Quote: swerytd @ November 18 2009, 1:00 PM GMTI'm seeing him tonight! Woohoo!
Dan
Aw, it's still weeks till I see him. Hopefully he'll have really honed his material by then and my gig will be twice as good as yours. 
Stewart Lee Page 4
1.3x, I reckon. That's the best you're gonna get...
Dan
Stew was excellent last night. Really, really good and extremely clever and funny.
Spoke briefly with him afterwards and asked him about a second series of Vehicle. He said he'd spoken to the BBC the day before and the new controller wasn't keen, so it didn't look like it. They asked him to present a new show, showcasing up and coming stand-up comedians, but said it's not something he's interesting in doing.
So, (1), buy the DVD of the last series, if you haven't already (it'll make money for him and the BCG if you click from here):
See Amazon product listing
[p=http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/9307201/Stewart-Lee-Comedy-Vehicle/Product.html]
(2) I've actually got off my arse for a change and set up a petition to see how much interest we can build up. Sign it here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/BBSLCV/petition.html
and we'll see how it goes.
Dan
Darren Goldsmith?!
Anyway, I recently went to see Stewart Lee's latest show and it was hilarious. One of his best.
Anybody see him in Salford (29/11/09) for the afternoon show?
Really annoying heckler for the first twenty minutes almost ruined it for me. I just couldn't relax after that.
Otherwise, it was a really good show. I wish I could have seen it from start to finish without interruptions as he said he was cutting out jokes to make up for the loss of time and the loss of atmosphere from the heckling and, although it was still an ace night, I know I would have enjoyed it so much more if I had been "in the zone" throughout instead of panicking that we would be interrupted again (this guy would not give up...)
I hate seeing comedians get heckles if they destroy the atmosphere or get so intrusive that the jokes stop working. As well as being disappointed that they're ruining the show for you, you feel terrible for the comedian who's put so much work in only to have it sabotaged by some selfish twat. It was wrenching to see Lee say that this was the penultimate gig of the tour and it was "ruined now". It would be like spending months writing a script you were really proud of and some nutcase snatching it away from you and ripping out random pages.
Seriously, why do people do this? This was a bit of a rant but it REALLY pisses me off.
Quote: sglen @ December 2 2009, 1:56 PM GMTSeriously, why do people do this?
Because they're drunk and/or a frustrated comedian.
Quote: Tim Walker @ December 2 2009, 2:15 PM GMTBecause they're drunk and/or a frustrated comedian.
Sums up about 80% of my BCG posts.
Nice to see you've cut back, Kev.
Dan
Quote: swerytd @ December 2 2009, 2:37 PM GMTNice to see you've cut back, Kev.
I'm down to two puns a day. Maybe some sarcasm at weekends.
Quote: Tim Walker @ December 2 2009, 2:15 PM GMTBecause they're drunk and/or a frustrated comedian.
I think this is the case with the hecklers who are trying to "join in" (though, depending on the act, I still sort of disapprove). With the right heckles, a comedian can use it as an opportunity to come out top and win the audience over and that can be funny. But why just shout "not funny" or "boring"? Even if drunk, you'd have to be pretty shitty to even think of saying that, and if you were a frustrated comedian you'd really need to be working on your witticisms if that was the best you could do!
And, deep breath....so few things make me angry, but when they do....Ooo, I oughta...
Stewart Lee's not really a heckler-handler sort of comic though, is he?
Last time I saw him live he was at pains to explain that he wasn't really an audience interaction type of comedian, and that it was okay if we wanted to get up to go for a piss because he wouldn't mock us or anything.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ December 2 2009, 3:12 PM GMTStewart Lee's not really a heckler-handler sort of comic though, is he?
I seriously believe that comedy clubs should tighten up their heckling policies. In a proper venue there should be a named member of staff (ideally the manager) who, to some extent anyway, protects the act from his/her set being ruined for the rest of the audience.
This may sound draconian and - yes, heckling is (in rare instances) an art form of itself - but with the rise and sprawl of comedy venues over the last 20 years, there needs to be some form of code of conduct. Hecklers are mostly amusing (if ever) for about 30 seconds, then you mostly want to throttle them.
(I say this as a reformed heckler, who ruined a Mark Lamarr gig in Balham many years ago. I started goading him about Swindon as I recall. I was very drunk. I'd never heckle thesedays.)
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ December 2 2009, 3:12 PM GMTStewart Lee's not really a heckler-handler sort of comic though, is he?
Last time I saw him live he was at pains to explain that he wasn't really an audience interaction type of comedian, and that it was okay if we wanted to get up to go for a piss because he wouldn't mock us or anything.
That said, a bloke tried to leave the Guildford gig quite near the end and Stew went full-on vitriolic at him and eventually called the poor fella a c**t. (I'm 99% sure it was the act and he wasn't actually that angry, but he does a very convincing angry man...)
He did say something in Comedy Vehicle (btw sign the petition) when talking about religion where he would have said something 'if [he] was a genuinely funny person in real-life'...
Dan
Quote: Tim Walker @ December 2 2009, 3:20 PM GMTI seriously believe that comedy clubs should tighten up their heckling policies. In a proper venue there should be a named member of staff (ideally the manager) who, to some extent anyway, protects the act from his/her set being ruined for the rest of the audience.
This may sound draconian and - yes, heckling is (in rare instances) an art form of itself - but with the rise and sprawl of comedy venues over the last 20 years, there needs to be some form of code of conduct. Hecklers are mostly amusing (if ever) for about 30 seconds, then you mostly want to throttle them.
(I say this as a reformed heckler, who ruined a Mark Lamarr gig in Balham many years ago. I started goading him about Swindon as I recall. I was very drunk. I'd never heckle thesedays.)
Yeah, I was talking about this with my friend after the Lee gig. We'd both seen the same thing at (separate) Ross Noble gigs as well. My mate was saying she thought it was to do with the "anyone can be a star" culture we have now, where everybody thinks they've got talent and have the right to be involved. She might have a point. Another friend of mine was saying that she just doesn't think people know how to act in a theatre now. You should be able to adapt yourself to venue and act. With someone like Stewart Lee, you should know that heckling will most likely compromise rather than contribute to his act. And in a venue like the Lowry theatre, or an arts centre, you should probably expect something slightly more of a "show" than an audience interation affair.
Comedians will let you know if they take heckles - by talking directly to people in the crowd. But even then, the comedian should be the one that decides when it's over. IF the heckles become detrimental to the enjoyment of everyone else then I'd agree they should be chucked out. This is the second gig now where the audience have turned on the heckler. It just ruins the atmosphere if everyone else feels like they have to tell someone to f**k off just to enjoy themselves.
I think some venues, ones with bouncers usually, will do something about the hecklers. I played a gong show on Monday night where a group of drunk girls on a works do were cornered and told off by the bouncer when they talked during the acts (not even heckling, just talking). Which I actually thought was fair enough. But then, this was a gong show, and thus for newer acts. I don't know if they would do that for every show.
Having done a fair bit of stand up in my salad days, I was lucky enough to hardly ever get heckled, though this was probably a lot to do with the venues I played. Also, in those days, comedy clubs (even in London) were something of a novelty and audiences tended to behave rather more as though they were in a theatre to watch a performance; as opposed to believing that they were somehow part of the act.
I never used to go after an audience if I was dying on my arse.
A comic who is doing badly doesn't really deserve to be heckled to death, just met with embarrassed silence. A comic who is doing badly but then tries to engage the audience, as though it were their fault his/her act is poor, is completely fair game for hecklers and so be it.