The Blame Game

Last night I messed up a bit on stage that I have never struggled with before. It's a very focused memorization type thing, one I am very proud of and and have
worked hard on. It has a good track record of a strong response when I am closing. The trouble is, one slip up basically ruins all of it due to the fashion in which it needs to be said. There was a highly inebriated (drunk... just... seven ways from Sunday drunk) woman in the front row who immediately starting yelling "HEY! - HEY YOU!" over and over in an attempt to mess me up. That's right, for the first time in comedy someone was giving me the ol' "Hey batter batter, we ain't got no batter, SWING batter!" routine. Well, she cemented her spot in the bullpen, because... curve ball caught the batter looking.

It threw me off, and I had to stop half way through due to losing my place and scold her. (She was later kicked out). I understand she was a troll of a human being, and it was extremely hard to perform something like that with a humanoid chihuahua barking in my ear... but in reality... as a performer, I should have been able to focus passed that and then called her out after it was done. In that moment... even if it was a excruciating situation, I failed as a performer.

I blamed her, but for the wrong reasons. It irks me about the amount of blame performers put on the audience when things don't go so well on a general basis. The above story is an extreme circumstance, but I'm talking about when a crowd just isn't that into a set... and afterwards... the blame game begins.

A set that garners little reaction is not always your fault alone. Sometimes it IS the crowd fault and you are just in a no win situation. Other times it's like you were set up on a blind date with the audience. Both of you are fine; you two just aren't right for each other. But, if every date you go on seems to be filled with drama and a slew of reasons it didn't work out... then you have lost touch on the common denominator. Hitting a brick wall of blank faces is good for you now and then. But some people can't help but bring up reasoning's that never equate to themselves. 

"The crowd didn't like me because I'm *fill in the blank*" - Stop it. There are some audience members who may not want to laugh at you because you have a different cultural background, a different societal view point, the way you dress, your gender, have toilet paper hanging out your pant leg... and the few people who decide to cross their arms at you for that are judgmental wankers. But... why weren't the other 95 percent of the crowd laughing?

If there is a majority black/gay/asian/conservative/ect. audience, and they don't laugh at me... it's probably not because of how I look. I mean, I'm sure SOME of them get mixed feelings seeing a bald white guy with tattoos and Vodka energy shouting at them from a pedestal... which given history I understand the knee jerk reaction. Even then... they probably didn't laugh because I didn't connect with them. It's my fault, not theirs. Blaming an audience because you perceive them to have social hang ups based on first glance makes you much more discriminating than they are.

The more egregious method of this buck passing trend is the passive self compliments. "I was too smart for them." "They didn't like me because I'm good looking." No you aren't. Maybe they didn't like you because they just didn't think you were entertaining. Look who gets shows on TV, the comics who are moving up to specials, and the actors who are playing the goofy side character in movies. Most of them are a few steps away from being models. This whole new generation is being groomed to think ONLY good looking people can be funny. So your excuse of being a 7 out of 10 on the ol' looks scale is losing it's relevance.

Also, don't blame having to work clean on your lack of ability. "The audience only wanted dirty stuff!" - No they didn't, they only wanted funny stuff. Most people don't like working clean. It's not as fun. Sometimes saying a certain cuss word just makes things funnier regardless of what Seinfeld says. But if you have to crutch on naughty word verbalization to get chuckles then you are going to be hobbling for a while.

Admitting failure, even when it's easy to blame someone else, shows self awareness. Pointing a finger at yourself is more helpful in the long run then looking in the mirror flashing a thumbs up. There are sometimes when it IS the crowd's fault. But a lot of times the excuses are just showing your insecurity on being able to say, "Hey, I wasn't that good tonight." There is nothing wrong with admitting that.

Not being able to cop up to that makes you a delusional narcissist incapable of understanding that sometimes... a drunk person is going to show up, sit in the front row, and pretend they are at a Little League Game with their "Hey Batter" taunts.

Ya know what... now that I sit here and stew about that... I changed my mind, I did fine. Psh, it was all her fault.