John Katsilometes is the entertainment reporter who thinks the world revolves around him. He's not a very good reporter, missing many things in entertainment in this town along with making false reports on occasion.
Well, today, he puts out an article in which he gladly plays an unwanted heckler in the crowd at a comedy show put on by Lewis Black. I don't know Black, though, if he is like most comedians in town, he is probably loud and profane. (see update)
From the Katz report: As always, mine will be an unbilled and entirely unexpected insertion of comic genius uncorked from the very middle of the Mirage Terry Fator Theater. Somehow I have a ticket that positions me ideally in the center, a perfect spot whence to fire my own inspired witticisms during pauses in Black’s precision stand-up show.
Lucky me. Lucky Lewis.
Call me “The Interloper.” Some are fast to refer to me as a heckler, but I do not heckle. Rather, I mischievously play the role of artistic trespasser. And it is an art, passed down through generations of interlopers...
Tonight, tonight is a challenge. Lewis Black will be a tricky target. He is smart. He is angry. He is experienced. I need to be on my game to be on his nerves.
Early in the show, Black struggles to pull the cap off a bottle of water. I shout, “Fiji!” He halts, nods and grins slightly.
Off to a good start. I have planted the seed...
“You know,” he says, now addressing me directly. “There is no reason for you to add to the show. I have put A LOT OF THOUGHT INTO THIS ACT WITHOUT NEEDING INPUT FROM YOU!”
The audience cheers. They are mine.
He moves on to his new Android. This is a funny routine, how he has had to set up a means to make a call from his iPhone out of his house by calling AT&T and setting up additional technical infrastructure.
“Yes, I have had to call AT&T to provide the infrastructure I thought I was buying with my cell phone to do what?” he cries. “To make a call from a cell phone in my house from a LAND LINE!”
Waiting … waiting …
“So I have now switched to an Android,” he tells us. And the crowd applauds.
“DON’T APPLAUD THAT!” he says, building to a punch line.
“Why not!?” I shout.
Again, he breaks from his act.
“Look!” he shouts, “when I write this material, I consider every possible question. THAT’S WHAT THE PAUSE IS FOR! THE PAUSE LETS THE AUDIENCE ASK THE QUESTION IN THEIR HEADS, NOT OUT LOUD, YOU IDIOT! Some comics build audience response into their acts! I AM NOT ONE OF THEM.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-report/2011/apr/24/lewis-black-plays-mirage-and-wow-if-he-doesnt-have/
Apparently, Katsilometes thinks he is the reason why people come to the show. He is wrong. I have been to plenty of shows in Las Vegas to know that hecklers are a pain in the ass. The actor/comedian can flop or succeed with out the help of a heckler. (see update)
A couple of weeks ago, Katz was at a show at the Hilton where Motley Crew singer, Vince Neil went berserk against his ex-girlfriend. Now, I wonder if Neil was provoked by Katsilometes.
So, Katsilometes, if you want to interrupt a show why don't you do it at the local NAMBLA meeting which you may go to. Your antics probably will be more welcome there and the people who attend Las Vegas shows and pay good money to do so, won't have to listen to your crap.
update: Apparently I wan't the only one fooled by Katz- he wrote: The idea was to satirically write from the point of view of someone who did, in fact, disrupt a live performance by Lewis Black. I was at the show, but I was not actually that person. This was written from the perspective of any idiot who would be motivated, somehow, to interject himself into a stand-up comedy show. It was not me who actually disrupted the show, no.
And
I understand how this column could have been confused. I added the note after it was originally posted, just to make it clear. I would not interrupt a show in such a way, not Lewis Black on Saturday or any entertainer on any day. I don't get why people feel the need to act like idiots, but rather than just make that trite point, I wrote from a different perspective -- that of the idiot.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteYou misunderstood Katz' article. He was not actually the heckler. He is reporting on Black's act from the fictional POV of the actual heckler, making a sarcastic point about the delusions that motivate such people.