Last week at Chief Ike’s showcased many fine local comedians, but it also featured one obnoxiously drunk patron. While I don’t want to dwell on that incident for too long, I can say that I did not handle the situation well as the Host. It was just something I had not dealt with before and for one reason or another couldn’t smother that vodka fueled fire before it got out of hand. And it did.
It was a learning experience, most definitely.
I have dealt with drunk people in improv shows before. But they don’t interact so much during the show so much as they EXPLODE at the chance to throw out an suggestion at the top.
“DILDOS!! VAGINA!! DRINKING!! SARAH’S TITS!” and then proceed with the typical drunken laughter/snoring.
It was bound to happen for me during a stand-up show, too. Which makes me want to be more prepared for the future. How to do I handle someone like that on stage? How do I handle it as a host, booker, owner? Talking about it with a few folks, there seem to be some rules of engagement.
[Hit the jump for the rest of this "YOU SUCK!!".... post.]
1)The audiences enjoyment comes first. A heckler always undermines that, therefore your loyalty with the one patron ceases to exist.
2)You want to handle it first with grace, second with bluntness and third with a boot out the door.
3)There are different types of hecklers and some can be handled better than others.
Supposedly there are two types of hecklers. Both of them I assume are drunk. The first are those who think they are adding to the show:
“MY SISTER WENT TO GEORGE MASON!”
“Great, I didn’t ask. Shut the fuck up.”
“BUT SHE DID!”
Or the more abusive types, the ones who want to hurt you and the show:
“YOU SUCK! YOU ARE UNFUNNY!!BAHAHAHA”
“THANKS FOR COMING. Show him the door.”
Then there are those who don’t even know they are disrupting the show, the stereotypical LOUD drunks.
“I ALREADY ATE BEFORE THE SHOW!!! I DON’T WANT ANYTHING!!!!”
Do all these types of people need to be dealt with in the same way? I am really interested in what comics & improvisers have learned from their dealings with heckers. I still think it is some of the scariest shit out there. Hell, it’s St. Patrick Day. Share some drunken stories.
BONUS: Cool article on a heckler getting put in his place at a Comedians of Comedy show in NYC. COURTESY DEAD-FROG.COM
SUPER BONUS: Maria Bamford's latest episode.
10 comments:
Solution - take a water pistol, paint it black, and carry it in a holster with you on stage.
The unoriginality of most audiences ("Dildo! Condom!") of most improv audiences is one of things that deters me from a lot of shows. And that's when they're sober.
That, and the mere mention of the loud drunk (spot-on, btw) who doesn't know everyone can hear him and is an asshole makes me want to punch something.
I've seen one sober "classic" heckler in 2.5 years of doing comedy, he screamed "Your jokes suck!!" at Kevin Williams when he was opening for Daniel Tosh. It was kinda creepy. But Williams got laughs off of him and the manager shut him up.
Don't feel bad, dude, it happens. Just ask them nicely to quiet down (don't address them about it from the stage if you can avoid it), and if they keep being dickish about it just ask them to leave and don't feel bad. Most of the time, you're in a bar/club with a manager whose job it is to keep jackasses out of their place so they should help you remove them.
I'm offended, my tits are hilarious and they don't heckle.
Because I tell joke after joke after joke without leaving much space and have a musical instrument I haven't had that much experience with hecklers (the musical instrument is either soothing the savage beasts, or making them afraid I'm going to him them over the head like Kenny Moore does in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO5_1cs4j84).
My general belief is that your response has to originate in the tone of your performance, in the sense that if I'm doing a guitar set with a gentle tone and I go "hey, shut the fuck up" it puts people off because I've broken my own set tone, but if I go like "hey, if it's not too big a deal would mind please... just stop talking? That would be awesome. Thanks." then that usually elicits a little laugh but gets the message across.
But if I'm doing something like a set without guitar and being more loud then I can say something like "Hey that's great but actually the audience participation part isn't coming up until after this set when everyone gets to punch the heckler" then that might work then.
I don't know, I don't really have any prepared lines, and if it's just as easy I'd prefer to keep going than stop the show, but I think that you're right that the audience's enjoyment comes first and if the person won't stop the best way to do it is to get them to realize that the audience likes you and doesn't like them. The danger is you don't want to go overboard by swatting a fly with a sledgehammer, because I see people do that a lot and it can totally alienate the audience.
Live link to the Kenny Moore guitar smash video.
i think responding to hecklers is just a primal and savage form of crowdwork. you can think of stuff to say beforehand but really it comes down to the specific occasion what method of smackdown (including gentle hugging) you end up deciding to use.
i can't wait until the day hecklers unionize.
Work the Comedy Factory for a few years. Problem solved.
What if the heckler is you chatty-kathy girlfriend?
oh, that has got to be the worst, because that is also a reflection on you. Hopefully, your GF will know how to behave in that situation...right? if not, RED FLAG!
Bitches get stitches . . . from laughing so hard . . . at other comics . . . (sob) . . . I miss her.
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