Hecklers at comedy shows

[Halitosis Romantic]

Rudiger? Guess you were just "being like the boy".

[HarmonicGenerator]

The next act tried to banter with me (I said my name was Ruddiger for some reason)

 

 

If only we could all be more like little Ruddiger...

[Bashar]

Rudiger? Guess you were just "being like the boy".

 

I do what I feel like!

[herbie747]

A friend of mine was performing at a try-out night in Camden, about a year ago. Barely anybody there who wasn't performing. And it was a really bad night. Some shocking stuff.

 

After a few ales and many bad acts, some eejit tried to make some weak political point about John Lydon being a sell-out for promoting butter. So I decided to call him on it. And he had nothing.

 

The next act tried to banter with me (I said my name was Ruddiger for some reason), I made some comment about his shirt being one size too small and it clearly hit a nerve. He then invited me onto the stage, tried some more banter but lost his nerve and walked off the stage, leaving me there with the microphone. I was then heckled by the comedians, and I'm not going to pretend I dealt with it as well as Jimmy Carr - but I fronted it out better than they had done.

 

I probably would not have done it if there were many other paying customers, but turned a bad night into a memorable one for all concerned and maybe the wannabe comedians learnt something. My friend thought it was funny, but doesn't invite me to go to try-out nights anymore for some reason. Which is a good thing.

 

The only other time I have heckled was when a compere asked me my name during one link before insulting my line of work fairly weakly. In his next link, he referred to me as 'that guy over there'. So I pointed out that he had forgotten my name, which he was clearly flustered by. Again, a lesson there for him perhaps.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that weak support acts are fair game, within reason. They are there to learn and be tested.

 

Wow - so you go for the 'full-on back and forth and also hop up on stage' level of heckling? That's the problem with hecklers; they're the only ones who think they're hilarious and they're oblivious to everyone perceiving them as an obnoxious & arrogant tossers.

[Halitosis Romantic]

A friend of mine was performing at a try-out night in Camden, about a year ago. Barely anybody there who wasn't performing. And it was a really bad night. Some shocking stuff.

 

After a few ales and many bad acts, some eejit tried to make some weak political point about John Lydon being a sell-out for promoting butter. So I decided to call him on it. And he had nothing.

 

The next act tried to banter with me (I said my name was Ruddiger for some reason), I made some comment about his shirt being one size too small and it clearly hit a nerve. He then invited me onto the stage, tried some more banter but lost his nerve and walked off the stage, leaving me there with the microphone. I was then heckled by the comedians, and I'm not going to pretend I dealt with it as well as Jimmy Carr - but I fronted it out better than they had done.

 

I probably would not have done it if there were many other paying customers, but turned a bad night into a memorable one for all concerned and maybe the wannabe comedians learnt something. My friend thought it was funny, but doesn't invite me to go to try-out nights anymore for some reason. Which is a good thing.

 

The only other time I have heckled was when a compere asked me my name during one link before insulting my line of work fairly weakly. In his next link, he referred to me as 'that guy over there'. So I pointed out that he had forgotten my name, which he was clearly flustered by. Again, a lesson there for him perhaps.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that weak support acts are fair game, within reason. They are there to learn and be tested.

 

Have you ever had a go at speedway?

[Bashar]

Happy you're impressed.

[Loki]

You've certainly taught me something.

[Rey_Piste]

At open mic nights with aspiring comedians, heckling is make and break. If they can't hack it then it's obviously not for them. I've seen the old "So lets see if you can do any better" tetort a couple of times and 9/10 that person will get on stage and mumble something before getting booed off. That one time though when someone comes on with gusto and gets the audience laughing, whilst a rarity can really fuck up a guys act. Mostly because they just shit it because they realise they aren't as funny as they think.

[Bashar]

Have you ever had a go at speedway?

 

Yeah. I said 'Oi Speedway! You're really quite boring for such a dangerous activity.The risk to reward ratio is poor and you should just give it up, son.'

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Have you ever had a go at speedway?

 

Yeah. I said 'Oi Speedway! You're really quite boring for such a dangerous activity.The risk to reward ratio is poor and you should just give it up, son.'

 

 

At open mic nights with aspiring comedians, heckling is make and break. If they can't hack it then it's obviously not for them. I've seen the old "So lets see if you can do any better" tetort a couple of times and 9/10 that person will get on stage and mumble something before getting booed off. That one time though when someone comes on with gusto and gets the audience laughing, whilst a rarity can really fuck up a guys act. Mostly because they just shit it because they realise they aren't as funny as they think.

 

Exactly, that's why I said I don't mind hecklers, unless the comedian is shit or going through the motions they really shouldn't be a threat.

[Bashar]

Have you ever had a go at speedway?

 

Yeah. I said 'Oi Speedway! You're really quite boring for such a dangerous activity.The risk to reward ratio is poor and you should just give it up, son.'

 

 

And that means I win.

 

I've been Alan Hill, wishing y'all a good night.

[Halitosis Romantic]

Have you ever had a go at speedway?

 

Yeah. I said 'Oi Speedway! You're really quite boring for such a dangerous activity.The risk to reward ratio is poor and you should just give it up, son.'

 

 

And that means I win.

 

I've been Alan Hill, wishing y'all a good night.

 

[herbie747]

I hate memes, but fuck it - this kinda sums it up for me:

 

[Dead Mike]

It takes a special kind of prick to heckle at a new act night, obviously if it's a gong show type deal that's a different beast altogether but it's akin to going to a kids football match & shouting abuse at the players for not being up to Premiership standard. These nights usually only charge a few quid at most, the acts are likely unpaid & only doing very short sets. If an act is doing badly they're more than aware of the fact, the compere at these shows is usually a pro act so no matter how bad someone is you've only got 5-10 minutes to wait until they're back on stage again.

 

The idea that 'it's OK if they're shit' is a truly strange one. What if other people in the audience think the act is good but you don't, is it OK to interrupt the show because something's not to your taste? I've seen plenty of acts split a room, the number of acts that truly 'die' is few & far between. Given that most people who buy a ticket to a 'comedy night' don't know every act on the bill or their brand of comedy it's very likely that there'll be an act on you don't like. This doesn't give anyone the right to spoil that set for the rest of the room.

[Rey_Piste]

It takes a special kind of prick to heckle at a new act night, obviously if it's a gong show type deal that's a different beast altogether but it's akin to going to a kids football match & shouting abuse at the players for not being up to Premiership standard. These nights usually only charge a few quid at most, the acts are likely unpaid & only doing very short sets. If an act is doing badly they're more than aware of the fact, the compere at these shows is usually a pro act so no matter how bad someone is you've only got 5-10 minutes to wait until they're back on stage again.

Those sort of nights should be like swimming with sharks, there are too many shit comedians who get through life not realising they're shit because they live in a bubble. The reason for this is because when they go to these nights they are playing to either their mates and the rest of the acts. Their mates think they're hilarious and will laugh at anything and the other acts are too self involved with getting their shit together to pay attention with the guy on stage. Saying that though I've seen other comedians heckling from the bar, which is either due to jealousy because their act bombed or because the act on stage is straight up shit.

The idea that 'it's OK if they're shit' is a truly strange one. What if other people in the audience think the act is good but you don't, is it OK to interrupt the show because something's not to your taste? I've seen plenty of acts split a room, the number of acts that truly 'die' is few & far between. Given that most people who buy a ticket to a 'comedy night' don't know every act on the bill or their brand of comedy it's very likely that there'll be an act on you don't like. This doesn't give anyone the right to spoil that set for the rest of the room.

I sort of agree with this, there are acts which 55-75% of the audience gets and when those that don't get it are being overly noisy it does ruin it. Then there are the drunken twats who are just shouting and want to be heard who thik they're hilarious, they're cunts who are ruining other people's nights. I've seen acts who have had no reaction from a room whatsoever apart form maybe slight amused titters and that will tend to be from the table their mates are sitting at. I saw one bloke get up on all stage really boisterous and proceed to tell 3 sexist, racist and generally poor taste jokes. To comeplete stunned silence, then he sort of looked out to the crowd with a tear in his eye mumble about making a big mistake and bolting for the door. Which was the only laugh he got.