Make Me Laugh - Recap

Jackie Slater is a lousy comedian performing in a dive, and trying to keep the audience interested. They’re not, and Jackie quickly introduces the dancing girls and goes back to his dressing room. His agent, Jules Ketterman, is waiting for him, and Jackie complains that he should have been out front faking some laughs. Myron Mishkin, the owner, comes in and dismisses Jules’ excuses for his client, and then tells Jackie that his next performance is his last. When Jackie objects, saying he has a three-week contract and he needs time to warm up, Mishkin tells him to read his contract and leaves. A depressed Jackie sits heavily down and tells Jules that he was a fat as a child, and the kids at summer camp used to shove him off the dock and laugh. That was when Jackie decided that he’d become a comedian when he grew up. Despite Jules efforts to reassure him that he’s good, Jackie just wishes that he could make people laugh.



Later, Jackie is drowning his sorrows at a bar when the bartender tells him that Jules called to say he’s leaving to represent a steel guitar band. A depressed man in a turban comes over and introduces himself as Chatterje, a guru. He explains that he can perform miracles, but he’s a failure. He has until midnight to perform his monthly miracle, or dishonor his family and lose his powers. Chatterje tells Jackie that he can get him on TV or into a booking in Las Vegas, but Jackie says that he wants the ability to make people laugh. The guru hesitates and then says that he has to tell the complete truth, and his miracles contain small imperfections. Jackie doesn’t care and tells him to go ahead. Chatterje concentrates and Jackie clutches at his head in temporary pain. He asks the guru what he’s done, and the bartender bursts into laughter. The bartender then shows Jackie off to the customers, who burst into laughter as Jackie laughs in triumph and Chatterje looks pensive.



A few weeks later, Jules returns and visits Jackie in his expensive dressing room. Jackie forgives him, but admits that he’s bored. His audiences laugh no matter what he does, even if it’s just taking off his hat and putting it back on. Jackie doesn’t get a kick from performing anymore, because it’s too easy. As he shows Jules telegrams of offers, he finds one that wants him in a dramatic role in a Broadway production. Jules warns that Jackie has never been a straight man, but the comedian visualizes himself as winning an award as Best Actor.



At the audition, Jackie reads for the role of a circus clown whose wife abandons him. However, as he rehearses with an actress, the actors and crew burst into hysterical laughter as he reads the dramatic script. The director apologizes to David Garrick, the producer, and Garrick thought that Jackie had potential. He tells the director to get rid of Jackie, and Jackie accuses them of being just like the fat kids who pushed him off the dock. His complaint only gets more laughs and he angrily storms off.



In the alley outside, Chatterje waits for Jackie. He admits that something went wrong, just as he warned, and that Jackie got exactly what he wanted. When Jackie demands that Chatterje give him a new miracle, the guru warns that there is only one miracle per customer. Jackie refuses to accept that, and demands that Chatterje make it so that people will cry when they see Jackie, and no one will ever laugh at him again. Chatterje gives in and performs his miracle, and Jackie wonders if it worked. He walks across the street to try a joke on a flower lady, and he’s run over by a car. A crowd gathers and the flower lady sheds a tear, while Chatterje wonders if he’ll ever get the hang of performing miracles.



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