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I Made a Woman Cry at My Show
98 Plays1 year ago
Have you ever been offended? Did you make a scene? Write a blog post? Complain to a manager? Or maybe you just took it on the chin and let is slide. Listen to this insane story of a woman bawling five minutes into a show because she heard a joke that gut-punched the wrong side of her sense of humor.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Comedy Show Incident
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to Dirty Briefs, everybody, on this beautiful February day.
00:00:09
Speaker
I have to talk about something that happened last night at one of my shows.
00:00:13
Speaker
As you know, if you've been listening to this, I've been producing a show at the Comedy Store called Perfect Dose.
00:00:19
Speaker
And last night was our third edition of the event.
00:00:25
Speaker
The first two were great.
00:00:26
Speaker
We've had stellar lineups, killer special guests, and great crowds.
00:00:31
Speaker
So last night, we expected no different at all.
00:00:36
Speaker
But something happened.
00:00:38
Speaker
That was very, very unexpected.
00:00:43
Speaker
So we picked four comics to go up on our show.
00:00:47
Speaker
We picked them ahead of time and we have a lineup set up.
00:00:49
Speaker
Everyone knows who's going on the show.
00:00:51
Speaker
However, then we put up a couple of comics the day of that either work at the comedy store or that we just want to see do a couple of minutes just to kind of fluff the audience a little bit.
Taylor Boss's Mental Institution Story
00:01:03
Speaker
Now, a friend of mine took this spot last night.
00:01:05
Speaker
It's called the Cold Open.
00:01:08
Speaker
They go up there to welcome the crowd, say, hi, you're at the comedy store.
00:01:13
Speaker
We hope you have a great time.
00:01:15
Speaker
Here's a few jokes to get you in the laughing spirit before the other comedians come up and truly break down your walls.
00:01:24
Speaker
My friend Taylor Boss, who I've known for many, many years since I've started, love this dude, he took that cold open last night and he talked about being in a mental institution against his will about 10 years ago.
00:01:41
Speaker
This is Taylor's story, his real life story, and he made it extremely funny.
00:01:47
Speaker
The audience was laughing.
00:01:49
Speaker
It wasn't like breakout, like, oh my God, I'm on the floor.
00:01:53
Speaker
Please stop.
00:01:54
Speaker
My sides are busting.
00:01:55
Speaker
But they were getting in the mood to laugh and he was cracking them open by telling a very honest story from his own life about being in a mental institution.
00:02:07
Speaker
He does five minutes.
00:02:09
Speaker
Then he calls myself and my co-host Jerry Brandt to the stage.
Audience Objection to Jokes
00:02:13
Speaker
Jerry and I get on stage and the first thing I said was, hey, how about that one man rendition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, everybody?
00:02:22
Speaker
Gets a good reaction from the audience.
00:02:24
Speaker
Jerry says, yeah, I thought that was great.
00:02:27
Speaker
I didn't know they were allowed to play Pictionary in mental institutions.
00:02:31
Speaker
Again, good laugh from the audience.
00:02:33
Speaker
And I said, yeah, honestly, I'm amazed they're allowed to have pencils.
00:02:36
Speaker
That seems like a weapon.
00:02:38
Speaker
Great laugh from the audience.
00:02:40
Speaker
Suddenly this woman in the front row just goes, stop, stop, please.
00:02:45
Speaker
No.
00:02:46
Speaker
And I was like, excuse me, miss Jerry and I put our attention towards a person who clearly is not enjoying herself.
00:02:55
Speaker
And we have been on stage forever.
00:02:57
Speaker
30 seconds.
00:02:59
Speaker
30 seconds.
00:02:59
Speaker
That's it.
00:03:00
Speaker
We're at the very beginning of this show.
00:03:02
Speaker
So we need to squash and deal with whatever is happening right now.
00:03:06
Speaker
And she just goes, it's not funny.
00:03:08
Speaker
It's not funny.
00:03:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:14
Speaker
We clearly have upset this person.
00:03:16
Speaker
Now, Jerry and I, we're not dicks.
00:03:18
Speaker
We're not the type of comedians like they're going to go, fuck you, lady.
00:03:21
Speaker
You don't like it.
00:03:22
Speaker
You can get out.
00:03:23
Speaker
Go downstairs and go to an art museum if you don't like real comedy.
00:03:27
Speaker
That's not us at all.
00:03:29
Speaker
We are empathetic, gracious human beings, and we wanted to handle this situation in a delicate way.
00:03:36
Speaker
So Jerry immediately apologized, and I said, Miss,
00:03:41
Speaker
That was Taylor's own experience.
00:03:44
Speaker
He was joking about it.
00:03:45
Speaker
That's how he finds comfort in a difficult time in his life.
00:03:49
Speaker
And I'm sorry if you didn't enjoy it.
00:03:51
Speaker
And she just said, it's not funny.
00:03:52
Speaker
It's not funny.
00:03:54
Speaker
Jerry continues to calm her down.
00:03:56
Speaker
We're both kind of just talking our way through the situation.
Addressing Comedy Subjectivity
00:03:59
Speaker
And I said, listen, miss,
00:04:02
Speaker
We're going to have a lot of comedians up here tonight that are going to talk about a variety of issues.
00:04:05
Speaker
Some of them are going to be for you.
00:04:07
Speaker
And some of them, like right now, it's not going to be for you.
00:04:10
Speaker
And that's okay.
00:04:13
Speaker
And Jerry goes, yeah, you know, you're going to probably enjoy things later in the show.
00:04:16
Speaker
And I said, would you like me to talk about how I almost died of cancer last year?
00:04:20
Speaker
Would you prefer to hear that over the mental institution stuff?
00:04:23
Speaker
And the woman looks at me and goes, yes, please.
00:04:27
Speaker
Okay, so it's okay for me to talk about almost dying from cancer, but Taylor being in a psych ward, not good.
00:04:38
Speaker
Later in the opening set, Jerry was making a joke about how all porn has to be stepbrothers and stepsisters and family oriented now.
00:04:47
Speaker
And the woman is cracking up and I go, wait a minute, miss.
00:04:50
Speaker
I got to just draw a line here.
00:04:52
Speaker
So incest, hilarious.
00:04:55
Speaker
Mental institutions, not at all allowed to joke about.
00:04:59
Speaker
Okay, I'm figuring you out.
00:05:02
Speaker
She ended up being a little disruptive throughout the rest of the show, but nothing bad, nothing that the comedians couldn't handle and play with.
00:05:08
Speaker
She actually led to some amazing moments throughout the show.
00:05:13
Speaker
Ian Edwards, hilarious comic.
00:05:15
Speaker
Look him up if you don't know who he is.
00:05:17
Speaker
He played with her so brilliantly, doing a bit about reincarnation, and it was just perfect.
00:05:22
Speaker
Just beautiful timing, a true pro.
00:05:24
Speaker
It was great.
00:05:26
Speaker
But here's why I want to talk about this, because she did end up having a really good time.
Personal Responsibility in Comedy Shows
00:05:31
Speaker
If you get offended at a comedy show, that's on you.
00:05:36
Speaker
It is not the comedian's fault for talking about something that made you uncomfortable.
00:05:43
Speaker
Now, obviously, this was a hot button issue for this woman.
00:05:49
Speaker
Maybe she'd been in a mental institution herself.
00:05:51
Speaker
Maybe a family member had.
00:05:53
Speaker
Maybe she had been stabbed with a pencil.
00:05:55
Speaker
We don't know.
00:05:58
Speaker
But to sit there in the front row and be so triggered to say, it's not funny.
00:06:04
Speaker
It's not funny when a whole room of people is laughing and enjoying themselves.
00:06:11
Speaker
Well, that's kind of on you.
00:06:13
Speaker
And if you get offended at a comedy show,
00:06:16
Speaker
That's okay, but that doesn't mean everyone else is offended as well.
00:06:22
Speaker
A few minutes after this, Steve Fury was up on stage, great comic as well, and he was joking about child slavery, and she is clapping her hands, throwing her head back, laughing it up, and I'm just thinking, like, child slavery?
00:06:42
Speaker
It's just so funny that people think they're entitled to for us to take care of them.
00:06:50
Speaker
at a comedy show.
00:06:51
Speaker
If you don't like something, don't laugh at it.
00:06:54
Speaker
It's probably going to be done being talked about in the next couple of seconds or minutes and onto something else.
00:07:00
Speaker
That's what we do.
00:07:01
Speaker
We very rarely stay on one topic for a long period of time.
00:07:06
Speaker
You were not coming to the hilarious laugh at mental people show.
00:07:11
Speaker
No, it wasn't the crazy psych hour.
00:07:16
Speaker
You were at a comedy show and a person talked about their own experience being in a psych ward.
00:07:22
Speaker
It just felt so self-important.
00:07:25
Speaker
And that's the part that I can't get behind is that you could just sit there and take it on the chin and be silent.
00:07:35
Speaker
and get through it, but you had to make a scene.
00:07:39
Speaker
You had to make it about you.
00:07:41
Speaker
You had to know that you, everyone had to know that you're special and you couldn't handle this very specific joke.
00:07:49
Speaker
Because we talked about plenty more dark and messed up topics for the rest of the show.
00:07:56
Speaker
I made some joke about being Hitler in a past life.
00:08:00
Speaker
Did people go, oh, yes, of course.
00:08:05
Speaker
It wasn't my best riff, to be honest with you.
00:08:06
Speaker
It wasn't that funny.
00:08:08
Speaker
But yeah, you got to swing.
00:08:10
Speaker
Sometimes you miss.
00:08:11
Speaker
That was a foul ball with a tiny little dirt mustache.
00:08:17
Speaker
I don't feel bad for this woman.
00:08:19
Speaker
I will say this.
00:08:20
Speaker
I am proud that she stuck around for the rest of the show and gave her all to the rest of the comedians.
00:08:28
Speaker
I'm glad that she didn't completely shut down.
00:08:31
Speaker
I think that was very big of her to not just walk out and leave because she could have.
00:08:36
Speaker
That's what I thought she was going to do.
00:08:38
Speaker
And if somebody walks out a minute or two into your show,
00:08:42
Speaker
They didn't really give you an opportunity.
Encouragement and Announcements
00:08:44
Speaker
Like, we've all seen a movie where the beginning is like, what is this?
00:08:47
Speaker
But if you stop 30 seconds in, well, you're never going to get to the part where they get to the chocolate factory and everything is all bright and colorful and delicious.
00:09:00
Speaker
You're just going to be Charlie, sitting in school, not really learning chemistry, being too poor to afford a bar of chocolate.
00:09:10
Speaker
It's okay if you get offended by things.
00:09:14
Speaker
What's not okay?
00:09:16
Speaker
It's trying to implement your views onto the other people around you that don't even know you.
00:09:23
Speaker
You don't know them.
00:09:25
Speaker
The beauty of a group of people enjoying art, typically, is that they are all strangers that have collected together for the first time ever.
00:09:35
Speaker
This specific group of people has never been together in the same place at the same time.
00:09:41
Speaker
So they're all working to coexist into one universe.
00:09:46
Speaker
unit that experiences a larger whole.
00:09:50
Speaker
And if one person tries to disrupt the unit and become the center of it, everything can break down.
00:09:58
Speaker
Now, luckily that didn't happen.
00:10:00
Speaker
And I think a lot of that tailors to the fact that Jerry and I were very calm and very kind about the situation.
00:10:12
Speaker
But if you're going to go to a show,
00:10:15
Speaker
If you're offended by something, keep it to yourself.
00:10:18
Speaker
There's no reason to go home and write about it on the internet.
00:10:23
Speaker
You can just shut up about it.
00:10:25
Speaker
That goes for restaurant reviews, you Yelpers that are like, oh, the server, they were rude to me.
00:10:32
Speaker
Then don't go back.
00:10:34
Speaker
Don't ruin a person's reputation because you had one bad experience.
00:10:42
Speaker
Did they kill your family?
00:10:45
Speaker
Did they kidnap your daughter and hold her ransom?
00:10:48
Speaker
No.
00:10:48
Speaker
They forgot to take the tomatoes off your club sandwich.
00:10:53
Speaker
Boo!
00:10:55
Speaker
Shut this place down!
00:10:59
Speaker
Think about why you're doing this.
00:11:02
Speaker
And when you go to a comedy show, have an open heart, have an open mind.
00:11:08
Speaker
You don't have to like everything.
00:11:09
Speaker
You don't have to laugh at everything.
00:11:10
Speaker
We're not asking you to do that.
00:11:12
Speaker
If you don't find it funny, wait for the next joke or the next comedian and whatever's going on inside of you, push it down and you can think about later why it upsets you.
00:11:29
Speaker
Now, if you are going to get offended,
00:11:30
Speaker
Please come to my shows and be perfectly verbal about why you dislike me so much.
00:11:39
Speaker
I need to get canceled, everybody.
00:11:40
Speaker
I need a career boost.
00:11:42
Speaker
This week, I'm going to be at the San Luis Obispo Comedy Festival doing a bunch of shows.
00:11:48
Speaker
So if you were anywhere near Central California, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Palos Verdes, not Palos Verdes.
00:11:56
Speaker
Is that what it is?
00:11:58
Speaker
Something like that.
00:12:00
Speaker
Please come on out.
00:12:02
Speaker
SlowComedyFest.com has all the tickets.
00:12:04
Speaker
And the next Perfect Dose, if you want to get really offended, is going to be on March 13th, 8 p.m.
00:12:12
Speaker
at the World Famous Comedy Store.
00:12:14
Speaker
You do not want to miss that one.
00:12:16
Speaker
We are putting together in another incredible lineup for you all.
00:12:19
Speaker
It should be available very, very soon.
00:12:21
Speaker
So check out those shows, HooperComedy.com.
00:12:25
Speaker
Follow me at Hooper Hair Puff on all social media.
00:12:29
Speaker
I'm doing a lot of fun things right now, everybody.
00:12:32
Speaker
And I don't want to offend you, but also I kind of do, you stupid cooch.
00:12:41
Speaker
I love you.
00:12:41
Speaker
I'll see you next week.