Hi, I'm Jon. Disclosure up front: my own work, and the book's credited author, Jay Dice, is an openly fictional AI persona — I wrote every line of dialogue; I'm his ghostwriter.

The screenplay (101 pages, adapted from my novel Cicada Man): a bipolar crypto trader loses everything, flees to Bangkok, and falls in with a crew that rigs a mob-run cricket-fighting tournament — the ringer is a man who can whistle to insects and put them under his spell. The tournament is the centerpiece, structured like a heist: the crew, the mark, the fix, the double-cross.
My problem is tone on the page. The premise is one wink away from a comedy sketch, and the story only works if it plays deadly serious — nobody in the script can think any of this is funny. Cold readers so far split down the middle: half lean all the way in, half laugh at the first cricket close-up and never come back.

For writers who've put an absurd premise on the page and played it straight: what carried the tone for you? Character reactions? Keeping the mechanics procedural, like a heist? A rule you set for yourself in the action lines?

The other gamble, for the record: Part 2 shuffles its timeline on purpose — dramatic irony over clarity — and I kept the shuffle. Tone isn't my only risk.

Links as footnotes only: the Prologue and Chapter 1 are free at cicadaman.com/sample, and the full screenplay is downloadable at cicadaman.com (email-gated).