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It was a joke about a mom, cocaine, and Walmart that got the man moving.
He was sitting with a woman at the Laugh Factory in Chicago this winter, and he enthusiastically shouted at a drug-related joke that he was her mother after being sarcastic about his relationship with the woman.
When the next comedian Joe Kilgallon picked up the microphone, he thought of a joke.
“It’s healthy – cocaine with your mom on Monday,” said Mr Kilgallon humorously. “I get real Walmart vibes here.”
Club officials and Mr Kilgallon said the man jumped out of his chair, cursed and gave a head start for the scene. A security guard caught the man before he could climb onto the stage and led him out of the club via the emergency exit.
Considering that making fun of people and mixing it up with snoopers is basically part of the job description, it’s been nothing more than the kind of minor confrontation that comedians have had to deal with for years. But lately several high-profile physical attacks on comedians — Will Smith slaps Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars in March and a man Tackling Dave Chappelle on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last week – it left some comics wondering if the stage was getting any less safe, causing some clubs and venues to take steps to increase their safety at comedy shows.
Laugh Factory officials say that as a result of the recent unrest, they added cameras and metal detectors to some of their locations and increased the number of security guards. They made a few additions – “This is not a UFC match!” “We don’t care about your political affiliation!” – the standard monologue about the minimum of two drinks that people hear walking through the door. Uptown Comedy Corner in Atlanta last weekend hired an off-duty police officer to increase its security, brought one of its bodyguards closer to the scene, and began using metal detection rods to check on customers and their bags at the door. And the Hollywood Bowl said it implemented its own “additional security measures” after the attack on Mr Chappelle.
“What is their sole purpose when a comedian takes the stage?” “Yes, I Can Say This: When Comedians Come For, We’re All in Trouble,” he asked comedian and writer Judy Gold. “To make you laugh. That’s it.”
“When you take the comedian’s intent out of the formula and decide, ‘I’m going to take this joke the way I perceive it, not the way the comedian intended,'” he said, “then you say, ‘I didn’t do it.’ I want it, it’s just devastatingly sad.”
In interviews, comedy club owners and comedians have expressed varying degrees of concern about recent events. While some spoke of an alarming increase in audience outbursts that preceded the Oscars, others warned against conflating what happened to Mr. Rock and Mr. Chappelle and drawing any overly broad conclusions.
Trevor Noah handled the situation with comedy last week when he cautiously appeared on stage on Comedy Central’s show “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” under the watchful eye of a man in a black windbreaker writing “Security.” Mr. Noah muttered into a Secret Service style headset as he opened the show.
Noam Dworman, owner of Comedy Cellar in New York, said he saw the Smith-Rock match as a very specific “one-off”, where it seemed that Mr. He said it was alarming to see an audience member dealing with Mr Chappelle, but it could be part of a broader trend.
“Violence seems to be coming upon us,” said Mr. Dworman, referring to recent riots and protests that have turned violent. “We have many people who associate words with violence. And the logical extension of equating words with violence is to say that it is reasonable to respond to words with violence.”
Some comedians ignored concerns about their personal safety, mostly stating that they weren’t big names like Mr. Rock and Mr. Chappelle. Some have made it clear that they do not plan to soften their ingredients. But some worry that societal forces, including the fierce debates of the Trump years and the challenges many faced during the pandemic, may have made people increasingly nervous and less willing to joke around.
Jamie Masada, owner of The Laugh Factory, said he counseled his comedians to consider that some viewers have spent most of the past two years in their apartments during a tough pandemic. Mr Kilgallon said that after being alone for long periods of time, he believed that “people don’t know how to behave in public”, whether at comedy clubs, bars or sporting events.
Comedy clubs employ bouncers and security guards to deal with bosses who have long been over-served or giggled a little too much. Long before Mr. Smith stepped onto the Academy Awards stage to slap Mr. Rock as revenge for a prank on his wife, scattered examples peoples confronting comedians during their setsor in some cases, physically attacking them.
After the Oscar slap, some comics warned about it. potential for copy cats. Not only was Mr. Smith kicked out of the Dolby Theater after hitting Mr. Rock, he was soon given a standing ovation when he received his Oscar for best actor. (HE IS He was then banned from the Oscars for 10 years.)
“These people gave him a standing ovation and didn’t punish him,” Ms Gold said of Mr Smith. “We all said there would be copycat attacks. And there it was.”
The attack on Mr Chappelle was darker. A man carrying a gun attacked Mr Chappelle on stage at the Hollywood Bowl.Netflix is a Joke: Festival“Los Angeles city attorney Charged 23-year-old Isaiah Lee with four misdemeanors in connection with the attack, including the possession of a battery and an offensive weapon; Mr. Lee pleaded not guilty.
Los Angeles police did not release any information about the motive for the attack on Mr. Lee’s comedy Mr. Chappelle. It has caused controversy in the past. Mr Chappelle discussed the encounter at another comedy show in Los Angeles later that week. Hollywood Reporter. Mr. Chappelle told the audience that he spoke to Mr. Lee after the incident and said that Mr. Lee did this to draw attention to the plight of his grandmother, who was forcibly removed from her neighborhood through gentrification. trade publication reported.
“It’s more the reaction of the people than the event itself – to say it’s something that’s been going on or being repeated,” said Angelo Sykes, a partner at Uptown Comedy Corner, which has stepped up its security after the attack on Mr Chappelle. . “When you hear these things, ‘Okay, we can’t take these risks. We have to be on the safe side.”
In phone interviews last week, several comedians in Los Angeles said the attacks were a topic of conversation among comics after the shows. Ms. Gold described some of her fellow comedians as “tired and tired” and said others were “crazy”.
Comedy, he said, is often a work in progress. “We don’t know where the line is until we uncover our material,” he said. “The audience informs us”
Tehran Von Ghasri, a Los Angeles-based comedian, was among those who said a growing proportion of “hypersensitive” viewers came to the shows and said they were either confrontational, “wanted to be bothered” or both.
Mr Kilgallon said social media is also to blame. He noticed that if a controversial topic was discussed or a tense moment ensued, viewers now quickly pull out their phones. But he said the fundamentals of comedy remained the same.
“Over the last five years, people have come to me after a show and said, ‘Comedy must be tough these days – everybody’s so sensitive,'” said Mr. Kilgallon. “And I say, ‘No, it’s not. I perform in the bluest parts of the country and in the reddest parts of the country. If you’re funny – whatever the joke, people will laugh.”
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