Mickey One

A Detroit based stand-up comic, who has a penchant for gambling and women, has his gambling debt of an unspecified amount bought out by the mob for a reason unknown to him i.e. what he did to irritate them. Fearing for his life, he sneaks out of town to Chicago to start life anew doing whatever menial job he can get working under a found social security card, he thus acquiring the name Mickey One, a shortened version of the difficult to pronounce Polish name on the card. Able to get a stand-up gig at an out of the way club, he attracts the attention of downtown club owner Ed Castle who wants Mickey to perform at his club, Xanadu. Mickey is already paranoid enough hiding in plain sight in the outskirts of town without exposing himself further in a higher profile downtown spot. In not knowing if he can trust anyone new in his life, whether it be Castle, Jenny Drayton, the woman who he met by chance in the rooming house where he's staying, the two who have embarked on a relationship, his agent George Berson, or anyone else, Mickey becomes so paranoid where he afraid of his own shadow. He comes to the conclusion that there is only one way truly to get his life back, one not without its own high risks.