The Blood is The Life 24-02-2012

[miss_s_b]

• BBC News - The myth of the eight-hour sleep
  My sleep pattern tends to be 4am till 8am then 10am till 2pm. I have been beating myself up about this for years. Maybe I should stop...
  (tags: sleep )
  
  
• A week of picking on trans people
  Cthulhu, sometimes I think we haven't made any progress at all in recent years :( Why can't we just let people live how they want to without having to be horrible to them in the press?
  (tags: lgbt )
  
  
• Labour suspends MP Eric Joyce after Commons 'assault'
  Cheap subsidised booze in the commons causes binge-drinking-fuelled fight?
  (tags: labour )
  
  
• Horrible, horrible treatment of female stand-up comic
  Why the FUCK somebody in the audience didn't say something to him I don't know. Well, I do, it's that psychological effect of thinking that everyone else will do something and *I* don't need to stick my head above the parapet, and... Yeah. If ONE person had have told him to STFU, then other people would have joined in. But because nobody did...
  (tags: feminism comedy )
  
  
• [LGBT History Month special] Why I "flaunt my sexuality"
  This!
  (tags: )
  
  

Comments

[drunkwriter]

The heckling story is vile. But I also think I know why no one in the audience intervened - I don't think it's the psychological effect you mentioned so much as the idea that it's part of the comedian's job to deal with hecklers, and the way in which they do so is one of the ways in which a comic is judged by the audience.

And then when hecklers cross the line between being an attention-seeking drunk and becoming potentially dangerous, or even just not knowing when to shut up, well, the venue should chuck them out.

I sort of expect to see a heckler or two, and I have judged comedians based on how well they deal with the disruption (Craig Charles the clear front runner: "Damn, I was about to do my impression of a t*** and you beat me to it."). So I wouldn't have stuck my head over the parapet because as far as I'm concerned it's part of the performance and if it goes beyond that, the guy should be ejected. I think the venue failed to support and protect their performer, and their failure to intervene ruined an evening's entertainment for the audience. Plus of course, if I was tempted to speak up in this case, I'd fear the White Knight label.

[londonkds]

Yes, I agree that the club management and the bouncers were far more at fault for that situation than audience members who weren't being paid to confront someone who sounds like he might potentially have reacted by glassing the confronter in the face.

[miss_s_b]

You're right on that score.

I dunno, I just feel like once it became clear that the staff weren't going to do anything... Maybe it's just me.

[miss_s_b]

See, maybe it's just because I don't frequent comedy clubs very often, but the one time I was in the audience when there was a heckler, I told him to shut the fuck up because I'd paid to hear the comedian, not him... The idea of letting someone ruin a show that lots of people had paid to see just seems odd to me.

And don't get me started on Craig Charles, having run into him once in a nightclub when I was at uni

* shudder *

[drunkwriter]

I don't go to comedy clubs as much as I used to, because it's a surprisingly small world and you quickly end up seeing a lot of material being recycled. Tolerating heckling is not really letting someone ruin a show, it's enjoying the performer rip into the boorish idiot. And it is usually just an idiot being dared to yell something out by one of their mates. If it's anything more than that, then I do think it's the venue staff's duty to intervene.

Craig Charles... Mary adores him, because she's only 20, knows nothing of his offscreen reputation and has just finished watching the whole run of classic Red Dwarf (and two recordings of the new series). He was being a bit flirty with her in the Green Room and she was utterly charmed. I shared a few anecdotes from the 24 hours he spent at Brum Uni in 1999, and she's switched her adoration to Rob and Chris now.

[miss_s_b]

Rob is ace :)

[drunkwriter]

Rob's brilliant - especially the way he stays in character throughout recording (even while taking a cigarette break in the car park with "Mr Lister").

And Danny's just a force of nature, really. He doesn't even have the good grace to look knackered after four hours of filming. I guess that's his dance background showing.

[andrewducker]

You should never beat yourself up for being who you are.

This did, however, make me think of you:
http://e-apraksina.com/?p=14312

[miss_s_b]

Substitute a fag for the coffee and yeah...