A nightclub comedian in Detroit lives extravagantly and accumulates a number of large gambling debts. Certain that the underworld syndicate that controls his debts and the clubs where he works is going to punish him, he flees, eventually winding up on the west side of Chicago. He uses a social security card with the name Miklos Wunejeva to obtain a restaurant job hauling garbage. Wanting to resume his career, he contacts an agent, Berson, who books him at the posh Club Xanadu, owned by Ed Castle. Meanwhile, Mickey's landlady attempts to evict him and move another tenant, Jenny, into his apartment. Mickey refuses to leave, and he and Jenny fall in love. One night, they watch an artist, whom Mickey has seen around town, unveil a kinetic sculpture which goes out of control, explodes, and burns down. Mickey is wary of the Xanadu booking, fearful that Castle may know his enemies in the syndicate. Mickey is persuaded by Castle to audition for a man connected with clubs in the midwest, but, fearful that the man might be a mobster and unable to perform without an audience, Mickey cuts his performance short. Determined to contact someone in the syndicate, Mickey searches for the mob-run crap game, but he is beaten in a brawl involving costumed doormen from various clubs. After he discovers that Berson has disappeared, he decides to keep his commitment to Castle and begins his first show at the club.