Present Tense

Raising the Heckles

June 19, 2007 @ 11:24 am | by Shane

Ten years ago, I went to the Edinburgh to compete in the So You Think You’re Funny competition, where I proved categorically that I wasn’t. It didn’t help that I had crafted a routine that involved me doing various techno dances, which went down very well in the International. But 30 seconds before I was due to go on the Edinburgh stage, the host - Michael Smiley - did a routine involving him doing various techno dances. His “big fish, little fish, cardboard box” routine, in fact, became mildly seminal - making it onto Simon Pegg’s Spaced. My routine didn’t.

Instead, I performed to a crowd that had got their tickets in a two-for-the-price-of-one deal, and seemed to resent that. 10 minutes of near silence later, I waved them a cheery goodbye (”I’ve been Shane Hegarty, you’ve been a great audience. Goodnight!”) and bounded off the stage forever. Peter Kay went on to win the competition that year, so every time he comes on the TV now I get a flashback to my big night of comedy torment.

I mention all of this because blogger Lorcy (The Life and Times of Jimmy Homonculus) has stepped on the stage for the first time and to mark his moment has linked to several comedian v heckler videos. It’s a chuckle-filled blood sport.

The finest heckle I’ve heard was at that Edinburgh Festival, about 3.30am in the Gilded Balloon, when a comedian whose name utterly escapes me right now told a repeated heckler: “Every time you open your mouth I hear a little voice inside pleading ‘Kill me’”.

Link: YouTube Hecklefest

As a bonus, here’s a clip from the Seinfeld episode in which George struggles to come up with a great comeback to a colleague’s heckling.
Link: Jerk Store