Nightmare Gigs: The Most Mortifying Things That Happened To Me In Comedy + Some Takeaways PART 2
Always, always skip the lobster bisque
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In my last post, I wrote a story about a time that Alicia Silverstone heckled me during my set at a packed comedy club in downtown Manhattan. But wait, there’s more! As someone has been doing stand up for 20 years or so, I unfortunately have no shortage of shitty and mortifying gigs. Some were just annoyingly bad, others were inexplicably weird or creepy. But the stories I’m sharing in this Nightmare Gigs series are the best of the best, or, well, the worst of the worst. Or maybe the best of the worst?
This performance took place in London. I was there to perform as part of my Dirty Folk Rock solo show at London’s infamous SoHo Theatre. To get a gig here was a pretty big deal. It paid well, they brought in a good audience (they had their own in house publicist who actually did a great job of helping me to get booked on the BBC and get press in to review the show—this was one of the only times an in house publicist ever really helped me book anything) and the venue was big and beautiful with a wonderful, friendly staff and excellent tech support.
For a good bunch of years, I had created a sort of routine where I’d spend the winter
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