The bad gigs: who is to blame?

Ok, so I haven’t been on the circuit for long - hell, I’m not even really on the circuit at all yet. But one thing that really annoys me during open mic gigs is when comedians turn on the audience if their material starts taking a turn for the worse.

Everyone has a bad gig. Everyone. If you have not had a bad experience whilst performing, then you either need to gig more or...well, congratulations. You are officially the first comedian in the history of the world to only ever have perfect gigs.

There are a number of ways in which you could deal with a crowd that hasn’t reacted in the way that you had planned. Here are a few:

1. You could completely ignore the fact that it’s not going very well and blindly rush through your 5 minute set in 90 seconds before sprinting off the stage at the end; or 
2. Acknowledge the fact that your joke didn’t work - perhaps it sounded better in your head - and be honest with the audience; or 
3. Shuffle your feet, look down at them, go silent and refuse to speak; or 
4. Arrogantly tell the audience that the joke deserved more than they reacted with, blaming them for the fact that there is now an awkward tension in the room. 

Which would you do? How would you respond in the audience to a comedian behaving like this?

Now, I’m not claiming that I know the “correct response.” For example, the audience is often going to sympathise with someone doing a gig for the first time and who perhaps reacts with numbers 1 or 3 - naturally, nerves can take over in this situation.

Personally, I try my best to react with a number 2 (toilet humour reference entirely unintended). Often, I have found that recovery on stage is possible simply by referencing how unfunny the joke was. How it was much funnier it was when said to myself in the shower. Or that I should stop asking my dog for jokes. Sometimes, an audience will just not gel with my sense of humour - that’s stand-up life.

However, how the hell can you expect to win an audience over if you react with number 4? This is me speaking as an audience member rather than a comedian...

You won’t have lost them with a bad joke - everyone tells them at some point - but you can be sure that you will lose them completely by blaming them for your bad material or delivery. Yet an astonishing number of so-called “professional” comedians I have watched seem to let their egos take over in these situations. Oh, and then they get paid.

Different audiences laugh at different jokes. Different audiences get offended by different references. Different audiences laugh and react in different ways. However, all audiences deserve respect, and you are only going to win theirs if you show them plenty in return.

Rant over.