I post a thread in the hangout once in a blue moon and here I am with 2 in less than 12 hours, however Fyreball's question deserves it's own attention. There are 3 basic types of hecklers. 1. The person who has never been to a comedy show and thinks that heckling is a way to "help out the comedian". 2. The person who is somehow annoyed with a particular joke and lashes out to express his/her opinion. 3. The attention seeking db that loves the attention of getting hammered by the person on stage. 1 and 2 I can deal with. They are usually fun people who are oblivious to the way things work. Once they get blasted it snaps them back into the reality of the situation. If they continue they will get a tap on the shoulder from club management to shut up or face being removed from the building. 3 is the one that I hate. I posses within my rolodex of tidbits a special category for this kind of heckler. Most pro comedians have accumulated years of "heckle lines" in which in any situation you can put someone in their place. These lines get more and more humiliating as the heckler continues his dialogue. "If your d*** was as big as your mouth you'd probably have a date tonight" Even for women... "folks this woman is so ugly she has to get the vibrator drunk" Pro comedians NEVER plant hecklers. Normally we can identify a problem before the show starts by observing a certain pattern of behavior. Most are drunk, some say "they should be paying me", the always annoying bachelorette party loudmouth, red-neck dudes sitting together without women or ghetto dudes sitting together without women. When I identify these types of parties I begin to think of ways I can cut them up in the most efficient and embarrassing way possible...well before I even hit the stage. Handling hecklers is an art form. You want to get the point across to them that you will not allow them to ruin the show for everyone else, while being careful not to piss them off to the point of them wanting to kick you ass. Its a delicate and sometimes a hiliarious balance.
totally off topic since I am going to be that attention seeking db When you doing a show in Los Angeles?
Cool insight, didn't even think about preparing for hecklers but the comedian HAS to be prepared to handle them unless they want to get run. Bill Burr vs Philly. That was the best i have ever seen
This man is a pro. I watched him banter with the audience and go off on a few random tangents for an hour straight and it was hilarious from start to finish. Hecklers always get whats coming to them, these are people who think to themselves "I'm a funny guy, I can match wits with this dude". I be like... Broseph, you haven't been writing jokes for years, stand-up comedians have an arsenal of insults they can pull out of the back of their mind in an instant.
AB, I don't know if you have ever done this here, but I would actually be interested to know some bio on you, I think professional stand-ups are fascinating, and I think that life has got to both extremely interesting and also extremely frustrating and occasionally disheartening. How long have you been doing it, how far and wide have you gone, will I have heard you on like Raw Dog on Sirius/XM ? My radio is on Raw Dog or Blue Collar almost all the time and it's really interesting to start to understand how a lot of these guys work, the different styles and methods.
Typical cop. Always profiling people.... Seriously, I've always had so much respect for people who manage to make a living doing stand-up comedy. I can't imagine how hard it must be to get to the point of being able to support yourself. And creatively....I don't know how you don't go crazy trying to come up with original material. Thanks for the thread. This is infinitely more interesting than.....say, some random bartender at a strip club giving us a bunch of obvious anecdotes and claiming it's some sort of inside info.........
The other reason hecklers will never win, is that they don't have a mic. Their blurting out sounds weak, and sometimes not even heard clearly. The comedian's voice comes out clear, and the audience can spend their energy catching the funny rather than straining to just hear the words.
Strong language, but funny! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OhyhzlL-hh8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OhyhzlL-hh8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Don't think it was. I just think he's not creative enough to come up with a snappy comeback so he went to the most obvious insult.