Tuesday, January 22, 2008

For Shame, Philly!

Recently L.A. comedian Jen Kirkman briefly mentioned her recent gig at Helium:

I do notice that the more right-leaning a county, the less tolerance there is for a woman to take the stage and make them laugh. In those situations, sometimes people start heckling before I take the mic. Even a very liberal and smart crowd in Philly when I was there a few months back, had six lunkheads up front who yelled, "Hillary Clinton sucks!" as I came out on stage. I turned around. Was she behind me? Was I wearing an enormous, pastel beaded necklace? Did I have bags under my eyes? I'm not Hillary. Ohhh...I get it. I'm a woman. On a stage. Talking. Yes. We all suck. Can I go on, please? Not really, becuase the loudest lunkheads are always the "winners" in an audience. So, it doesn't matter if 200 other people are on your side, they are going to be quiet about it.


For shame, Philly! Ok, so I shouldn't call out an entire city, but for shame to the six losers up front. I thought brainless, pent-up hecklers yell from the dark back of the house?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey! This is Jen! I found this post. I just want to say the experience in Philly was amazing and I purposely didn't name the club so as not to alienate the club. The other comics on the show were hilarious and sweet. The staff was above and beyond any staff I've ever seen and the first staff that believed I was a comedian and not just going backstage - that I've experienced on the road. I was just saying that I was surprised that heckling happened in Philly once rather than not at all in Florida.

I really wanted to set the record straight in case my blog was taken the wrong way!!
xoxo
Jen