Did a show for an online comedy TV station on Monday night. Supposed to do a clean set and not talk to the crowd at all (the producer made a point of that).
The problem: A table in the back kept yelling shit at the comics all night. Finally the club kicked them out — right before I went on.
Problem solved, right? Not so fast. The club still wanted money for their drinks and I guess the guys didn't want to pay. So plenty of yelling and shouting was going on between them and the club staff. All in the hallway right by the side of the stage.
Eventually the crowd got distracted. I could feel necks turning. Even I couldn't concentrate on my jokes. Though I knew I wasn't supposed to deviate from my set, I felt like an idiot for not addressing it. So I did.
Here's what happened:
It settled down after that so they must have shut up or left or something.
More clips of me dealing with unruly audience members:
Gay heckler yells "f*** you" at me (at Princeton University)
"This roomful of people would like you to stop talking" (at Sound Fix)
Sandpaper Suit is NYC standup comic Matt Ruby's (now defunct) comedy blog. Keep in touch: Sign up for Matt's weekly Rubesletter. Email mattruby@hey.com.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Moving on/Subscribe to my newsletter
I only post on rare occasions here now. Subscribe to my Rubesletter (it's at mattruby.substack.com ) to get jokes, videos, essays, etc...
-
Even the best standups seem to just scrape by. Then you hear about a guy who got a late night writing gig. Pay's nice. Long hours but he...
-
Never been to a Letterman taping. But I've heard the studio is chilly due to Dave's orders. Was talking about it the other day with ...
-
Patton Oswalt preaches love instead of hate in standup. “Actually, I think when you’re younger, anger and comedy mesh together very, very w...
2 comments:
Fun! I like the applause break when you step off stage. You're doing what they all secretly wished someone would do. I can't hear what you say to the guys, but the argument sounds like they piped down.
Good lesson in rolling with it and calling the elephant in the room.
Yeah-- great clips, Matt. I love when you riff on the guy's pickup lines at Soundfix-- fantastic.
Post a Comment