Audio Fiction Friday: alleyoop (extended edition)
by: Hannah Wright
Disclosure: Adam Cecil of Local Files Club is also a writer for EAR•WAX, but was not involved in this review.
“It needs to hurt.”
The audio drama alleyoop is a microfiction podcast from AY Media, about a comedian named Oliver whose life is fucked. But it’s not his fault—no, it’s that punk kid, his past self, who screwed him over by not planning for the future. If he could go back, it would fix everything!
So he does.
When writing about a good microfiction podcast, I’m personally tempted to bloviate, which risks writing more words than are actually contained in the microfiction podcast, like explaining the punchline of a joke. The thing is—this is a really good microfiction podcast. Writer and lead actor A. Yeshaiek builds us a little micro-world in NYC where it’s kind of 1992 and kind of right now, which is reflective of Oliver’s character; we hear him tell his audience at the comedy open mic night where the show opens that he never really lived in the now, how he prefers to look forward and anticipate the future. This future is impossible, though, because he is broken, messed up, and it started when he was young.
Oliver has three conversations with his past self. Each conversation changes him down to the bone, reflected immediately in his character and in that same comedy set, ending a different way each time. The first two conversations, you can imagine, do not end so well.
What I find interesting is the way Yeshaiek holds up a dichotomy that Oliver only half believes in: comfort vs. pain. Oliver wants comfort desperately, and he thinks that’s his problem, that comfort and comfort-seeking is what made him fat and unhappy and disgusting. This isn’t a fair judgement to make on his fourteen-year-old self. Have you met high school freshman? Their lives are so hard. Oliver’s life is even harder than average; the text hints at abuse and neglect, bullying, being a Weird Kid with only one friend. What adult-Oliver is sure of is that child-Oliver didn’t do enough to embrace pain. You have to change, adult-Oliver insists. It has to hurt.
This isn’t the ultimate lesson of alleyoop. In fact, the title should have been a suggestion, but I don’t know enough about basketball to have clocked it, so I looked it up. An alley oop is an offensive basketball play, Merriam-Webster tells me, that involves one player making a shot and another player taking the ball mid-air and dunking it. An alley oop is cooperative by design. In this story, Oliver finds he must cooperate with himself, to comfort himself. Life has enough pain. Have some compassion on your past self.
Now, alleyoop was first released in 2021. Why are we talking about it now? Because AY Media has released an extended version on Local Files Club (out today - August 7th, 2026) and can I say? I’m in love with it. This version includes an epilogue and a brand new comedy set, each of which show you the fruits of Oliver’s pain and comforts. I’m not going to lie, the epilogue made me cry. And granted, I cry easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s less of an emotional sucker punch. Oliver continues to grow, to change, to comfort his past and future self, and it is never too late for him to do that. This show bills itself as a dark comedy, and maybe that’s accurate, but I found it wildly hopeful.
Alleyoop is a well-written, beautifully characterized, lovingly sound-designed microfiction podcast about how to fix your own life. Spoiler: you can’t bully yourself into becoming better—shame is a terrible teacher. Instead, try comfort. It doesn’t always have to hurt.
