You can trust a Neil Simon script. Every dot. Every dash; that pause means something. He takes all the jokes out, practically.
“My mother used to go out on her own, and I used to have to keep a look out for my stepfather coming home.”
“I was gladly cuffed, shackled, loaded into the caged bus and driven through the main gate of Bare Hill Correctional Facility for what I pray to God will be forever.”