The Moderate Voice occasionally runs Guest Voice columns by people who don’t have blogs or who want to raise an interesting topic here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of TMV or its cobloggers.
We’ve done a lot of posts here on the Michael Richards comedy club/heckler/N-word fiasco. Several were follow ups dealing with the issue of hecklers in comedy clubs and how they are and should be handled. TMV himself posted some links to these posts on a ventriloquists email list.
This prompted an email from John Pizzi, a superb comedy club/corporate comic ventriloquist who has the same “day job” as TMV does. It was so good that we told him we’d run it as a Guest Voice column. and we PROUDLY do so here.
Why? TMV has read tons of books and articles on comedy but Pizzi has presented perhaps the best, most succinct explanation of hecklers, how they should be handled and how they should be handled.
On Hecklers And Heckling
By John Pizzi
I’ve been doing clubs and put down humor for years and the few things everyone neglected to say to prevent hecklers:
1. The audience must love the performer before the performer can get away with putting down the heckler.
2. The audience must feel empathy for the performer after the heckler has made their statement. This allows the performer to shoot back with the audience behind him or her.
3. The performer can say anything, but as usual there is a line that cannot be crossed unless the level of empathy and love of the performer is higher than the put down line at that moment.
4. The performer MUST be witty. The wittier the better. If the performer uses strong wit the audience will respond with even more applause
5. The audience has to feel part of the what is happening. The more connected they are to the act the more power the performer has.
When put downs or slap backs to hecklers don’t work …the performer is usually reacting from his ego(anger) than with wit and comedic ability.
The audience has to know it’s a joke and not from your personal feelings.
When that happens as in the case of M. Richards the audience turns on the performer.
TMV NOTE: If you’re interested in the art of ventriloquism, here’s the site of a friend. Here’s the site of an incredible latex puppet maker. Here’s the site of a dummy maker (not the kind who helps politicians get elected to Congress). And here’s a VITAL SITE for anyone interested in the art.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.