Paul F. Tompkins: Laboring Under Delusions

Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.

Affable hit man Melvin Smiley is constantly being scammed by his cutthroat colleagues in the life-ending business. So, when he and his fellow assassins kidnap the daughter of an electronics mogul, it's naturally Melvin who takes the fall when their prime score turns sour. That's because the girl is the goddaughter of the gang's ruthless crime boss. But, even while dodging bullets, Melvin has to keep his real job secret from his unsuspecting fiancée, Pam.

Nathan Flomm, in order to avoid the humiliation of having missed out on a hugely successful business, assumes a new identity on Martha's Vineyard. He plots revenge when his former business partner moves to the same town.

John Mulaney relays stories from his childhood and "SNL," eviscerates the value of college and laments getting older in this electric comedy special.

In what might be his most personal and introspective hour yet, Bill offers hilarious takes on everything from male sadness to dating advice.

Two men get laid off and have to become stay-at-home dads when they can't find jobs, which inspires them to open their own day-care center.

As he closes out his slate of comedy specials, Dave takes the stage to try and set the record straight — and get a few things off his chest.

Can Taylor Tomlinson have it all? From dating woes to dream jobs to inventive dirty talk, she shares life's ups and downs in this stand-up comedy special.

A depressed white-collar worker tries hypnotherapy, only to find himself in a perpetual state of devil-may-care bliss that prompts him to start living by his own rules, and hatch a hapless attempt to embezzle money from his soul-killing employers.

Comic Nate Bargatze touches on air travel, cheap weddings, college football, chocolate milk and the perils of ordering coffee in this stand-up special.

Step brothers Drake and Josh must give a foster family the best Christmas ever or face years in jail for a Christmas party gone wrong.

Three female employees of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot find a way to turn the tables on him.

Unemployed and recently dumped, Mitch and his buddy Sam start a revenge-for-hire business to raise the $50,000 that Sam's father needs to get a heart transplant.

The affable, towheaded comic demonstrates his hysterical brand of self-effacing comedy and deadpan delivery at two sold-out shows at Chicago's Vic Theater. It's OK to laugh at this pale white guy...'cause nobody's laughing at Jim Gaffigan harder than Jim Gaffigan!

Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.

Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan performs live at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN.

The Tramp and his dog companion struggle to survive in the inner city.

Eddie Murphy delights, shocks and entertains with dead-on celebrity impersonations, observations on '80s love, sex and marriage, a remembrance of Mom's hamburgers and much more.

An HBO special edited from three performances from Chris Rock's 2008 comedy tour: London (dark suit, dark shirt), Johannesburg (black suit, white shirt) and New York (shiny jacket). Topics include the ongoing presidential campaign, the possibility of a black president, George W. Bush, gas prices, low-paid jobs, ringtones and bottled water, sex, relationships and the correct use of the n-word

A trio of guys try and make up for missed opportunities in childhood by forming a three-player baseball team to compete against standard little league squads.

Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.

An architect becomes a voyeur when he spies upon his female neighbor.

After Dick Harper loses his job at Globodyne in an Enron-esque collapse, he and his wife, Jane, turn to crime in order to handle the massive debt they now face. Two intelligent people, Dick and Jane actually get pretty good at robbing people and even enjoy it – but they have second thoughts when they're reminded that crime can hurt innocent people. When the couple hears that Globodyne boss Jack McCallister actually swindled the company, they plot revenge.

J.C. Wiatt is a talented and ambitious New York City career woman who is married to her job and working towards partner at her firm. She has a live-in relationship with Steven, a successful investment broker who, along with J.C., agreed children aren't part of the plan. J.C.'s life takes an unexpected turn when a distant relative dies and the will appoints her the caretaker of their baby girl, Elizabeth. The baby's sudden arrival causes Steven to leave, breaking off their relationship. Juggling power lunches and powdered formula, she is soon forced off the fast track by a conniving colleague and a bigoted boss. But she won't stay down for long. She'll prove to the world that a woman can have it all and on her own terms too!

Micha unwittingly becomes a German hero when a journalist portrays him as the mastermind behind the mass exodus from East Germany.

A man enters a video rental store where some arcane beings as Goran Paskaljevich, Michael Cacoyannis, Ferzan Ozpetek or Andrei Tarkovsky stalk him from the shelves, while the shop manager is reading a book by James Joyce; but he just wants to rent a blockbuster.

A man whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed... and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.

When a law school dropout answers an advertisement to be a personal assistant he unknowingly signs on to work for a belligerent has-been magician struggling to resurrect his career. This leads to a journey across the country staging the comeback of a lifetime.

A med school burnout returns to his small home town, but when he decides against telling his mother that he dropped out, complications ensue.

Wilma has many qualifications and talents, yet suffers just as many disappointments in life. After she catches her husband cheating, she runs away to Vienna in search of a new life. There she lives with bustling bohemians, tries her luck at a variety of jobs and perhaps... at love again.

The extraordinary story of home video in Bulgaria. A lyrical first-person journey into the genuine love local video pirates had for cinema – and their hard-won path toward professional mastery. A chronicle of a wondrous adventure that begins on the small screen of an old television set and ultimately reaches the big screen of the modern cineplex.

Purl, an earnest ball of yarn, gets a job at a fast-paced, male-centered startup company. Things start to unravel as Purl tries to fit in with this tight-knit group, but she must ask herself how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for and if, in the end, it is worth it.

When journalist Dennis gets assigned to write about Pretty Woman for Marquee magazine's “Hooray for Hollywood Hookers” issue, he invites five friends over to screen, celebrate and skewer the modern-day Cinderella story. The partiers include his roommate Tony, a burnt-out cruise ship crooner who's desperately looking for a new gig on land; Lauren, a relationship-challenged aspiring stand-up comic; Marcos, a sweet-natured attorney who never met a tangent he couldn't go off on; Ross, an Opera-loving video clerk with multiple tattoos and arsenal of movie fun facts at the ready; and Dr. Beverly Beaverman, the shrink next door who finds Freudian psychological meanings in everything she sees. Together, they do their best to make sense of the 1990 Richard Gere-Julia Roberts romantic comedy classic while discovering that the movie's themes—sex, money, sex for money—resonate in their lives in ways both ridiculous and profound.

A student secretly goes back to school after getting married to one of her teachers.

Dexter Reed is down on his luck after another one of his inventions fails. Ed welcomes Dex back to Good Burger with open arms and gives him his old job back. With a new crew working at Good Burger, Dex devises a plan to get back on his feet but unfortunately puts the fate of Good Burger at risk once again.

A determined young actress takes on a mysterious errand for a manipulative casting director, crossing paths with a disgraced former actor. As their worlds collide, she’s forced to question how far she’s willing to go to make it in Hollywood.

An attorney stumbles upon a suitcase filled with cocaine.