Thursday, September 25, 2008

Insert Joke About Zamunda

So, to prepare for my audition last night, I went to an early open mic.

Waiting for the club to open, I overheard a few comics having a discussion - the topic seemed to be "Who's more annoying, Jews or Asians?"

If I wasn't focused on my audition I woulda addressed it from the stage. It woulda been fun for me to get into it, but, given the impending audition, I wanted to concentrate on my set and not deal with negative vibes.

I did my set, which, I must point out, includes references to me being Jewish.

The comics after me, some clown who went by the name of "Prince Akeem" did four minutes of material and then started tackling Wall Street's trouble and the $700B bail out package. The punchline for this joke, while staring at me mind you, was "Now, can we blame the Jews?!" To make sure we all heard him, he repeated it several times, each time louder, until he was screaming.

I contemplated answering him but again, I really didn't wanna get worked up on some d-bag.

I am considering going back to that mic next week, hoping he's there.

Rock On,

Aitch

7 comments:

Sarah Brooks said...

WOW! I so could not have held my tongue. You've got some serious self control!

Harris said...

hey sarah brooks,

open mics are full of a-holes who think that their rascism, misogyny, etc is hysterical.

if i got pissed off at every one of them, my blood pressure would be off the charts.

rock on,

aitch

kimberoo99 said...

creepy. even that angry irish alchoholic dude is still kinda funny when he's being disturbing. only works when it's self hating, tho.I guess the best revenge would be finding out when he's on next, having your "support system" show up and not boo or heckle him (he'd prob dig that) but look really bored and be quiet. curious how crowd reacted. i'd imagine he's prob not too affected by the econ meltown b/c he hasnt had a job in ages anyway, let alone investments

Harris said...

hey kimberoo99,

crowd was pretty quiet, but whatever - he's just a dude at the bottom of the rung looking to blame others -

of course, i'm assuming that if he starts doing well, that he'll praise the jews.

rock on,

aitch

Adam Sank said...

That's awesome.

It's been interesting to me, as a long-time New Yorker, to see what audiences find funny and/or acceptable out here on the West Cost.

Last night I did a show in which one comic who went up did a joke in which he used the word "faggots." He didn't mean it in a gay way -- just as a general insult. Still, I couldn't imagine a NYC comic's using the word so casually and not getting a strong negative reaction from the crowd. This crowd was totally unphased.

Then, the comic immediately before me made a joke about having sex with a "fat chick." The punchline was that her "pussy" didn't just fart -- it belched.

This was not an open mic. It was a booked show. And while the crowd didn't particularly laugh at this vile, digsuting, unfunny joke (especially coming from a guy who is himself grossly overweight), neither did they seem bothered by it.

Dorothy, I don't think we're in Manhattan anymore...

Harris said...

hey adam sank,

you kidding? at an open mic here, they'd prolly get applause breaks!

shows? not so much...

Rock On,

Aitch

Anonymous said...

i'm always amazed at how 'bitch' and 'cunt' and all that jazz seems so acceptable to many. the best i can do is remind myself i'm neither, so s/he's not talking about me. well actually, the real best i can do is sometimes make it into comedy material from my point of view. if those words were replaced by derogatory racist words, it wouldn't go unnoticed. that's where people are up to. when i was a kid, anyone objecting to derogatory racial terms would be seen as the problem. i was around for that, and the dynamics are so similar. i was called a "nigger-lover" then for not joining in the hatred and i've been called things now for not joining in other hatred. some things just keep on keeping on as long as we live in a way that depends on someone on the bottom. and yet in many ways, the bottom is where the power is because without it, there's no top. Mindy