Heckler

2009

Documentary

Canada

Stardust Pictures for Canadian Comedy Club

Distributed by Beyond Home Entertainment

Web: http://www.beyondhomentertainment.com

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

This documentary covers comedy and performances from the other side – the viewpoint of the performer, particularly a comedian named Jamie Kennedy. Why do people heckle performers? What are the effects on the performers? How do they deal with hecklers? The documentary is not just a set of complaints, but a serious attempt to find out how performers handle people who set out to ruin their work.

“Why don’t you make like a Kennedy and die young?”

“Get off now, Fatty, or I’ll kill your whole family”

“Please get off the stage now and leave. Just please leave now” (that was the MC)

“They want you outside”. “Who?” “The people inside.”

Although a lot of hecklers are just drunk and full of their own importance, there are also the ones who heckle on behalf of political correctness, who find the show boring, and even according to one comic as a means of flirting. One comedienne who attended a show commented that she felt she just had to participate somehow and heckling was her outlet.

Some performers can handle a heckler, but sometimes it gets nasty.

(US comedian in Canada) What do you do with all the ugly people here?

(Heckler) We ship them to America

(Comedian) Well, sorry, you missed one.

(Comedienne) Are you talkin’?

(Heckler) Yes

(Comedienne) It’s not like TV, bitch. When you talk, I can hear you.

For a performer examining a show in retrospect, the ultimate downer is realizing you lost control of the show to the point that security had to be called to eject the heckler.

Overall, putting the heckler on stage and taking away their anonymity seems to work best, but comedians have been assaulted when they did this.

From here the show moves to that ultimate heckler, the film critic. They are almost universally hated by performers, to the point that one film producer challenged his critics to a series of boxing matches, which he won. Performers feel that critics are not always in touch, and often show an unreasoning hostility.

“The guys that masturbate to Meryl Streep – they send those guys to review us.”

“The lady who was sent to review the movie just started into reviewing my face and my body”

“…too much of their ego”

The anonymity of the Internet concerns performers. A critical comment on one of the many blogs or websites generally cannot be answered. A critic’s qualifications to make that comment cannot be examined.

“Am I going to see a movie, based on the opinion of serialkiller666 ?

People focus on the flaws, and the good points are rarely noted. Examples are given where critics have thoroughly trashed a film, yet it went on to become a major seller or renter. Quite simply, the critics are often wrong but very rarely admit it. Do critics and hecklers just love to inflict pain?

We will leave the final words to Winston Churchill. One night in Parliament he was a bit under the influence and a lady Parliamentarian heckled him “Mr Churchill, you are drunk”. He replied “And you, Madam, are ugly. But in the morning I shall be sober”.

It is probably important to restate Synergy’s policy here. We are REVIEWERS, not critics. There are enough good films out there that we can generally ignore the less effective ones. There are exceptions. Sometimes a film is so dreadfully bad that it is funny (Plan 9 from Outer Space) or so quirky that it is worth a look because it is different (Action Girls - no plot, no acting, but who cares? That’s not what it’s about). Generally we will try to give you a synopsis, the film’s context, and a brief idea of how much we liked it. You, the viewer, then become the critic if you decide to buy it or watch it based on our recommendation.

The second DVD in the set is Jamie Kennedy Unwashed. This is a film of his show in San Jose. Although his style is fairly conventional American humour, he is obviously relating to the audience and heckling is not really a problem. He is skilled at using his face and his voice to add to his performance. He started off rather slowly, but managed to get the audience on side early in the act and from there they appeared to enjoy it. This DVD is a worthwhile addition to the title film, because it shows how a skilled performer can work with his audience .

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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