Wednesday, November 22, 2006

When Comedy is not Funny

The incident at the Laugh Factory last Saturday has been on my mind the last few days, so I thought it time to chime in.

For those of you that read my blog daily, and friends and family that know me well, I frequent many comedy clubs on a weekly basis. So naturally I have seen my fill of hecklers in the crowd, they are usually young men, with many drinks of alcohol under their belts.

The manner each comic keeps the hecklers in line vary widely, some comic’s walk off stage, others have brought the hecklers on stage, and some just ignore the hecklers all together.

At the Pasadena Ice House, security steps in to quiet the heckler, if prompted by the comic or if the loud mouth is disrupting the show.

This brings to mind the night I brought my daughter Kristine to the Ice House; we were seated in the front row, which means you will be picked on by many of the comic’s. On this particular night the headliner stepped out onto the stage and looked at my daughter and myself, then back at the crowd. He then stated to me “You must take a lot of Viagra to handle such a young girlfriend”.

Needless to say, the crowd was on the floor laughing, but Kristine turned a bright shade of red from being in the spotlight, and yelled out to the audience “He’s my father”.

Jeff Garcia sometimes goes to extremes when it comes to heckling the crowds, my suggestion for the shy types, sit as far away from the stage as you can when being entertained by Jeff.

My dates and myself have been poked fun at many times in several comedy clubs, which I happen to enjoy. But the jokes about myself could be considered racial to some, and unacceptable in a daily newspaper. I date women of color.

Michael Richards’ verbal barrage at two hecklers at his show was completely uncalled for. As a standup comic, he has endured many a heckler, and should have the experience to handle the situation much differently than he did last Saturday.

But don’t take my word for it, view the video and form your own opinions.

Walter Moore has a great cartoon I would suggest viewing regarding the Saturday night rampage by standup comic Michael Richards'.

Over at Native Intelligence, Bob Baker adds a different spin to an apology.

Let’s hope other comics learn a valuable lesson from Michael Richards’.

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