Synopsis: Stand-up comic Mickey One is fearful that the gambling debts he amassed have made him a marked man in the Detroit clubs that he frequents. Assuming a false identity, Mickey flees to Chicago, where he cautiously resumes his career at the upscale Club Xanadu. When club owner Ed Castle offers Mickey a shot at auditioning for an unknown man with reputed connections in the Midwest, the increasingly paranoid Mickey fears that the mob has finally closed in on him.