The Empire of Giggle

 

The empire of giggle. Its amazing how from little things big things grow. It started off as a thought bubble, but the brothers Marx always knew that they had it in
them to create something that could and would shake the world. Their parents from an early age taught them that you must always strive to be the best and that success
is always a result of hard work, insights, persistence, family support and a pinch of luck. Papa Marx (Robin) would always say that behind every great man is a woman,
to which Mama Marx (Robyn) would add, and behind her is his wife. They certainly were a strange lot this Marx clan.

The three brothers Groucho, Harpo and Chico were born in Belorussia. Groucho, the oldest and the most entrepreneurial; He was always trying something new, some great
scheme that would make the family rich. Harpo, the quiet one; the thinker, always empathetic, always thinking of others. And Chico, ah Chico, could always be found
down at the local pub, chatting to the girls or just gambling either his money, or more than likely someone else’s money away.

There was one other in the family, Emma, a shy retiring little girl, the darling of her father’s eye. She was the youngest and as such always protected by the
brothers, especially Groucho who saw himself somewhat as the surrogate father when the parents were away in the fields or down visiting the neighbouring village.

Protecting Emma was especially important to the family as you see Belorussia was a place where the men were tough and the women knew their place, generally pregnant
and by the sink. The social and moral norms of their little shtetl were very traditional in nature, and the roles of the sexes were as long as people could remember,
governed by strict traditional morays. However these traditional values that have served the community so well were under threat. The internet has opened up the world
to people that have traditionally seen there neighbouring village as another planet.

The internet certainly opened up the Marx brothers’ eyes as they saw that their world was not the be all and end all of their existence. Far away places such as New
York, London, Paris and Tokyo beckoned. Opportunities, new cultures and new peoples invited them to partake in a golden future. Groucho, the oldest and certainly most
rambunctious of the trio felt that these golden fruits needed to be tasted. He planned and saved and researched and finally got up enough courage to face his parents
and brothers with his ideas.

“I’m leaving the shtetl” Groucho announced, “its too claustrophobic for me, I must spread my wings and fly”

Groucho’s parents Robyn and Robin (often it was even difficult for the brothers to tell them apart) both looked at each other.

“Claustrophobic?” Robyn asked.

“Claustrophobic?” Robin responded. “May be its something you ate?”

“Give him some chicken soup” Robyn responded, “I’m sure that he will feel better”

Meanwhile both Harpo and Chico were fumbling for a dictionary to find out what the word claustrophobic meant. Harpo’s face lit up when he found the definition.

“Catastrophic” Harpo interrupted, “a major disaster or negative event”

“Is the Tsar coming to visit” Chico inquired.

“Not the Tsar again, not another pogrom, I’ve just finished cleaning up after the last one…: Robyn interjected.

Groucho was getting flustered and a bit angry. “No” he calmly but forcefully interjected “I’m claustrophobic, claustrophobic I need space and this Shtetl is just too
small.”

The family was silent. Both Robyn and Robin looked around their small hut. Their faces highlighted their need to understand what Groucho was saying.

“I’m claustrophobic to” interjected Emma, “no one listens to me; no one pays any attention to what I say, just because I’m a girl”

“Small” Robyn whispered,

“Could be a bit bigger” Robin responded.

“I’ve always hated my room” Chico announced, “It was always too small for me, and I’m sick of sharing it with the cows, the moo all night”

“No, No, you have missed the point” Harpo observed, “What Groucho is saying is that he needs to be able to try things, take chances, have a go, and this little
village, well I love it but I agree with Groucho, well, you’ll never make it here.”

“Me too” announced Emma

The family fell silent again. All eyes looked to Groucho, what was he thinking? Groucho stood up from the table at which they all were sitting, cleared his throat and
began to speak.

“The world is shrinking” Groucho began.

He immediately saw the consternation on the face of his family.

“Not literally” he assured them. “My mind is bursting with ideas, and I’m only young once, I will only get one chance to make a go of my life, my ideas and my talent.
I need to see if what I have to offer really is of value outside this world.”

You could hear a pin drop in the room as Groucho continued.

“I’ve researched this and I know that I must leave, not for good, but for a time to see what I can do. And I want my brothers to come with me, Chico, Harpo success
without you is shallow, and lonely. Mama, Papa, I love you and I will never leave you but I must go, I must see what I can do”

“Me too” shrieked Emma

“Yes you too” reassured Groucho

Groucho then sat down nervously wondering what his family’s reaction would be.

Robin the patriarch of the family finally got up off his seat, looked at Groucho and simply said “where do you intend to go, what place is so much better than our home
and our family and our friends”

“Australia” Groucho announced.

Again both Harpo and Chico feverously looked for an atlas to find out where Australia was.

“Oh that’s Ok” Chico stated, “Australia is not far from here, it’s near Germany.

The family was relieved, all except Groucho.

“That’s Austria you ponce, I’m going to Australia!” Groucho bellowed.

The boys quickly revisited their atlas, nervously flicking over the maps and pages. Their expressions said it all when they finally found out where Australia actually
was. The scene was set; the brothers Marx, with Emma tagging along were off to the land of the endless weekend and the bouncing Kangaroo.

Australian society was certainly different from what they had experienced in Belorussia. The first thing that they noticed was that people hardly wore any clothes.
Winter in Belorussia was always in December, December in Australia was mid-summer. And to make matters worse it was smack in the middle of the hottest summers that
Australia had ever experienced.

The other thing the family noticed was that people seemed to be always smiling. In their shtetl the only person that constantly smiled was the local village idiot.
Tony was his name, and he was always respected and helped because although he was a very simple fellow, he had a good heart. But here in Australia everyone seemed to
be the village idiot, everyone smiled.

The Marx family settled in Melbourne, near a beach called St. Kilda. The house they found was amazing, it had running water and everything. They did not have to carry
the ablution bucket and dump it on the street, something Emma hated doing, after all cleaning up the shit of others was always seen as women’s work in Belorussia, this
house had toilet; absolute luxury.

Once the family had settled in it was time to explore. Groucho of course led the way. The troupe filed out of the new palace to explore their new”shtetl”. The place
was amazing.

Everyone spoke a different language, and the streets were filled with different faces and everyone seemed to get on. There were Chinese people, African people, tall
people, short people, white people and black people. And they all were wearing different types of clothes. Some had hardly anything on, while others were covered head
to toe. They were even people with strange pieces of metal protruding from their faces and other parts of their bodies. Emma found this really funny and assumed that
they were criminals that some had been punished, and these metal bits were part of that punishment.

The whole time Groucho was taking notes, mental notes as to how he could explore and ultimately exploit this new market. He realized straight away that he had made the
right decision to come to this strange new land, truly a land of opportunity and of smiling half naked people.

When they returned Groucho sat the family around the kitchen table for a family conference.

“OK’ what do you think” inquired Groucho

Emma could not contain herself, “I love it…I love it”. She repeated it over and over.

“Its got potential” chipped in Chico, “I saw a whole lot of people exchanging money for little packets on the street, there are a lot of small traders here, and they
don’t even need a shop”

“That’s true” chipped in Harpo, “But they seem to be nervous when they are doing deals, perhaps they are worried about the competition stealing their clients, they
seem to do those deals in the alleyways”

“Perhaps” reflected Groucho, “but that’s them, what about us…what are we going to sell here, how are we going to get our ideas up”

The group pondered what they were going to do. Ideas certainly flew thick and fast. All the brothers seemed to explode with ideas and thoughts, not just Groucho. Even
Emma chipped in with some of her thoughts. All that pent up energy had to be directed somehow, and the conversation at times became quiet heated.

Many ideas were thrown up, bringing in specialty foods from Belorussia, what about specialty clothing, even ideas about exporting Australian items back home, both
Robyn and Robin would certainly have appreciated that.

Although involved in the conversation Emma felt that her ideas were not really considered in the same light as her brothers, and as a result her thoughts and attention
drifted towards the window and the street theatre down below. She observed several performers dancing, doing magic tricks, even jugglers balancing balls on their
head. Down the road she saw street vendors selling all types of goods, and all were happy and all were, from her perspective making a lot of money.

Her mind started to whirr, why not set up a Belorussia shop, an all singing, all dancing opportunity to promote what they already know to a public that had never seen
anything like Belorussia culture before. Confidently she turned to the brothers.

Interrupting the arguing she announced “what do we know here that no one else knows anything about”

The brothers looked perplexed and did not really know how to respond.

“Where are we from” challenged Emma

“Belorussia” responded Harpo

“That’s right “responded Emma

“So what, we are from Belorussia, big deal” dismissed Groucho, “who cares”

“They will” replied Emma, with a degree of anger in her voice. “The place is awash with all types of people, people from every village and shtetl in the world, but
there is no one from our home here, no one from our village or even the surrounding villages. We all miss home, right”

The boys nodded.

“We all love what our home had to offer” Emma announced

The boys nodded again

“Why not introduce Belorussia to Australia, we love it why not these half naked Aussies” Emma announced, sitting down quiet proud of herself.

There was quiet in the room as the family digested what they had just heard.

“Interesting” observed Harpo

“I love to cook” stated Chico

“I have always been told that I can make people laugh with my stories and jokes” announced Groucho.

“More likely you made them cry” joked Harpo,

Emma looked around, and for the first time felt that she had actually been listened to. “Yes and I can dance” she exclaimed excitedly.

The silence in the room slowly but inexorably gave way to a murmured excitement as the Marx family started to expand on thoughts, and thoughts as to how this new
venture might actually take shape. All looked to Groucho, as he had always been the leader and the one that had always back in the shtetl had mouthed off that he had
the ideas and the drive to make things happen, however it soon became obvious that his self confidence and bravado was some what lacking when actually confronted with
putting action into words. All faces turned to Groucho

“What??” Groucho inquired, “Why are you all looking at me??”

“Well” Harpo asked

“What next?” Chico questioned.

“Why are you asking me?” Groucho responded, “You are all part of the family, I’m not the only one with ideas, it was Emma who came up with this one…”

With that comment the three brothers slowly turned to Emma to see what she had to say.

For the first time Emma knew that she was in control, and that her voice and her mind was in a very real sense the guiding light for the family to pursue, a far cry
from the traditional roles that females had in the old country.

Not wanting to miss out on this opportunity Emma confidently grabbed a pen and paper that was sitting on the side table and began to jot some points down.

“What do you all think we need to start this business, where do we start?” Emma stated.

Regaining his confidence Groucho, taking a sip of water from the table got up and stated, “first off what are we going to call ourselves”. As he sat down he slipped
and the water that he was drinking spilt all over his pants. Again his confidence was shot. Unfortunately for Groucho, this accident brought howls of laughter from all
assembled at the table. Emma could not stop giggling.

Groucho’s initial embarrassment transformed into anger and his face got redder and redder.

“Very funny, very bloody funny” Groucho bellowed, “Like a bloody giggle palace, and empire of gigglers at my expense”

“That’s it” cried Harpo, “You’re a genius, we will call our company the Empire of Giggle, fun, happy and full of life”

Everyone stopped giggling to digest what Harpo had suggested. Their giggles slowly turned to thoughtful expressions than smiles as everyone started to warm to and
eventually excitedly adopt the new name.

“Not Giggle palace but Giggle-co, I dub us Giggle-co” announced Chico, “Do I have a seconder?”

With that all the Marx family put up their hand, what they had not realized yet was that they had just concluded their first business meeting.

“Now” Groucho stated “we have got a name, what will be our next step”

The smiles quickly turned to frowns, as they all realized that turning an idea into a business reality was not that easy as it sounds, especially in a new country
where relationships and alliances were few and far between.

“Money, we need money” blurted Chico, “how much do we have?”

Emma who had always been the silent custodian of the family finances got up from the table and went over to an old steamer truck. She opened it, rummaged around for a
few minutes and got out a couple of pairs of socks. Brining the socks over to the table she placed them squarely in front of the boys.

“We doing our laundry now?” joked Groucho

Ignoring that comment Emma slowly reaching into the socks pulling out wads of American dollars together with jewelry and precious stones. The boys were shocked into
silence.

“Our parents gave us this money as a safety net to come home if we needed to” Emma stated. “I guess that they would not mind if we used this money, carefully, to get
our Giggle-co off the ground”

No one spoke, not even Grouch, but the question that they all knew but could not ask was how were they going to spend the money and more importantly would they all
loose it in the process.

Emma slowly picked up the notes and the precious items, put them back in their socks and placed them carefully in the suitcase from which they came.

It was getting dark, they had enough excitement for the day and besides they all were tired, tomorrow will be another day.

Over the coming weeks the fledgling company struggled to gain any traction. Giggle-co might fail before it has even had a chance to breathe.

It can be lonely even in paradise. The weather in this new country always seemed to be warm, and the sea always seemed to be inviting, especially the girls, an
attraction that Chico sometimes found hard to resist.

Chico’s habit did annoy Groucho, however on one such occasion it paid off. As Chico was walking down to the beach his eye caught an attractive woman sitting and having
coffee at an outside café. She was very attractive and as it turned out very busy. Chico could not resist an opportunity, and she was an opportunity.

He casually walked up to her, trying to look as sophisticated as possible, however unfortunately he did not notice the Rottweiler-mastiff cross sleeping by her feet.
He stepped on its paw to which the dog gave an almighty yelp. Startled by the shock of her dog being “attacked” the beautiful women looked up only to see Chico’s face
contorted as the Rottweiler-mastiff cross’s face was inches from Chico’s with the obvious intent of seeking revenge.

“Down fairy-floss, down, the clumsy fool did not see you” the beautiful women ordered.

“Sorry, I did not see your horse sitting under the table” quivered Chico.

“Are you blind, as well as slow” responded the beautiful women

“I was blinded by you” replied Chico, hoping to retrieve the situation, “I hope your horse will be OK”

“Firstly it’s a dog, and secondly he has not had his lunch yet so I’d be careful” barked the beautiful women

Chico gaining in confidence sat down uninvited at the table at which the beautiful women was working and ordered a coffee and cake. The beautiful women did not seem to
care, she just continued on her lap top and besides fairy-floss was now sniffing Chico’s crutch, perhaps he thought that it was his lunch.

In an attempt to break the ice, Chico offered fairy-floss some of the cream cake when it arrived.

Without looking up the beautiful women informed Chico that fairy-floss only ate meat, and that he better be careful or he might lose more than his pride if he keeps on
bothering him. Chico got the hint.

Awkward minutes passed until Chico eventually got up the courage to initiate conversation with the beautiful women.

“Hi I’m Chico, I’m new in town,” Chico mumbled

There was no response

“I’m from Belorussia, you know where it is” Chico mumbled again, but again no response. Chico continued, I’m setting up a company, Giggle-co, it’s going to be great,
although it’s hard finding things and getting things off the ground…”

For the first time the beautiful women responded “start-up, you said”

“Yep” responded Chico more confidently, “we have this great idea to bring Belorussia to St. Kilda, but it is difficult. We want to introduce food, song dance, comedy
all the things that make Belorussia the Las Vegas of Eastern Europe, but like I said we are new here and sometimes we get lost…”

“Really, my name is Josephine, maybe we got off on the wrong foot…” responded Josephine “I own a company that helps people get started, helps people live their
ideas, maybe we should talk…”

Just then Chico noticed Harpo, Groucho and Emma walking on the other side of the road. He called to them excitedly; finally he thought the Giggle-co might have got its
first break.

As they walked up to the table, they too noticed fairy-floss who by now was a lot calmer, especially as he had stolen the cream cake off the table when no one was
looking.

“Here are my family, Harpo, Groucho and Emma, they are also my partners” Chico announced. “This is Josephine, she helps start-up get started, and she might be able to
help us.”

“Really” quizzed Groucho, “and what exactly do you do?’

“We advise and assist young companies get started. My partners and I have a wealth of experience in getting ideas off the ground” informed Josephine “maybe we can
offer you some help, if you’re interested we are having drinks tonight at the office, would you like to come and meet my partners?”

Before Chico could accept, Groucho interjected “not tonight Josephine, but give me your card and I’m sure that we will be in touch”

And with that the Marx family got up from the table, and together arm in arm walked away, perhaps for the first time in Australia they might actually have a chance to
live the dream Groucho so often talked about.

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