What You Really Need To Know About Hecklers

How to Handle Hecklers in Stand-Up Comedy

I know that there are those who fear getting into stand-up comedy because of the prospect of being heckled during a performance.

But I want to provide you with some information that might just change that perspective — and I’m talking specifically about information you will not get from most any other source.

So let’s start out with this:

Most of the heckling any comedian experiences is usually caused by the comedian themselves. But oddly enough, you won’t hear that from most comedians.

The Main Reasons For Heckling

There are certainly exceptions to that when patrons who have been overserved adult beverages turn into rowdy, obnoxious idiots.

But again, let me reiterate that in the vast majority of instances, it’s the comedian themselves that causes heckling to occur during their show, specifically because:

• The comedian’s stand-up routine is simply not funny and is not generating laughs.
• The comedian’s stand-up routine isn’t tight. In other words, there may be some laughs, but they are few and far between.
• The comedian’s stand-up routine is rude, offensive, or otherwise severely turns off an audience.
• The comedian is riffing by putting down members of the audience [insert put-down aspect here].

The problem many comedians have is that they are under the false impression that once they get on stage, it is the audience’s “job” to endure what that comedian has to offer no matter how unfunny, rude, or offensive they may be.

The reality is that the audience has no such “job” or responsibility — they are simply there to be entertained. And in the realm of stand-up comedy, they expect to laugh.

If anyone has a “job” in stand-up comedy — it’s the comedian, tasked with developing and delivering a show that is funny, tight, and gets the laughs an audience will appreciate and respond to.

Audiences are not stupid. As a matter of fact, collectively an audience is smarter than any comedian. Not only that…

Everyone in a stand-up comedy audience is fully aware of what is possible when it comes to the laughter levels a pro comedian can generate.

A Related Story

For almost five years, I taught traffic school at night and on the weekends when I was in the Navy stationed in San Diego, California.

For those who don’t know what traffic school is — it’s some sort of course (usually eight hours long) that allows drivers who have received a traffic ticket to keep a point off their driving record and keep their car insurance from going up.

I would start each class by asking each person what was the violation that landed them into traffic school. Want to know what I discovered?

I discovered that 99% of the people in traffic school were innocent of whatever traffic violation they received and were simply pissed that they got caught.

In other words, almost all the people who were in traffic school (and I am talking about having taught many hundreds of people over almost five years) never considered themselves at fault in any regard.

And that, folks, is exactly how most comedians approach heckling when it happens — it is never their fault. It might as well fall under the title of “an act of God” or unfortunate accident.

There is a movie that I watched a while back called Heckler that blatantly illustrates exactly what I have just presented. The primary perspective of every comedian at every level in that movie is basically that it is the audience’s fault when heckling happens. The comedian essentially has no role or influence in the matter.

As for me — I call that complete and utter BS. Like I said from the very beginning of this article, most heckling is caused by the comedian themselves for the reasons that I mentioned.

A Different Perspective

Let’s say that you are invited to a party where you know in advance that you won’t know but one person. But as soon as you get there, you start offending others at the party — putting them down, calling them names, using offensive language, and talking about very personal or intimate things in a very crude way.

Do you think anyone at that party might react to that? Might they say something quite loudly to you to knock it off? Might you be asked to leave?

Well, guess what? That’s exactly what happens to comedians who try to do the same sort of thing on stage under the guise of being a comedian when, in fact, it’s the unfunny or rude aspects of what they are serving up to an audience that are the cause of the heckling that occurs.

Now, don’t get me wrong — there are times when someone who has had too much to drink will heckle a comedian for no apparent reason. You can see that in action (and how a pro comedian deals with it) in this article: Watch A Professional Comedian Skillfully DESTROY A Heckler!

Here’s the perspective that served me well when I was actively performing as a professional comedian for over a dozen years…

The best defense that I know of for dealing with hecklers as a stand-up comedian is to have the audience laughing throughout their entire show — no matter how long or short that show may be.

No comedian is immune from the occasional heckler, no matter how skilled or talented they may be. But I will tell you this…

While I certainly had to deal with the occasional heckler, it was a fairly rare occurrence overall because I was able to generate frequent laughs from the beginning of my act to the end — leaving no time for heckling.

And when that occasional heckling did occur, it was dealt with swiftly and effectively.

Final Thoughts

It is not your job to try to please every single person as a comedian. However, it is your job to get the biggest audience laughs possible from most of the audience who are consuming your show.

If you want to try to hide behind some sort of “freedom of speech” argument like many comedians do, just keep in mind that freedom of speech is a two-way street.

You can certainly say almost anything you want (in most cases) when you step on stage as a comedian.

But an audience also has the freedom to react with heckling to anything they find unfunny, offensive, or otherwise hugely unappealing in a comedian’s stand-up comedy routine.