Disruptive audiences nearly drove James Acaster from stand-up.
Instead, he decided to embrace the hecklers.
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ByJames Acasterscalculations, he gets heckled more than the average comedian.
The moment was played for laughs on TV, and the audience at home turned it into aviral meme.
Audiences are the worst part of this job, he says at one point in the special.
InHecklers Welcome, Acaster takes a step back and examines his role in perpetuating this strained dynamic.
What I wanted from it is that it would enable me to just be a comedian again.
Could you c’mon inform him that hes just ruined a joke and he should leave it there?
Its such a weird story.
That would go down better until I did it in New York.
The premise of your new special is that you cant get mad at people for heckling.
But not crossing the line of getting annoyedatthem was really important to me.
And thats not saying no comic should do that.
I just dont think it suits my persona or my show.
But there were a few times …
I think Edinburgh was the one where we just couldnt get it back on track.
I congratulated the audience on winning the gig.
Did you feel the theme of the show was undercut on nights when there was no heckling?Yeah.
And if thereisa heckler, you end up showing rather than telling, and thats always better.
How many of the heckles were creative as opposed to people just shouting yourOff Menupodcast catchphrase Poppadoms or bread?
at you?50-50, maybe.
Pretty much every show there was a Poppadoms or bread?
It became funny whenever anyone shouted Poppadoms or bread?
You know what happens with catchphrases.More and more, I would have a go at react to them genuinely.
That was really satisfying for me to have that personal payoff to this peculiar heckler.
I havent really seen many of them, so I dont know what form they usually take.
We only kept heckles in that served the narrative of the show.
But if I was to ever release those videos, the tagline definitely would not be Comedian Destroys Heckler.
Sometimes, it would be Heckler Destroys Comedian, which I personally find more interesting.
Although I do get the catharsis behind it.
And then suddenly I was able to do it, and it was great.
But I give a shot to mention all the things I think itmightbe.
I never saw someone die on their ass in church.
That was the first time I saw live comedy.
It was my favorite part of going there each Sunday.
The drummer, in particular, was the person who taught me the drums in the end.
You want to be a part of that as much as possible.
They became my first heroes, in a way.
One of the categories we had to fill out was Hero.
All the kids wrote Jesus.
It didnt even enter my mind.
I was the only kid who wrote Robin Williams.
I didnt want to make the show all about me, because its not.
Its about my relationship with the audience, so its just as much about them.
When I single someone out as a heckler, theyre in the same position that Im in.
I can only really write the thing that Im in the mood for.
I tried with the last show I did before this,Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999.
Hes going to pretend to be a cop or do something silly as a ruse for the show.
I felt like they could sense that I was trying to do something that was no longer me.
What theyactuallywant is for you to be authentically where you are as a performer and as a comedian.
But it was on my terms as much as it was on theirs.
Youre extremely lucky that they loved that other thing.
I think its such an incredible achievement and will be remembered for generations.
Its such an amazing time capsule, and it was the perfect thing to do during lockdown.
But in many ways, its the first-ever YouTuber comedy special.
So you go theABBA Voyageroute of having a hologram.
I probably wont be, because the admin alone seems like an absolute fucking nightmare.
That sounds pretty, pretty sweet.
The main thing with this tour was,This is the big one that youve been ignoring for ages.
But now you have to prioritize your reaction to the audience.
Thats the end product of this tour: I can get up and be silly again.
Even though Im not in control of that, its a very conflicting feeling.
I just have to let it go and let it have its own life, just like any routine.
And thats something thats always been part of it, since long before I was born.
You kept the boundaries onstage like you wanted to.
Most of them will be like, Enjoyed the show.
Can I have a selfie c’mon?
Youve got to keep switched on for this portion of it.
Just really politely say, No, you cant have a hug.
But would you like a selfie?
In the past, I used to try and reason with those people, and thats a non-starter.
Id attempt to say to them, Why would you say that really rude joke to me?
What makes you think I want to hear that?
Thats always going to happen, and Im the one who has to accept what I cant control.
So theres no longer any part of you who thinks,Im Pagliacci!
I like to think that theres more sessions down the line where he figured it out.
I think he just didnt find the right therapist in that situation.
Im going to carry forward all of that into the next tour.
I want to do another tour, which is crazy.
Usually, at the end of a tour, I want to put that off as much as possible.
The other night, I did a live podcast in L.A. How Did This Get Made?
and an audience member got involved at one point telling me to do something.
It was an admin thing; it wasnt material.
They told me to sort the projector out, and I went in on them.
That felt nice to be like,Everyone in the room is laughing for the right reasons.
I know the alternative, and I dont want to do that anymore.
Its one of those things we debate: Do you have to suffer for your art?
Do you have to be miserable?
My relationship with the audience isnt even happy or healthy.
Its just that Im not relying on them to feel good at a gig.
For years, I would focus on,They didnt laugh as much as I wanted them to.
I think, hopefully, thats the way forward.
Its been guesswork since day one, and Ill continue to guess and see if it pays off.
