The late, great Robin Williams once beautifully said, “I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy. Because they know what it feels like to feel absolutely worthless, and they don’t want anybody else to feel like that.”

One night at a comedy club in Los Angeles, a new, nervous stand-up comic was called to the stage by the emcee. In one hand, she casually had a beer that she propped up on the piano. In the other, was her notebook full of scribbled, half-written joke premises and a few wine stains. She did her opening joke, and the response was so quiet, she could hear the ice machine crackling in the kitchen. Joke two, a slight spattering of nervous laughter. Joke three got a heartier laugh, but then it went back to deafening quiet by joke four.

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She mercifully got through her final joke and said, “That’s my time,” long before the red light in the back of the club even went on. She scurried off stage with her beer not unlike that rat in New York scurrying across a sidewalk carrying a piece of pizza. Panicked, embarrassed, and, frankly, a little hungry.

It was just one of those nights. The last time she’d done this act, with nearly the exact same jokes, she’d received an applause break. This time, she was left questioning every one of her life decisions. Why had she come to Los Angeles? How was the next month’s rent........

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