MovieChat Forums > Heckler (2007) Discussion > I have a question about one of his stand...

I have a question about one of his stand-up routines

posted 14 years ago by CptSupermrkt
7 replies | jump to latest

I had the unfortunate experience of seeing a stand-up of his at Adelphi University in New York, around 2006-2007. It was *awful*...like worse than bad. It wasn't like the jokes were bad, but he was like seemingly purposely forgetting lines, screwing up jokes, and so on, as to provoke a negative response from the audience. And boy, did he. After about 15 minutes, people were booing, yelling stuff at him, etc. Eventually, he called a heckler up to the stage to ask him why he heckles, why he gives him a hard time.

To the best of my knowledge, there were no obvious cameras around. And when we bought the tickets to this event, no one said it was purposely going to be bad. Afterward, I heard a rumor that it was staged as bad on purpose for an upcoming documentary. I just imdb'd him and found this movie, so it turns out that it was true, there was a documentary about heckling.

I haven't seen it and I never will, but I'm curious to know, did he purposely bomb comedy stand-ups to get material for this? From my perspective, I was a paying customer who went to a comedy show, and got screwed out of my money without any warning or explanation. Even like 3 years later, it still pisses me off how badly we got ripped off just so he could tell a few horrible jokes and then spend the rest of the show getting into a cock fight with the hecklers.

[–] CptSupermrkt 13 years ago

It's been over a year since I posted this and I still want a damn answer.

[–] CptSupermrkt 11 years ago

Hello from 2013, someone please answer my question, lol. I'm still pissed off about paying for that ticket.

[–] masonator97 11 years ago

Just watch the movie, damn. It's only two hours of your life to watch it, why is that so hard?

[–] daddie0 10 years ago

Yeah, I would agree with --just watch it. The film is streaming on Netflix. I would say it is very possible that your show was included in the film. They quite a bit of footage from seemingly various events where he was being heckled. And to be honest, it seemed so much worse than the other scenes from other comedians. I even think early in the film there was a show where folks were throwing food/trash at him. Someone hits him with a glass salt shaker.

Looking back at the film now, it's very possible that he could have booked gigs just to be terrible (especially because he's not really much of a standup comedian so much as an actor) and elicit a response for film. That said, I do think you would have to sign a waiver to be included, or it had to be posted on the premises/tickets that the event may be filmed (a common clause on any show tickets). If you watch it I would be curious to know if your show was included.

BTW, you would only have to watch the first third of the film, as he spends the rest of the time hunting down anyone who spoke negatively of "The Son of the Mask" to confront them.

[–] josephnatescott 8 years ago

"he spends the rest of the time hunting down anyone who spoke negatively of 'The Son of the Mask' to confront them" Nope.

[–] josephnatescott 8 years ago

I do know that one of Jamie's longest-standing friends in comedy, Brian Holtzman, is someone Jamie, Doug Stanhope, Bill Burr, and Joe Rogan all admire hugely for his standup, in which, according to Jamie, Brian deliberately tries to get the audience to walk out, as a kind of performance art. Stanhope: "Holtzman is probably the hardest I've ever laughed at comedy.... And he, like, really is insane. It's great."

[–] CptSupermrkt 8 years ago

It's 2016, literally almost a decade since the show, and I'm still pissed off about this.