Southard is also the author of the novel 3 Days In Rome. He currently resides in Los Angeles.