He was at the Lakeshore this weekend(9/11-13/08) and did great. I feel like he's grown in the 8 months since i've seen him do 50 minutes. It felt less like he was telling jokes and more like he was just saying shit he believes in that happened to be funny.
The above paragraph was the obligatory "recap" section of the post, but what i really wanted to say was that this place would feel more like a real board if people would get into some kind of argument. or take it personally. I mean the ha ha board is cool but it's so unwieldy Neat stuff happens but it's just almost too chaotic to wade through. This one is the total opposite, just flat and dry, show listing, show listing, open mic round up, yawn.
I will say this. I love a GOOD Heckler, except when he's fucking my shit up.
Thinking as an audience member (who watches a lot of live stand-up,) sometimes it is good to break the monotony of rote oratory with some genuine human interaction. That heckling takes place outside of the established mores of stand up comedy only adds to the dirty satisfaction it gives watching two people have a little battle of wits for a second. It's the same kind of slowly passing a car wreck feeling I get watching a mom yelling at her kid in public or ultimate fighting. A conflict can go several ways, but a joke will pretty much go one way. I think you can tell a lot about some one in how they handle a heckler. Will the comedian use the stock lines, or ask them to stop, or throw off an insult about looks, or lose his/her shit, or engage in conversation, or start riffing, or whatever...
As a performer I'm of two minds about the subject. On the one hand I think it's medicine ball zen training in life, where you are thrown obstacles to keep you from staying true to the moment, that heckling does have value because it puts you in a position where you have to be vulnerable and open to question and ridicule, and forces you to take an outside energy and deal with it in a way that entertains or at the very least does not rail road the show...
but on the other hand that sh!t sucks and sometimes you just wish a M_ther F_cker would just shut the F_ck up already.
I do not agree with people who hate hecklers and feel like heckling as some kind of stand-up mortal sin. But I empathize with how they feel.
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Originally Posted by tony blanco
