"The candor of this movie as self-portrait is at times almost terrifying … it may be his most revealing film." – Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)

After 10 years in the wilderness, Jerry Lewis returned to the big screen as both actor and director in the effusive shambles of Hardly Working. Critically lambasted upon its release – Roger Ebert famously gave it zero stars – Hardly Working spoke to a cinema and a society in a state of high transition, where the fumbling journey of the main character, an out-of-work clown named Bo, all too closely mapped the emerging sentiment of the Reagan years and Lewis' own struggle to find a new creative and comedic voice.

Fired from the circus he works at after it unexpectedly closes, Bo moves in with his sister and her husband while he tries to find a new job. Wreaking havoc wherever he goes, Bo eventually settles into the glamorous world of mail delivery, only to face disaster anew when he realises that his girlfriend's father is also his boss – and that he hates postmen even more than he hates clowns.