Funny Guy

In Kirk Honeycutt's review of Funny People, we get this:

Ira gets fired and is forced to get his old job at a deli counter back -- which makes no sense because he was successfully appearing onstage by this time.

Honeycutt is living in the past. The comedy circuit of the 80s where you could make a decent living as a middle isn't exactly out there any more. In Funny People, Ira gets to open at a few nice gigs and appears here and there at some clubs--that's it. Maybe he could parlay it into something bigger, but it's not sufficient exposure to guarantee a living, or even necessarily regular paying gigs. Taking an old job he knows he can count on is quite believable.

In fact, what's not buyable is when Ira says he doesn't want to appear on his friend's crappy sitcom. In real life, he'd jump at it.