How to Handle a Heckler

Hecklers are what make stand up unique, and also terrifying. In this video, we cover some basic strats to silence, befriend or out-wit a heckler, without resorting to murder.
For educational purposes only. You can donate or support the channel at:
www.patreon.com/comedywithouterrors
Andrew Conway Document - www.juggling.org/~conway/juggl...
Patton Oswalt, 'A Closed Letter to Myself About Heckling Thievery and Rape Jokes - genius.com/Patton-oswalt-a-cl...
Jerry Seinfeld, Heckle Therapist - wagingnonviolence.org/2014/01...

[@SourSourSour]

"The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before"

[@jpjapers]

Every time you post a video I'm hyped. They're consistently fantastic.

[@scenoptica]

Yep. :)

[@lloydhowell8681]

Got Heckled tonight. This was really helpful. Thanks!

[@that.guy11]

I once saw Jim Jefferies live in Glasgow, on the evening of a UK general election. He very briefly touched on the topic, went to move on but someone in the crowd shouted out "Scoootland!" What followed was five full minutes of Jim berating the heckler by inventing a life story for him where the guy's constantly interrupting everyone around him, and concludes with him on his deathbed dying of cancer, he's lying there with his family, and says he has one big regret in his life. His family asks him "...was it the "Scoootland" thing at that show?" "....Yes." Then he dies. It was incredible to witness. Perfect example of the technique of giving the heckler far more attention than they wanted

[@billhicks8]

Stewart Lee's technique is a brilliant one for a comedian who has a difficult, nuanced act to get through (while at the same time having to maintain the image of a more popular entertainer who's let themselves go, of course)

[@mankytoes]

I feel like the advice not given here (maybe implied?) is stay in character. Stewart Lee reacts like Stewart Lee. Dropping your persona would be terrible- unless you're suddenly switching for comedic effect, like Steven Wright suddenly screaming at someone.

[@d2dar459]

​@@mankytoes Easy for Stewart Lee. Lol. Part of his stage persona is contempt for the audience, so when the audience act contemptuous, all he has to do is lean into "Stewart Lee".

[@jacko250]

The comedian Simon Evans recently said on a podcast that in his early career he did a gig at the legendary ‘Tunnel Club’ which was owned by cult comic Malcolm Hardee and was a venue infamous for hecklers. Anyway when he got to the mic a razor sharp heckler noticed he had very small eyes and simply asked “where are your eyes” and it got such a huge laugh the audience erupted in applause, even Evans acknowledged it was a great heckle, so much so that he now begins every show by saying to the audience - “one question you may have is whilst this is all very well, where are his eyes?” which gets a laugh every time. That for me is a great example of someone using a heckle to there own advantage further down their careers! (Oh and also what’s hilarious is years later that same heckler turns out to be a cab driver and he recognised Evans when he got in the back of his taxi and they bonded over that same heckle 😂)

[@conornutt]

Jerrod Carmicheals new special is interesting for this , by the end it is very much a conversation and yet in that context it works.

[@JessicaFriedman32]

True, but it wasn't really heckling. That was just people reacting to Jerrod's story (and a Q&A that Bo Burnham edited together seamlessly with the show). Source is me since I was at the Rothaniel taping!

[@RooJoo2]

One of my favourite approaches I've ever seen was Tom Wrigglesworth at the Comedy Store in Manchester. Someone heckled but fluffed one word and Tom turned it into an entire routine about how this guy had been rehearsing the heckle all day, practising in the mirror, getting ready for his big moment and then messed it up. He was totally sincere and heartfelt towards the guy, as if he was rooting for him to do well and not screw up his one chance. The fact that it was some generic "you're sh*t" heckle made it all the better. It was brilliant and kind and funny and completely shut down anyone else from heckling, which is no small feat considering that the Manchester Store on a weekend can be a bit lively (as that clip of Jim Jeffries getting punched can attest to). It's always stuck with me as such a great way to deal with the situation. Really enjoy all your videos and it's always a treat when a new one drops.

[@SoSo-li6dn]

I love how this guy talks to us as if we are all comedians. Im a painte and decorator, dont include me in your "we"

[@kenlieck7756]

Hey, guys, there’s a civilian in the house! Get the bouncers!

[@alyxvillalobos1031]

I am

[@chilldude30]

I'm a heckler

[@belzi87]

Its pretty clear that you are not a comedian, but a heckler.

[@SoSo-li6dn]

@@belzi87 whats brown and sticky?

[@elimoranodicio4163]

Now I'm afraid to comment until the video is over

[@SeveralOnions]

I'm always amazed at the fact that I'm absolutely gripped throughout the entirety of every single vid that you post. Thanks for uploading and keep up the great work!

[@markwarne615]

Insightful, compelling and beautifully balanced - that was the fastest 35min KZbin vid I've ever watched! Great work sir

[@jdixon390]

Bill Burr is a heckler God. I remember his comeback to a woman when talking about beating women and making it another part of the set, and who can forget getting Philadelphia back on side by insulting them for 15 minutes

[@christiananderson6761]

We’re talking about hitting women, sweetheart!

[@d2dar459]

​@@christiananderson6761 "And I think u just added another reason. RIGHT DOWN THE FUCKIN MIDDLE!!" 😂

[@d2dar459]

Bill shitting in Philly was amazing. There's a transcript of in somewhere in the internet, it's still just as funny written down. Lol.

[@ifeelverygood]

Incredible editing, incredible research, just awe-inspiring.

[@JohnDoe-kq8dx]

Top shelf stuff again, mate.

[@HenOutOfHen]

top tier content, one of the best directors/channels on youtube

[@amosanon3274]

My friend, you absolutely crushed this one, and I'm happy I found your channel and subscribed. ✌

[@martinedwards9344]

Excellent video, love all the images and examples you put with a well written script. I almost want to do stand up again to test out some of the ideas to combat the hecklers.

[@charliesharp6188]

just found your page, incredible concept for a channel, can’t wait to delve in and learn more about an industry that i’m not familiar with outside of being an audience member :)

[@pthevenphtevenson9180]

Fantastic video, keeping it entertaining and insightful the whole way through. You deserve 100x the views!

[@theolerazzledazzle3852]

It makes me sad that this video has so few views. This is an excellent video and I’m so glad that this channel exists

[@andrewwolkenstein9267]

Awesome Video, as always. It really shows how much effort you put into those.

[@fenderberg]

Watched this one again. Why it doesn’t has a billion views is beyond me. Insightful, well crafted and brilliantly produced. I hope you’ll post something again.

[@MEGAsporg12]

Legit best youtube channel out there

[@pajamawrestler]

This channel is a GEM. Excellent dissection and analysis of the worst thing about comedy shows. Love the slue of examples you gave for each type of rebuttal.

[@tomriddle5261]

Fantastic work!

[@helloitsokay]

Excellent video, as always. More subscribers are coming, keep it up.

[@lachlangood8596]

Kiwi accent. I like to imagine Guy Montgomery moonlights as a comedy video essayist and this is his channel.

[@thezakahmed]

Great video. Best channel at the moment. Keep it up 🤟

[@natedog1868]

Appreciate the use of Stormzy in the background mate

[@falcofox6079]

great work on the video

[@kieranjohngale]

Loving these!

[@cxllective]

1st time viewer, loved the editing/production

[@fenderberg]

Watched this for the 3rd time know. your channel is criminally underrated. And I'll be forever grateful to you for introducing me to Stewart Lee

[@randomacousticthoughts]

Wonderful video, bravo.

[@MillerMooseMan]

Brilliant. Absolute quality

[@alexstorr5511]

Great video mate. It's interesting to see all the different responses from comedians. It must be very annoying!

[@RjeanUrah]

Thank KZbin's algorithm for my view. Ive repeatedly scrolled past your video in my feed, simply didnt feel interested yet the algorithm never gave up. Over a period of weeks, it's persistently kept recommending this video for me. So relentless. Ive finally given in and it was worth it. thank you 🙏

[@JG-zu5wc]

Amazing quality content. Just wow.

[@calebbishop2822]

Another great video

[@iconoclast137]

great video!

[@mankytoes]

Being heckled might be painful, but I promise you it isn't as painful as being the friend of a type one heckler as he constantly gets told off. It was a very high audience participation show and we were sat on the stage, this was Trevor Lock at Edinburgh Fringe last year, and my mate just wasn't understanding when he needed to be quiet, despite Trevor explaining carefully to him three times. You know when something is so embarrassing your stomach actually hurts?

[@Ilikeurmominminiskirt]

Brilliant!!! Much much much appreciated!

[@Jokingkash]

Just made my first patreon contribution to any creator. You're doing god's work! Bless ye!

[@MichaelTurner856]

Not really a stand up comedian but I enjoy comedy as an art and enjoy learning

[@immotion665]

how have you not gone viral yet

[@dm9910]

Clicked on this video hoping to see Stew and wasn't disappointed. His handling of hecklers is one of a kind, not only hilarious but also so seamlessly unified with his onstage persona it could almost be written into the script. Also, an eskimo face from the 90s has let itself go.

[@hupepechule6350]

Great video

[@momomomohf]

Brilliant video very informative. I’m curious, do you have any of your sets on the internet?

[@muhhhhh6974]

This is the best account to exist

[@mitchellturner6742]

Great video :)

[@kenlieck7756]

As was pointed out in the video, sometimes it is difficult for some audience members to keep from blurting out an interjection from time to time, especially when the comedian onstage is considered to be “up to the challenge”, and yes, I myself have on occasion been known to “lose blather control” at such moments. One such occasion was at a Bill Hicks show I attended around 1991 (seated in the front row as was my usual habit). Bill was in top form, well into his post-abuse “recovery” phase and was “reminiscing” over just how out of control his drinking and drugging had gotten at its nadir, and I reflexively yelled out a derisive “Oh God, I was at one of those shows!” Instantly Bill spun around to face me and with a twinkle in his eye shot back “I was a lot funnier than tonight, wasn’t I?” and got a huge laugh. Wisely, I didn’t push my luck by trying to out-funny him with a response to his (obviously rhetorical) question, and instead returned to my proper role as one of those lucky people silently basking in Hicks’ presence. One more anecdote: I don’t know if you can truly call this a “heckle” but it was definitely a case of an audience member (yeah, me again) endeavoring to “make his mark” on a show, but in this case I think it it was more than understandable on my part; tell me if you agree or if you think I’m just being an egotistical douchebro: A few years ago at SXSW, there was a free “Drunk History Club Crawl” held at a venue on Austin’s Sixth Street, featuring Sean Patton and Mark Normand. Pretty much right off the bat they revealed that they had not actually prepared... well, *anything* and called off the ‘crawl’ part of the show, then started floundering trying to come up with ways to entertain the crowd. Those in attendance were very congenial about the whole thing, as it was still early, they were only mildly intoxicated, and everyone was quite aware that they hadn’t paid to be there - but still, the “show” was pretty much going nowhere. Well, this was my home turf and I knew a zillion funny stories about the area and so I started writing stuff down on napkins and waving my notes at them, yelling “Here, check this out!” After an awkward start that threatened to leave me looking like a total jerk, someone from SXSW apparently told the guys I was cool, and so they read out one of my bits about the time Johnny Depp lived in a loft over the “Weirdo Museum” across the street while he was in town recording an album of ABBA and Daniel Johnston covers with the Butthole Surfers. It got a good response, and that kinda kick-started things and before long everybody was having a great time - and whenever there was a lull they’d be yelling out “Has Lieck got another note for us yet? Pass that sucker up!” They ended up declaring me “the official Drunk History Fact Checker” which of course is an achievement that I’m quite proud of.

[@TeeJaySmall]

Saw Jim Jefferies a few years back in Cape Cod. When he began a story about how he’s lactose intolerant, and therefore can’t eat things like cheese or cake, one drunk man screeched out from the crowd “CHEESECAKE!” And I shit you not, Jim Jefferies went on like a 20 minute tirade, it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. He retold the entire life story of this complete stranger from birth to death, all based around him having one moment where he shouts “CHEESECAKE” at a comedy show, it fucking killed. To my knowledge nobody took a video- I’ve looked around for it and can’t seem to find it. The bit was so funny I was almost convinced Jefferies had planted that guy just to do this 20 minute pre-planned bit but I’ve never seen him do that again so I think he really may have made it up on the spot.

[@d2dar459]

Someone mentioned a similar situation with Jefferies where he did the "ur life story" thing after someone shouted "Scotland". The heckler probably isn't planted, most likely Jefferies keeps this bit in his back pocket especially for that type of heckler.

[@gingernatorful]

Every one of your videos is amazing! Great content! Would love to see an analysis of Mike Birbiglia and his shaggy dog story kind of stand up.

[@hitchikerspie]

Can't wait to check this out later, figured I'd help with an early comment though ;)

[@christiananderson6761]

This whole video could have been Patrice dealing with hecklers and I wouldn’t have been upset

[@punx78]

Any way of linking the German setup punchline podcast here Josh? Was a great listen and sure the comedy without errors fans would be interested. All the love.

[@mickaeladeo-associes742]

Heckler: "I once saw a donkey on the highway in Morocco!" Mustapha el Atrassi: "For real?... He must have thought the exact same thing."

[@bradleymitchell3808]

I’m about to heckle you. “Jesus Christ dude, took you long enough to get to the heckling”.

[@sarodiii]

I was waiting for Ol’ Billy! Flight of the Conchords too!😩♥️

[@ihavethepowerquery4718]

Absolutely excellent, loved it. And what I was thinking throughout was "if stand ups don't want the audience to interrupt then STOP TALKING TO THEM". I went to see Dara O'Briain at Wolverhampton early in one of his tours where he was still bedding in his material. He spent about 20 minutes of his hour set talking to an Ambulance driver in the front row. My wife turned to me during the performance and said 'I've not paid twenty quid to see some Ambulance driver talk about his job, get on with it Dara.' I can see why so many audience members think it's ok to join in! As Stewart Lee would say 'I haven't noticed anything about your lives'

[@yvesrenzo9964]

All throughout the first 3/4ths of the video I was thinking "God, what if the comedian just really earnestly asked the heckler if they're okay?" and then you touched on that! (Non-Violent Self Defense - 26:24, if anyone wants timestamp.) Excellent video as always! Loving every single one.

[@sly_tendencies87]

George Carlins destruction of hecklers is god tier 🙌

[@joseraimi]

Okay, exactly as it was with your previous video, I have to approach KZbin support, to find out how do I Like a video two times

[@Beatinz11]

Incredible

[@fenderberg]

Top stuff. Loved the Carlin edit #flamethrower

[@TuliTheUnruly]

That tricked mentioned by Titus, I've done that by instinct when a relative shames me into staying at a concert I didn't want to go to. They usually try to get front row seats, and I can't help being a buzz killer.

[@liddad]

Saw Stewart Lee recently in Glasgow and I still can't work out if he intended a heckle or not. Since it happened during a bit where he was repeating something, the next time he repeated it he acted as if he wanted the same heckle to happen again. Then on the next time around when someone (not even sure it was the same person) did it again, he got annoyed that they didn't do it all three times and "there's no rule of comedy that says you do it once, then don't, then do it the third time" He's a genius.

[@timeandspace_3.142]

Just wondering if I can apply any of these techniques to my boss as they're constantly heckling me, with things like "what time do you call this?" and " I don't pay you to sit and eat"

[@thenewninja4726]

hey you do comedy? clips? btw great content

[@DrSpaceman69]

I’m just gonna comment because algorithm

[@sinuslebastian6366]

So going the Bill burr route and roasting an entire city is not an option??

[@luizroberto00]

Did anyone found the Andrew Conway document? Can't find it anywhere

[@ComedyWithoutErrors]

www.juggling.org/~conway/juggler/MAL.TXT

[@PZPacifist]

Here is a title for you. The forging of Stewart Lee. (Maybe wait till he is 80)

[@north7738]

"discombobulate"

[@andrewgrant6516]

Every show Lee does includes (real or made up) heckles from previous performances. It's an unambiguous invitation to heckle. He wants it.

[@AdamSmith75th]

Bill Burr is so great at dealing with hecklers because he’s been heckled so damn much. He came from such a rough pedigree and really earned his stripes.

[@notorioustampaton]

8:49 Steve Harvey looks like he’s wearing a Steve Harvey mask.

[@pert-smith]

Stopped paying attention when the Stormzy beat came on. Great video, but nothings gonna split my attention with that.

[@MrLemonsplash]

Drew Lynch deals with hecklers extremely well

[@cupiduwu]

i liked the it crowd reference

[@davidbeddoe6670]

13:33 Maslow's Hierarchy of Heckling.

[@nijnij3988]

Hahahahaha that Mr. Meeseeks heckler, hahahaha 😂😂

[@youngrichie]

1:51 "Man try say he's better than me Tell my man, shut up"

[@PZPacifist]

Really, the comedian Stewart Lee should ask who brought the heckler.

[@RickWeberEcon]

Didn't Moshe Kasher have a bit with a heckler/plant? How did that go again?

[@PZPacifist]

I hope I help keep you sane.

[@himeisfred]

Joe Rogan with hair is so funny. He’s a man that should always have been bald

[@Drabee]

" ive got loads of jokes"

[@zaneberry]

I just realized you used game footage from Inside

[@bareakon]

Or you can do what Ross Noble does, and structure your entire act around heckles.

[@JSCwrd]

Another great video, but do you have to go down the over-the-top memey route of labelled pop culture references? The archive footage speaks for itself on its own, and works really well in your other vids.

[@risksikrikak903]

Hecklers hv no friends.

[@What_was_wrong_w_jst_our_names]

Ay bruh I’ll be straight up. You’re first two videos kinda went viral and the rest seemed to flop. But stick w it cus these videos are awesome. 😘

[@DeL0NGEST]

What did he say at 12:37?

[@deangordon2215]

"We're recording a DVD right. Don't make me go into the edit and fuckin' zoom right in to your wee fuckin' face and drag it right in the recycle bin, awright." Kevin Bridges' Scottish accent is pretty working-class-Glasgow so I don't blame you for not understanding :)

[@captaindr.mr.obvious3349]

Drew lynch. He is one of the best crowd workers I have seen. Just mentioned him because he isn't as know

[@PZPacifist]

In NZ kiwis think they know everything and multi love em selves it's both good and bad mixed. Together. But comediens leave for Australia immediately.

[@johnandlarry]

I wonder if this guy likes Flight of The Conchords by chance 😉

[@chrisofnottingham]

Holy crap - that was Joe Rogan!!!

[@megazenn22]

the framerate plz :(