Prospective homeowner Jack checks out a house for sale. He wows the realtor with his photographic memory. He also learns a theatre used to take up the entire block, but it burned down in the 40s, and was then replaced by houses. Jack buys the house.
Jack moves in, discovers a poster for the theatre's stage door in the closet. The poster gets ripped.
That night, Jack gets into bed. A spotlight appears at the foot of the bed, and comedian Shecky Mendlebaum steps in. His jokes are bad. Really bad. And he won't let Jack stand in his way of performing.
The next morning, and Shecky is still at it.
Jack researches Shecky and discovers that he died in the fire that burned the theatre down.
He pleads with Shecky to stop, but the comedian sees this as his big chance to shine and is determined to keep going.
Jack soon realizes that Shecky is repeating his act, with the same jokes.
Jack starts stepping on Shecky's punchlines, which really gets under Shecky's skin. Soon Jack is doing better punchlines, totally upstaging Shecky.
All of this flusters Shecky so much that he vanishes in a puff of smoke.
Jack settles in for a good night's sleep, but the spotlight shines again. An accordion player steps into view, glad that Shecky's finally gone, followed by the opening notes of "Lady of Spain".