Comedians almost never play in Washington, where I live. My dad saw Sarah Millican at the Arts Centre years ago (before I saw her and I saw her in 2007 or something - way before she was well known!) but usually there aren't many comedy gigs on too near my house. Which isn't exactly a problem - I'm willing to travel miles and miles for comedy, music, plays, etc - however, it is lovely to pop to a gig in a matter of minutes.
And it was Lewis Schaffer! I'd only seen him once (Ed Fringe 2008) but I'd always remembered him fondly and enjoyed reading about him. He's pretty strange and says things that are quite wrong. But gets away with it because he seems like such a lovely (though mad) guy.
He is still on his Free Until Famous tour and some of the material was stuff I'd heard three years ago - still, it was great to see him again and he did have some new stuff about Argos (which he pronouced Ar-gose much to everyone's delight!) and customer service (which was spot on!).
However, the gig was seriously marred by the audience. In the first five minutes Lewis pointed out that it was a free gig so the audience may have been thinking he was shit; he said conversely that we had come to a free show - maybe we were a shit audience who didn't want to pay for the show (instead you paid what you thought appropriate at the end - a good system, I always think!).
He was sadly right for the most part. The audience didn't seem like a comedy audience, rather an audience who had come for a free night and to get drunk. I'm fine with people getting drunk, of course, if they want to. I tend to only get drunk when I'm not seeing something. I'd hate anything to spoil the music, comedy or whatever I'm seeing. (I realise some people feel it improves things; I've never felt it necessary. The show itself is enough for me.) But fair enough, people can do what they like. However, the drunkenness (combined with people just being generally annoying) came to impinge on my night and the quality of the show. And that really pissed me off.
Schaffer asked a few questions; some audience participation was just part of the show. Which is fine. But as a comedy crowd you have to know when to shut up and listen to the jokes. And people didn't. They thought they could do better. One woman (she was so ridiculous!) shouted at him for not making jokes about Bin Laden. As if it was some sort of request show.
Lewis himself was so personable - he shook hands with us at the start and the end of the show; during the interval (which was silly as it wasn't a long enough show to warrant one!) he wandered around checking everyone was enjoying it so far. His personality made me all the more angry with the crowd for berating him, heckling and being mean about America (and one guy was being mean about Schaffer being Jewish!).
There was a family in the front row (and they'd clearly sat there to ensure the show was all about them!) and I've never seen people so weird. It seemed to be a daughter, her partner, her parents and her friends (a couple). She looked humourless from the start, got offended by a Madeline McCann joke (it wasn't particularly bad; I certainly wasn't too uncomfortable), and - the creepiest bit!! - in the interval she sat lovingly stroking her mam's hair. She was in her thirties. Oh, it was just so icky. The looked like lovers. Bleurgh.
When I left I told Lewis that I loved America (the hecklers had been so mean!) as I truly do. I think he appreciated it.
There are more comedy shows coming up there but I'm not sure that I'll be going. I want to support local artisitc endeavours but I'd far rather spend time with real comedy fans who know how to behave. I'm just counting the days until our Stand opens!
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