Leave Them Laughing

Ninety riveting minutes of songs about life and quips about death from the wheelchair of a woman who vows to exit laughing. Once a nationally-known performer of ballads, skits and self-parody, now fated by Lou Gehrig's Disease to perish within a year, the remarkable Carla Zilbersmith will leave a teen-aged son, a few fans, students who adore her, and this 90-minute pre-mortem retrospective of a life lived fully, but far too fast. Beyond the inexorable progress of the disease is the inescapable truth that all of us, sooner or later, will have to confront our own individual demise. No one could serve as a more inspiring forerunner along that path than Carla, who faces her own extinction with wit, wisdom, courage, music and love. Carla's outrageous and colorful sense of humor remains intact, even as her physical body weakens; who else would have the words Out of Order tattooed on her feet!