Tag: jokes

Dealing with Hecklers

For whatever reason, people (on the internet, especially) are obsessed with comedians interacting with hecklers. They love seeing a comic take hecklers down. Which I think actually kind of hurts the comedy experience. It’s a negative feedback loop where people see comics dealing with hecklers and think, “that’s hilarious! I want to heckle so that the show is funnier.” But the show is the funniest when the comic is doing his material and no one interrupts.

However, I thought I’d share this video because it shows a lot of creative ways of dealing with hecklers that I admire. It takes a lot of talent to deal with a heckler in a new creative way. Here are some great comedians doing that.

Paul F. Tompkins on Peanut Brittle

The first time I heard Paul F. Tompkins was in the car on the way home from a comic’s retreat in upstate New York. Never before had I heard a guy who was so willing to push a joke concept to the extreme. He just seems to keep hammering a concept until you’re forced to laugh.

This is a fantastic bit of his about peanut brittle. Enjoy.

My Name is All Over Long Island City

All over my neighborhood there are these graffiti tags that say “Stu.” Which on one hand makes me wanna be like,”Woah – I did not do that, officer!”

But on the other hand it makes me feel like I own Long Island City, which is pretty cool. I don’t mind owning all of the buildings and streets and cars that go by – I relish the power. People walk down the streets because I allow them to, not because they chose to do so. I let them take the train because I’m a good guy. I own that shit, but I’m humble about it. People bow down to me, but I’m cool about it. One time a man in a raggedy coat knelt down in the trash outside my apartment and I was like, “Oh no it’s totally fine, don’t worry about it.”

But a few weeks ago I noticed a new tag that as put up right next to one of mine. One that says “Randy.” And all of a sudden, more and more “Randy’s” are showing up all over Long Island City. Which makes me feel like I should be watching out for a guy named Randy. Who also lives in Long Island City. Because I feel like one day well just run into each other on the street and I’ll be like, “ARE YOU RANDY?!”

And he’ll be like, “YEAH!! ARE YOU STU?!”

And I’ll be like, “YEAH!!”

And then he’ll be like, “I’m a comic and my graffiti joke is better than yours! You didn’t even consider it from my perspective. Think of how much better the joke would be if you knew that we were both comics. You could say things like, ‘Mannnn, a comic will do anything for some free publicity!’ or ‘We should have been writing our jokes and twitter handles on the wall.'”

And I’ll be like, “Shit. You’re right. I am a pretender to this throne. Long Island City is yours.”

And he’ll be like “Nah dude, whatever.” Cuz we’re just regular dudes, neither of whom actually put up those tags.

I wish I also had a picture of a Randy tag.