A brilliant and introverted scientist invents the cure for sadness with a sophisticated, electrically-charged wrist device, which effortlessly triggers laughter in the brain. This drastic change in the human condition brings him great fame and fortune and also leads to murder and his near madness, but he fights for his life and the chance to reunite with the woman he loves.

SYNOPSIS:

In the past twenty years, technology has dramatically changed the human condition. In this imagined technological advancement, electric laughter alters the human condition to an even greater extreme. In this sci-fi adventure and love story, the protagonist, Joe Coyote is an everyman who gets swept into the vortex of fame, fortune, and our celebrity-obsessed, materialistic culture.

Soon after he introduces electric laughter to the masses, his invention skyrockets, and he quickly becomes a billionaire. The excessive fame, fortune, and lack of privacy prove to be too much for him. He makes an arrangement with his best friend to transform his looks through sophisticated robotic plastic surgery and become his exact-image, public double. After his best friend is murdered on national television as him, Joe goes into hiding, frightened for his life and overcome with the guilt and grief over the loss of his best friend.

After five years in seclusion, he re-emerges and risks everything to see the woman he has always loved. She's a world cellist, making her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the city where he has always lived and is in hiding. She's also has Synethesia, a rare brain condition where her senses of sight and sound are fused together, so she literally sees everything she hears. Synesthesia also enhances one's psychic abilities. During the first half of her performance, they connect from afar and fall in love again, though she doesn't know that it's really him. Before he can see her face-to-face at intermission, he's recognized and arrested for his friend's murder.

Their continued separation and his incarceration fuel his longing and determination to reunite with her and to discover the truth about what really happened five years earlier. As his trial unfolds and his lawyers insist on an insanity defense, his future looks grim. Adding to his predicament are some terrifying perversions of his electric laughter device. Rewired, the new electric jolts don't trigger laughter, but unleash other emotions such as murderous rage or intense despair. He must triumph, not just to save himself, but also to save humanity.

Overview: Electric Laughter reflects on the nature of the human condition and the myriad of emotions that are needed to evolve one’s soul. Without the very human experience of sadness, one cannot experience the depth of other emotions like love or joy. This story is also about connections that transcend the physical world and how these connections provide inner strength, comfort, and a deeper connection to life and to one's self. Joe and his great love, Angelica exchange energy in such a way as to create a psychic connection. Her condition of Synesthesia often comes with heightened extra sensory perception (ESP), which she uses to help save his life and solve the mystery of his best friend's death. While her condition initially brought them together, their profound connection helps her see beyond the physical realm and eventually helps to reunite them. A recurring use of holograms suggests that a person's energy can be very real, even if that person is not physically present. It's the connection that matters most, transcending physicality. The opening scene depicts Angelica playing the cello in living room in his brownstone in Chicago's Lincoln Park. She's not real, but his feelings for her are very real. Synopsis: Joe Coyote (50) rides in an open convertible in the St. Patrick’s Day parade when a bullet pierces his forehead. Pull back to reveal Joe (50) watching a replay of the murder of his public double and best friend, Graham Gold (40). This murder scene plays out at various intervals throughout the script, revealing new information and different perspectives each time. Holed up in a brownstone in Chicago for five years, Joe has been too afraid and too remorseful to leave. To alleviate his loneliness during exile, he created a life-size hologram of the woman he loves, Angelica Johnson (40), a gifted cellist who also has Synesthesia, a brain anomaly that fuses sight and sound. The journey begins when Joe ventures out undisguised to see her perform with the symphony. The only others who knew about their arrangement were Sturgis Regan (70, his mentor/lawyer), and Olga (40, European plastic surgeon/Graham’s wife). During her performance, Joe and Angelica’s eyes meet and they fall in love, though she doesn’t know that it’s really him. Before he can reach her at intermission, he’s intercepted by Sturgis and taken out to the back alley where he is arrested and charged with Graham’s murder. Encouraged to plead, not guilty by reason of insanity, he is denied bail an is pushed to the brink of sanity after he’s administered a perverted version of electric laughter version that tortures him instead of triggering laughter. This new version triggers dark, painful emotions like anguish, fear, and murderous rage. Angelica comes to see him and fuels his hope for a future together, but the torture starts to erode his mind, his body, his soul, and his hope.

The exhaustive manhunt for Graham five years earlier led by Sturgis supports the evidence against Joe as Graham’s killer. As the trial progresses, Angelica taps into her ESP ability that’s inherent with her Synesthesia and uncovers segments of the truth, which ultimately lead her to Graham who is still alive.

While Joe is pushed over the edge, Angelica finds Graham in a remote part of the Alps with his wife and kids. He returns to testify and save Joe. He provides enough evidence to arrest Sturgis for fraud and the torturous use of electric laughter. The murder scene plays out one last time as Graham explains what really happened. With an elaborate disguise, razor-sharp timing, and a hologram in the ambulance, Graham convincingly faked his own death so he could save both of their lives. With Graham alive and the torture device removed, Joe's psyche starts to heal. In the final scene, Joe goes back home a free man. Instead of her hologram, the real Angelica plays her cello in his living room, reunited at last. He can finally hold and kiss the real life version of Angelica and become the real life version of himself.

ELECTRIC LAUGHTER: FEATURE