Hecklers are fun until they start giving beers instead of insults. The video is about a comedian named Ariel Elias who had a beer thrown at her during a set. There were a few other comedians who faced some physical assaults during this time as well. I believe.
Here is the pennultimate version of “The Gauntlet” that all comedians must pass. That material needs some amputation and culling. Heckler? Gangfuck…
As others have said, Jimmy Carr is brilliant at dealing with hecklers.
The line that sticks in my mind was when he was heckled on stage, he bantered for a few seconds then said, “If you want my comeback, you can scrape it off your mothers teeth”
I remember Jimmy Carr talking about the best heckle he ever got; it was from another comedian and, oddly enough, came from the stage. Carr was in the audience listening to this comedian’s act, and laughing loudly. He has a distinctive and unusual laugh, laughing on the inhale; he’s described it as “sounding like a seal being molested”. Apparently the comic he was watching got irritated and told him to knock it off: “C’mon Jimmy, I don’t go to your shows and laugh.”
Carr makes his living from hecklers; he’s said that from the stage, as a matter of fact: “Go on, have another go; I do this for a living.”
What Jimmy Carr deals with in big venues is not the same as what comics have to deal with on a regular basis. The higher up on the comedy food chain the less you have to deal with. Instead of an audience that is out to get out of the house or to get drunk they have an audience full of their fans that paid money specifically to see them. With Jimmy Carr the audience knows the game. They will yell out their one line and sit back for the response.
Listening to many comics talk about the issue, the main problem is alcohol. You either have the drunk guy who is a fan who thinks he’s helping the show by interrupting or the belligerent asshole who won’t shut up. Any decent comic can deal with a heckler that throws out a line. A drunk won’t be deterred with a comeback and can ruin the night for everyone. A good club has staff that understand when the comic can’t deal with the interruption anymore and they step in and boot the guy.
Then there is the one thing that every comic dreads, the bachelorette party. Possibly one of them know who the headliner is but the rest don’t care. They will be drunk and care about themselves and their conversations but not about the show happening in front of them. Every comic has a nightmare bachelorette story.
Even good crowdwork comics can only do so much with a disruptive audience member. Someone highly scripted like a Carlin will have some tools in his belt to deal with a heckler but needs to get back on script quickly.
There is a reason why comics think that Steve Hofstetter and some others who spread heckler videos on social media are staged. For one they know him. Also it always shows the heckler being owned and shutting up. They don’t get upset. They don’t continue to drunkenly ramble. They don’t stand up and try to intimidate the comic. If all hecklers backed down after one line it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Carr is absolutely hilarious. I didn’t think that line was in response to a heckler, though. I would pay good money to see him should he decide to tour the Commonwealth hinterlands. His book is also very clever.
If you think this, then you have not watched many Steve Hofstetter videos.
Yeah, Jimmy Carr doing his heckler bit is basically like an improv show asking for suggestions. “Hi, welcome to the show. Before we start, can anyone give me an unpleasant accusation about my mother?” But presumably, its something he honed on his way up in less controlled circumstances.
Similarly I’ve heard from other comedians that Amy Schumer has paid shill hecklers so she can throw pre-written one-liners back at them. Bonnie McFarlane (who opened for her a few times iirc) on her podcast said there was a heckler interaction that made the news that had been deliberately staged in order for it to make the news, iirc a male audience member started yelling misogynist stuff at her and she got him to come on stage and she proceeded to break him down on stage. One of the interactions was basically her asking the man what his day job was, he said he was a salesman and she immediately replied “I don’t buy it”. Apparently that was a joke that Amy Schumer actually used very early in her comedy career and she decided to repurpose it as a heckler response for the special.
Sure, stand-up comedians like Jimmy Carr (who I’m a fan of) and Amy Schumer (who I’m not such a fan of) may enlist shill hecklers into their acts (because real hecklers in the venues they now play in are probably few and far between), but this doesn’t bother me so much. The bottom line is that it makes their acts funnier, and that’s what audiences pay for—a funny show.
The difference, IMO, is that I believe Carr is talented enough to respond to real hecklers (if one should appear in one of his shows) with equally funny comebacks, while I believe Schumer would struggle.
I find Sam Morril among the best in his approach to hecklers:
Steve Hofstetter was already mentioned – he’s another guy who is known for his crowd work and, of course, Jimmy Carr, but I’ve long grown tired of both of them (especially Carr.) I find Sam’s approach funnier and more balanced in the sense that his barbs are not as superficially aggressive, but are exceedingly cool and clever.
Even the non staged ones seem like they get a canned insult unrelated to the heckle (I don’t come to your job and …). What’s so brilliant about that? The best ones do an original riff based on the particular heckle.
Hope he treats hecklers better than TSA agents.
Do you mean you hope the comedian treats hecklers better than the comedian treats TSA agents? Or that you hope the comedian treats hecklers better than the TSA agents treat hecklers?
Or maybe some other combo of this 3-cornered trilemma?
Seems to me if we sic the hecklers on the TSA agents, they’ll never get to Vegas to bother the comics. Win win.
Let’s just say Sam is a very funny comic, but you might not want to go on a flight with him. You’d have to Google his routine.