Suppose a genie popped up and offered you one-hit-wonder level fame and success. For a brief time, the genie says, you will become wildly successful at something you love -- but after two or three years you'll return to base-level results. You can still do what you love, but you'll never recapture that magic) The genie will also wipe any memory of the encounter or your choice (taking buyer's remorse out of your decision.)

Basically, he's offering you the chance to be the Dell Dude or the Napster kid or Brian Josephson (but without the crazy). Do you take that offer?

And would it change your decision if you also knew that the public would appreciate it positively, but for totally different reasons than you intended: Ronald Jenkees or King Missile (of Detachable Penis fame)?

I think many people pity or deride one-hit-wonders, but the Dell Dude is still doing what he loves, and the fact is that most actors at his career stage /are/ working at Tortilla Flats jobs. I think I'd take the offer. 

posted by mrflip at 04:35PM CST on November 07

Reward without risk or regret is certainly an attractive notion that most would rub the lamp for, but it isn’t without repercussion. The "monkey’s paw” clause of this genie contract is the enormous price of removing all possibility for equitable or greater future success from the wish equation.

I think that I would decline the certain cultish fame of being the Dell Dude and the subsequent life of slinging poppers and doing bit parts on Law & Order for the love of the “craft.” Plus, if I took the deal, I’d never be able to mount a Dancing with the Stars style comeback!

If King Missle’s John Hall hadn’t taken the deal with the genie for the success of Detachable Penis, he may have continued in obscurity on New York’s spoken word circuit (still doing what he loves), but he could have become the next Leonard Cohen.

posted by DeltaOscar at 11:09AM CST on November 08