Hecklers

For anyone who doesn't realize it, I just want to set the record straight. Unless they ask a question directly to you, anyone who talks during a comedian's set is a heckler. It doesn't matter what the person says, it's a heckle. Even if you think you're helping, you're not. And this is what gets me, is that people actually feel like they can just shout something at someone on stage. No one would heckle an actor in a play, or a speaker doing a speech, so why do people feel entitled to say something to a comedian? 

I haven't gotten heckled on stage. The BrainWash has an unspoken rule that, no matter how bad the comedian, nobody heckles. Now, the problem with the BrainWash is that people will still carry on and talk as if no one is on stage, but that's just an open mic, and you have to deal with it. However, in all the time I've been there, I've only heard someone make an audible comment about the comedian while on stage once or twice, which is impressive considering how bad they can be. 

The reason I was thinking about it was because a comedian I was supposed to see at the Punchline (John Caparulo) ended up cancelling. Instead of calling off the night, they brought on a fairly well known local comedian who I had been intending to see, but hadn't made the effort yet. His name is Joe Klocek. When I went onto YouTube to check him out, this was the first video I found: "Heckler vs. Comedian Joe Klocek"

It was the most brilliant handling of a heckler that I've ever seen. It was a tremendously dangerous move, but executed flawlessly. I then continued to watch about 2 hours of comedians dealing with hecklers, some more successful than others. What I found was that the best scenario is to respond directly and cruelly to the heckler with a couple of comments. One comment isn't usually effective enough, and if handled well, it becomes a joke and should be drawn out for a few lines. However, too much attention and you risk getting completely off track. I've been taking a few notes on the ones I particularly like, but I get the feeling that it's one of those abilities that, unfortunately, only come with practice.

ps. Joe was brilliant, and it's apparently his style to do a lot of crowd interaction. I highly recommend seeing him if you get the chance.

Slow the Hell Down

So I don't know if you've noticed from my videos, but I need to slow my delivery the hell down. I've gotten a million times better than when I started, but I still need to just take a breather and chill the hell out when I'm up there, and I need to do it in two ways. 

First and foremost, I need to give people time to laugh. If there's one lesson I'm learing over and over, it's that people won't laugh out loud if you're already halfway into your next joke. It's almost as a courtesy; they want to hear what you have to say next. On top of that, if you really lean into a pause, it not only gives people the chance to laugh, it also cues them to start laughing. 

Secondly, I need to slow down my rate of speech. I've always had a problem with this, and it's only amplified on stage. If it's not keeping people from understanding me, it's definitely keeping people from following a story. The faster I talk, the more people focus on the overall concept and less on the details. But the damn joke is in the details! 

I've been given all sorts of techniques for how to do this, but the problem is not just actually speaking slower. I've done public speaking for quite some time, and when I'm in front of a podium my words come out measured and clear. However, I'm not expecting a response until the end of my speech, and it's not likely that people simply won't applause. 

On the other hand, when I'm on stage doing comedy, naked and hiding behind a mic stand, I'm expected to make people laugh, loud and often. If you go more than 30 seconds without getting a laugh you start to wonder if people are still with you. If you're at a minute with no laughs, you better hope you've got a hell of a reward at the end of the long road you're taking your audience down. This sort of pressure can make me rush through jokes, and if I don't get a laugh, I start getting a little nervous which will make me go faster.

To get better at balancing this, I'm practicing my bit more before going on stage, and I practice pausing where I expect people to laugh. I can practically hear the laugh track in my head, and I keep that rythm on stage. Even if people don't take my cue, I look like I'm just having fun, and am totally confident in myself, whether they laugh or not. Projecting that type of image allows me and my audience to enjoy myself more. 

Bill Burr - Self Awareness on Stage

I saw Bill Burr at the Punchline last weekend. It was a truly great show. I had heard about him before, and think I've seen some clips of him on Comedy Central, but his stage persona really came out during his performance. I'm not sure how far (or close) it is to his normal self, but on stage he's a thin, mildly psychotic, conspiratorial stress-ball who looks like he's about to snap. His trademark line, and it worked every time, is "let's bring this back mainstream," and it typically comes out after a line or two about how the banking system is legalized loan sharking or how the world is controlled by only a few families. Not that I disagree with him or anything, but they aren't exactly "golden material" topics. Nonetheless, the awkward silence during which the audience contemplated and tried to digest his reality-tweaking comments were broken with bursts of laughter with his comment, and he would move immediately into lighter subjects.

It's not uncommon for a comedian to have a line they fall back to when they're not getting laughs. Usually, it's something like "didn't like that one so much, did ya?" or some self-referential comment like that. It breaks the audience out of their dislike for their joke, and makes them laugh at the fact that the comedian is "ok" with it. However, it's typically reserved for jokes that don't work. Bill Burr just uses his line almost to pull himself back into it as much as his audience. It's not that he tells a joke that doesn't work, he just goes with his material and sometimes gets lost in the weeds. "Let's bring this back mainstream" eases the audience's tension because because it shows that he's comfortable with his own awkwardness.

No comedian is going to be flawless, and having a way to bring yourself out of a hole is always a good idea. It won't save you if you're bombing, but if you can sense that you're losing the audience with a subject, it's a good way to transition into something completely different. I don't have a collection of phrases like his that I'm in love with, I just use something like "not so much?" More often than not, I just power through the joke and get to the next one. Hell, I'll only be on stage for 5 minutes, he's got to be there for an hour.