Male hecklers are a female comedian's worst nightmare. But after a decade's experience in stand-up comedy, Ava Vidal has learned how to shoot them down. In her first Twerking Girl blog for Telegraph Wonder Women, she shares her best comebacks.
Superman and Lex Luthor. David and Goliath. Wonder Woman and The Cheetah.
Every hero has their very own arch-nemeses. The ying to their yang. The
thorn in their side. For the stand up comedian, it is The Heckler.
The Heckler is evil. It is the person that you are warned about when you first
start doing stand up. The person that you dread will be in your gig
interrupting the show with slurred insults usually yelled out just at the
precise moment that ruins the punchline you’ve been building up to. The
Heckler is the person that is so powerful that they can ruin the whole night
for every single comedian on the bill.
Unlike Superman, David or Wonder Woman, we don’t know our enemy’s name and
won't be able to instantly recognise their face in a crowd. He or she can be
old or young, black or white. The only clue that you have to possibly
identify this purveyor of all evilness is that they will probably be drunk,
(which to be honest, on most comedy nights doesn’t really narrow it down).
I have been performing stand up comedy for about 10 years now and have inevitably met several hecklers along the way. Hecklers don’t really bother me. I was a prison officer at Pentonville, a male prison in North London, before becoming a comedian, so I have been heckled by people with time on their hands. However, there does seem to be a special dynamic between comedian and heckler when the comedian happens to be female.
I have been performing stand up comedy for about 10 years now and have inevitably met several hecklers along the way. Hecklers don’t really bother me. I was a prison officer at Pentonville, a male prison in North London, before becoming a comedian, so I have been heckled by people with time on their hands. However, there does seem to be a special dynamic between comedian and heckler when the comedian happens to be female.
I have always stated that most comedy clubs are sexist places. Especially the
big weekend ones that have lots of stag and hen parties in attendance. They
are of course a reflection of society but everything is heightened. A
comedian typically has 20 minutes on stage to perform their set and they are
not going to be up there sharing their blandest, most middle-of-the-road
views. They are often very extreme and things get exaggerated. Some of the
sexism that I have heard come out of the mouths of male comedians is so
shocking that if I were not paid to be there, I would just get up and walk
out. It is this same machoism that often makes comedy clubs an unsafe space
for lesbians and gay men.
