From Friday's Asbury Park Press...
WORST. GIGS. EVER.
Top comics share their horror stories.
By Ed Kaz !
Comedy Correspondent
Sure. You see a comedian on HBO or Comedy Central or on stage at a
major area club and you think, "Ha ha! Funny! Such an easy life —
telling jokes and getting paid."
Well, hold it right there,
partner. Ask any established comic and he or she will quickly inform
you that it's not always gales of laughter and People's Choice Awards.
Sure, there's that spot on Letterman or Kimmel, but there's also that
all-nude strip club in Western New Jersey.
Over the past few years I asked several top comics to recount some of their worst gigs ever. Here now are the chilling details:
VIC
DIBITETTO: My worst gig? Wow, there were a lot of those. The one I can
think of right now is the Beefsteak in North Jersey for 500 drunken
firemen. They threw beefsteaks and bread at me! (Laughs.) Now it's
funny!
COLIN QUINN: There were so many, but there was a gig
upstate where they chased me out of town with bats, you know, in the
middle of my act. That was pretty bad.
GEORGE CARLIN: My (former)
partner and I, Jack Burns. We got a gig in Flint, Mich., at the Palace
Gardens, which in essence was really a bar with a dance floor that had
acts some of the time, apparently. And we came into work that night and
the bar was all lined up with people in their work clothes, like cement
workers and construction guys and — — — —. And sitting at the tables
was, like, a softball team that had just come back from practice or a
game or something. And we had to do a — — — — show with our stuff. And
during one of the nights, someone went up and turned on the jukebox
during our act.
LISA LANDRY: Once I was working at Rascals and an
audience member got so drunk — and I'm so funny — he actually
projectile-vomited from his seat onto the edge of the stage. And the
bouncer didn't escort him out of the showroom.
KEVIN JAMES: I was
hired to do stand-up for a bachelor party. One guy hired me, not
telling his buddies. They thought they were gonna get a stripper and
they got me. And I had to stand on a chair in the middle of the room
and try to do my act. That didn't go over too well. But that's when I
started my pole dancing.
GARY MICHAELS: I played a cruise ship on New Year's Eve. Unless my name was Jack Daniel's or Trojan, no one wanted to hear me.
JACKIE
"THE JOKE MAN" MARTLING: I did a show in 1986 at The Ringling Brothers
Barnum & Bailey Circus Training Camp in Sarasota, Florida. I did a
show for 200 midgets. I got a standing ovation and I didn't even know
it.
ROSS BENNETT: I was doing a bar in Canada about 20 years ago
and there was a balcony that went around the whole room and there were
people over my head and they were pouring beer on me. Doesn't get much
worse than that.
MITCH FATEL: A girl came up on stage and threw up on my shoes.
JIM
NORTON: I used to perform for three consecutive nights — four sets a
night — in an all-nude strip club in Western New Jersey. And it was
"bring your own alcohol," which made for an even more wonderful
performance vibe. I would get lap dances in between sets. There were
always bikers heckling me. I stole everyone's material that I knew.
Anything to get through those awful nights.
DON JAMIESON: I once
did a company Christmas party and I did so awfully that they paid me
double because they felt sorry for me. They also fired the guy who
hired me.
ROBERT KELLY: Outside in the afternoon at a beer fest in the rain after a band next to a skydiving simulator.
DAVE
ATTELL: Worst gig is easy: Any show that ends with you thinking, "I
just hope I make it to my car." Yes, comedy is one of the few types of
entertainment that can end with violence. I've had some bottles thrown
at me and guys who wanted to kick my ass. I do not think that happens
in the Ice Capades.
Have a great weekend, and please, go easy on the comics. OK?
---Ed Kaz !
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