Comedy Festival 2017: A comedian’s guide to the rules of comedy viewing
IF YOU want to heckle that’s fine, but just know one of two things will happen. The comic will ignore you and you’ll look really stupid or, even worse, the comic will engage and destroy you.
Comedy Festival
Don't miss out on the headlines from Comedy Festival . Followed categories will be added to My News.
IF YOU’VE never seen live comedy before, you might be a bit anxious.
Thanks to countless YouTube clips of “comedian v heckler”, not to mention the comedy club scenes in The Nutty Professor, you might have the idea that going to see stand up will invariably end up with you being publicly humiliated.
I’m here to tell you that barely ever happens. 99.99% of comedy shows do not end with an audience member needing therapy.
However there is some etiquette when it comes to being a comedy audience member. I’m here to guide you through the basics.
1. Laugh
This may seem like a pointless piece of advice, but it needs to be said. In this current age of television and cinema, people are used to sitting silently while being entertained. This is not ideal in a comedy environment. In fact, it’s awful. The comedian has bright lights in their face, so they can maybe only see the first two or three rows, so smiling at a joke is useless. Audible acknowledgment that you are enjoying the show is vital. I’ve had shows where I’m convinced the audience hated it, only for people to approach me afterwards and tell me they had a great time. They just were not used to vocally showing their appreciation.
2. Turn your phone to silent.
Most people get this. It’s common courtesy to the comedian and your fellow audience members. If though you are expecting an important call from a babysitter or something, sit near the door and just duck out quickly, if you’re discreet it’ll be fine. The last time I saw a phone audibly start ringing in a club, what made it worse was the ringtone was Gangnam Style. Needless to say that audience member was picked on.
3. Don’t talk.
Seriously, it’s a performance, not a conversation. The big difference between live comedy and television, is the comic can hear you. If you want to be like the people from Gogglebox buy a stand-up DVD and talk over that.
Now if you want to heckle that’s fine, but just know one of two things will happen. The comic will ignore you and you’ll look really stupid (and, if you continue, security will remove you) or even worse, the comic will engage and destroy you. Remember we do this almost every night, we’re experienced in the art of the put down.
4. Talk!
Some comedians (like me!) love to do audience banter. There’s something magical about riffing with the crowd to see if you can turn it into gold. It’s real and immediate and it’s something that only happens in stand-up comedy. But that magic is dependent on you giving the comedian something to work with when they ask a question. Just last week at European Bier Café’s Thursday night show I chatted to a couple from Wollongong. It turned out that he worked at the Wollongong Big W, and she worked at Wollongong Target. In retelling it’s not that interesting, but on the night we spun that out into 10 minutes of great fun.
Troubleshooting
1. You need to use the toilet.
Pre show drinks are common. It’s usually okay to just get up and go if you absolutely have to. The comic might ask where you’re going, just be honest. Everybody pees. It should be fine.
2. You’re hating the show.
Leave quietly. Comedy is subjective, not everyone will like a certain show. Don’t succumb to the urge to heckle and be rude as you walk out. Just quietly go book tickets to another show. Mine for instance, on at The Comics Lounge every Sunday during the fest.
DANNY MCGINLAY has performed stand-up on four continents, gigged for royalty, Prime Ministers and now the MCG on Grand Final Day. His show Bulldogs Bannerman Live! is running from April 2-23 at the Comic’s Lounge — 26 Errol Street, North Melbourne.
Click here for tickets or visit dannymcginlay.com for more details.
Comedian’s ‘disturbing’ response to Holocaust joke
A stand-up comedian who joked about the mass murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust has doubled down on his Melbourne comedy festival gag, writing a shocking response to a Jewish audience member who had taken offence.
Comics laugh it up at comedy festival awards
A young Melbourne comic and a dry UK comedian are among the big winners at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Awards, which were tinged with controversy this year.