Southern California is weird - and it gets a lot weirder in the hilariously dystopian comedy, Palm Tree Pipe Dreams In the near future, L.A.'s traffic reaches a saturation point, resulting in a massive, intractable gridlock. While politicians and special interest groups battle each other over solutions, a new normal takes hold - one that challenges the already-challenged Ira O'Riley, a young, frustrated screenwriter from Detroit. The low-level foothold Ira had gained in the entertainment industry slips away. Jobless, homeless and girlfriendless, Ira struggles to adapt and find the success and love he's convinced are his destiny. His missteps and misadventures inadvertently lead to him becoming a media darling, folk hero and hunted fugitive. "Craptastic," as Ira would say. Writing in the absurdist tradition of Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut and Gary Shteyngart, Paraventi uses the memorable characters and preposterous situations in Palm Tree Pipe Dreams to both skewer and embrace the ambitious, adaptable, self-inventing, delusional, trend-obsessed people who are drawn to L.A. After all, "they're like Americans are in general, only more so."
8 parts