The King of Comedy

FADE IN: 1 EXT: MIDTOWN MANHATTAN STREETS - DAY Behind the opening credits, we watch a montage of RUPERT PUPKIN making his daily rounds as a messenger delivering manila envelopes and packages to various New York offices, always courteous and polite in his demeanor, PUPKIN is an attractive-looking young man just past thirty and dressed in a stylish blue suit, broad tie and wide-collared shirt. His shoes are neatly polished, his hair carefully groomed. As the montage continues, we see that he has finished his deliveries and is walking rapidly towards his destination. It turns out to be a television theater north of Times Square whose marquee announces THE JERRY LANGFORD SHOW. It is dusk and the show is about to break. There is a very small crowd already positioned at the stage door -- a few young girls, a few curious passers-by who have stopped to see who will emerge. Three professional autograph hunters are clustered together: MAE, a lady in her sixties, wears a red velvet dress, a lace hat and much too much rouge. SIDNEY is in his mid-twenties, tall, badly-complexioned, slicked hair but otherwise neatly dressed. He carries a brown lunch bag. CELESTE is an enormously fat woman in her mid-thirties. She wears a large cape to conceal her obesity.