Available in both digital and paperback versions - please select format above before adding to cart.
Duncan has always been a pretty boring guy, leading a simple life while working at a bread factory. Then he stumbles upon Brenda, a sad young woman who’s about to end her life. Convinced he’s fallen in love, Duncan strikes up a desperate deal: if he can get her to laugh, she'll give life another shot, but if she doesn’t even giggle, he'll help her go through with her plan. There’s just one catch: Duncan isn’t funny. At all. So he borrows Pat, his second-favourite comedian, to help him come up with the perfect routine. But Pat is having a hard time mustering his sense of humour after a bad break-up, and the last thing he wants to do is teach a lonely loser the difference between knock-knock jokes and schadenfreude while chained to a typewriter.
A tragicomedy of three misfits, Punch Up navigates a hostage situation and a life-or-death comedy lesson to show just how far we’ll go for a laugh.
“Sandler’s knack for realistic dialogue makes this story not only feasible, but gleefully relatable.” —Lauren Gillett, Theatromania
“The writing needed no ‘punching up’ at all; I want some of what Kat Sandler’s been drinking.” —Crystal Wood, Mooney on Theatre
Year Printed: 2017
First Produced: George Ignatieff Theatre at the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival
Acts: 1
Male Cast: 2
Female Cast: 1