Alleyoop

Grab your MetroCard—we’re taking the subway out to Queens for the third Local Files Club release, a remastered and expanded edition of 2021’s Alleyoop from A. Yeshaiek. A darkly funny take on self-hate and self-help, Alleyoop explores one broken psyche’s attempt to heal itself and the existential hole it digs trying.

Oliver Green is a broken man. “I’ve outgrown the future version of myself,” he tells an audience expecting stand-up comedy in the bar area of a shawarma restaurant. “He’s younger than I thought. Or I’m older than I thought. Either way.” It’s less of a joke and more his own attempt at group therapy.

One night, after a set, Oliver stumbles upon a chance to fix his past and salvage his present. But Oliver quickly learns that in order to get on the right path, he’ll need to confront who he is more than who he was.

Alleyoop (Extended Edition) is presented with the original six chapters from 2021, remixed and remastered, along with a brand new epilogue and extras from Oliver’s comedy set.

“I wrote Alleyoop originally as a short story, exploring how we’re so terrible at self-help—how we beat ourselves up to fix what we see as broken, who we blame, and how it often backfires in unpredictable ways,” creator A. Yeshaiek writes. “Our efforts are often misguided, and they tend to send us into a cycle of breaking more than we repair, a cycle that never really ends. I thought stand-up comedy would be an interesting vehicle for how it all plays out.”

When revisiting Alleyoop for Local Files Club, Yeshaiek “was curious what happens to Oliver afterward. So in addition to a full remix and remaster, updated dialogue, and new sound design throughout, this edition includes an extras segment and an extended epilogue chapter.”

Whether you’re meeting Oliver Green for the first time or coming back to the bar for another round, Alleyoop (Extended Edition) is the best way to find out what becomes of Oliver Green.