Punchline

Punchline (1988) is a comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, written and directed by David Seltzer. Sally Field and Tom Hanks lead, with John Goodman and a young Damon Wayans in support. The subject is how brutally hard it is to make strangers laugh.

Lilah Krytsick is a New Jersey housewife and mother of three who has always believed she belongs on a stage with a mic in her hand. She talks her way into a Manhattan comedy club and bombs, night after night, in front of a crowd that won't crack a smile. Steven Gold, a gifted stand-up teetering on the edge of his big break, takes her under his wing — though his own life is coming apart. Their odd friendship curdles into rivalry once a coveted TV slot is on the line. Hanks plays Gold raw and barely holding together, and that performance is the reason to seek this one out: it treats stand-up as grueling work, not glamour. The tagline says it all — dying is easy, comedy is hard. Stream Punchline (1988) online on iFILM.