a portrait of a regular guy and who spend his day barely get by in a series of dead end job and and his night perfect his comedy routine in a series of sparsely attended open mike session at local comedy club and this film fail to deliver anything but a depressing series of vignette center around it main character and play by frank whaley ( who also write and direct ) . how any would be stand up comic could keep try to be funny and and yet be so patently unfunny and and for so long and be beyond me while i have see my share of mediocre comedian and but they all pale in comparison to jimmy and whose depress routine consist of what appear to be confessional and center around his miserable existence . and then we get to experience this miserable existence first hand and a the film cut between jimmy stand up routine and his personal life . what be the point of this sorry exercise . otherwise effective and and at time touch and performance by carla gugino and ethan hawke and and mr. whaley himself be waste here .