small brush shouldn't fuck with big timber

Death's Door, the view from the Spanish announcers table: I don’t jump up and down on the bed when you’re working

Tuesday, November 21

I don’t jump up and down on the bed when you’re working


I’ve been getting a kick from watching all the bullshit Michael Richards has gotten himself into since he shit the bed during a stand up gig at the Laugh factory over in Hollywood. From what my many inside sources tell me, during his show there were a couple of black cats in the crowd doing a low grade flame job on Richards.

And apparently Mr. Richards wasn’t down with the heckling and lost his cool and started flinging out the N-word like monkeys throwing shit. So now folks all over are calling him a bigot and all kinds of worthless muthafuckers and shit. Whatever, let’s break this down for a minute.

From working stand-up back in the day for a few years I know a little bit about doing stand-up and working the crowds and heckling. First off Richards isn’t a stand-up comedienne, he’s what you call a comedic actor. Guy’s who do well in stand-up usually make decent to great comedic actors, while comedic actors have a hard time making the transition to stand-up.

Stand-up comics work in a very fluid situation where they have to think on the fly and deal with a drinking audience who’s expecting to be entertained. Comedic actors work from a script in a tightly controlled environment. So even though I wasn’t there I bet I can put on a good guess how things went.

Richards, who at best is a competent actor comes out to do his stand-up shtik. Now if you’re like me when you see Michael Richards you automatically think of that shlump Kramer and that’s who you’re expecting to see. But I bet he came out doing the standard ABC stand-up comic shit trying to be somebody else and muthafuckers weren’t down with that.

So cats in the crowd started giving him shit which is par for the course at a live comedy show. It’s the rule, you do stand-up comedy you’re gonna get heckled by somebody. Some comics love the interaction and it becomes part of the show whilst some comics try to work thru it and act like they don’t hear it. Richards on the other hand went the third route, he let it get to him, he lost his concentration and went the fuck off and dropped the N-word like Pringles out of the can.

And to tell you the truth and double standards aside, I don’t have issues with a white comic saying the N-word as long as it’s in the context of a comedy show. And as far as Richards is concerned, I doubt he’s a bigot, maybe an intensely confused asshole but no bigot. What I do have issues with is some club owner actually hiring Michael Richards to do stand-up.


"and the monkey flipped the switch"

8 Comments:

Blogger Ole Blue The Heretic said...

The man wasn't all that funny as Kramer. All he did was took his show from Fridays or whatever they called it and put it into the Kramer persona. Not much of a stretch.

11:13 AM  
Blogger OMMAG said...

A tempest in a TeePot.....

Richards did what he did and said what he said...he should have had the sense to STFU....BUT when he went on Letterman via his old pal Sienfeld...well that was just pathetic!
I'll take this opportunity now to STFU myself.

11:53 AM  
Blogger Donna said...

I saw the video and I was most struck by the white people gasping in shock and walking out.

On this little thing we call teh internets, there are so many black bloggers who are right now screaming racism and attacking white people...as a whole because of this. Hell, seeing as how I am called a racist on a semi regular basis I got a little thrill when the white people started walking out. See, nobody likes the 'n' word...except...um, black people as they are the ones who use it most.

Neither here nor there. The dude lost his friggin' mind! That's the part that had me sitting with my mouth open. I wasn't even a little impressed with the bile flying from his mouth, anger or not. Anger doesn't give you the right to call people inappropriate names anymore than it gives you the right to shoot them in the head.

He lost control of himself and that's the part that disgusted me. That he aimed his anger at a couple of black guys isn't really the issue...guaranteed, if they were Hispanic he would have thrown 'spic' at them.

He went off his nut over something really stupid and I lost any respect I had for him...which was none to begin with because I don't know if he's an honourable man worthy of respect.

In any event, he pissed me off because that kind of blind anger disgusts me. As far as I'm concerned, he's a friggin' dickhead.

I wonder if Al and Jesse are gonna jump on this?

1:05 PM  
Blogger Greg Beck said...

For what, one over the hill actor acting like a retard? you'd think those two will find something more important to do. like giving blood at the clinic or throwing themselves in front of a train.

1:18 PM  
Blogger curmudgeon said...

Then there's the part about all the other people paying to watch someone perform, when some asshole in the audience has to disrupt the comedian's show...

2:45 PM  
Blogger Donna said...

One can only hope, Greg.

6:43 PM  
Blogger Xavier Onassis said...

"Cocaine's a helluva drug."

7:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Greg-
"What I do have issues with is some club owner actually hiring Michael Richards to do stand-up."
Now, THAT's funny!

8:35 AM  

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