Punchline

Since I was at home in bed with the flu, I caught up on some old classics, like Punchline from 1988. I watched it in part to do some research for a script collaboration, writing stand-up comedy for a fellow screenwriter. But what I got instead was a poignant story about a woman and her relationship with her family, her husband, her new world in comedy, and ultimately herself.

Sally Field plays Lilah a housewife from New Jersey with three girls and a husband who sells insurance for a living. She was a woman who loves three things in her life: being a mom, being a wife, and making people laugh. In the scenes where we see her in her day-to-day life, you see the mundane, dull and tedious aspects of it, but when you see her at night doing her set, you see her come alive. 

It would have been so easy for her to have left her husband and her kids behind, especially since he wasn't supportive of what she was doing. Even more appealing is finding a kindred spirit in Steven, played by Tom Hanks, who was 10 years her junior and also in love with her. 

Steven: So what's the deal? He doesn't let you have any friends. He doesn't let you do stand up. I'm surprised he let you out the house.

Lilah: He thinks I'm at a PTA meeting.

Steven: So why don't you leave him?

In the end, she doesn't leave her old life for a new one or an old love for a new one. She finds a way to have both. To pursue her passions in comedy, to rekindle her relationship with her husband, and find happiness.

For me, I find a great deal of happiness in writing and in particular writing comedy. Ironically, it started with writing Punchlines on Trigger Street. So what are you all waiting for? Come on people! Do something that makes you come alive!

Punchlines

That's the last time I'll buy jeans from Gap Online.

The little jeans that are the size of a kleenex tissue, regardless of ordered size? Yeah, everybody...  please stay away from Gap Online dot org.