THE HATE
Steve,
Recently you performed at the University of Dallas for their Orientation Comedy Night. You sound like you are getting a handle for the spotlight, Steve. Your comedy, however, was not appropriate for you audience. You want to make it big, and become a great comedian, that's great, we all need goals. You cannot do anything or go anywhere without your audience. By your audience you will rise, and by your audience you will fall. Dialogue with your audience is key, as you well know, don't forget its a two way and talking is only 20% of the comedy, the other 80% is listening to and understanding your audience and their personality. Actors and Comedians share this remarkable ability to dialogue with a mass number of people, but regardless of if you are on stage in makeup and a costume, or on stage with a microphone making people laugh, it is the same. Try taking some acting classes to improve your stage dialogue. Anyway, that was the nice part of what I had to say, written after I had blown off steam with the comments below. Normally I probably wouldn't actually include the lower half, but had I been talking to you in person, you would have heard what is to come. Have fun with it in your hate mail if you wish. Gotta love passionate disgust, it has this... I dunno... twinge of energy to it. Anywho, good luck with your tour, and remember your audience, who they are, what they are, and what their personality is.
And here it is, have fun with it...
While I give you kudos for taking the bruising from the disrespectful girls on the phone and flashing their camera at you with finesse, I found your performance to be crude, low class, and undeserving of the title "Thinking Man's Comic." Your continued insulting of the audience and lack of finesse with the use of cuss words, shows your mediocrity as a comedian. Comedians who can cross the river of mediocrity understand how to use cuss words and the dialogue between audience and performer properly. This lack of talent is shown clearly by the lines that you crossed that severely insulted the majority of the audience. Your discussion of the priest scandals was uncalled for and as your stumbling into the hurricane mixed with the Holloway Mystery clearly illustrated you have a hard time improvising under pressure when you know you just punched your audience in the gut. But I don't blame you, it's hard to maintain a friendship after you assult the friend. What few intellegent remarks and actual thought provoking comments you made were quickly drowned out by the acrid waters of the sewer from which most your comedia was drawn. When she show started, the Rathskeller was packed. By the time the show had ended, you had alienated most of your audience and forced a good portion of them to leave within the first 15 minutes of the show with a steady trickle of people exiting throughout the rest.
Know your audience, respect your audience. They are the one's who put food on the table.
Peace,
Drew
University of Dallas
MY RESPONSE
Drew,
First, let me clear up two facts:
-Throughout the show, about 30 of the 200+ people left, including the crew that showed up drunk. By the end of the show, it was still standing room only, and several dozen more people than were expected to attend.
-The girl didn’t flash her camera at me, she flashed her bare breasts at me. Maybe you didn’t see it, but I talked about it a few times – I’m not sure how you confused the two things.
I do appreciate that you tried to be as polite as possible with your email. And though I don’t have a problem with how you said it, I do have a problem with what you said.
I am appalled that you think comedy is about saying what you assume your audience wants to hear. If that were the case, every comedian who came to UDallas would do the same exact show. If Chris Rock or George Carlin or Richard Pryor or Dave Chappelle or Jon Stewart came to campus, they’d do their act. Not a watered down, crowd pleasing version of it. What you basically said was “you should really stop being yourself because you’d get way more laughs if you sold out.†I make my material available on my website, and never market myself as anything other than a harsh social critic. Is it my fault for doing my act, or your fault for showing up without looking into who would be performing?
I am even more appalled at your assumption that your taste is the taste of your entire school. My offensive material couldn’t have been when I talked about sex – one of your classmates flashed me, and when I commented that the tower on campus looks like a penis, the room erupted in applause. And it couldn’t have been my use of expletive – when I warned the crowd I was going to be saying those words, again I got applause. Maybe not from you, but you can see the tape if you want to see just how in the minority you were.
So it seemed that you are shocked that at a catholic school I mentioned the catholic priest scandal? But what better place to discuss something than somewhere it pertains to people the most? As I said at the show, the scandal involves the VAST minority of priests, but it’s still a horrible thing that we can’t ignore. You may be offended that I brought up the subject. But with my knowledge of its existence, I’d be offended if I didn’t discuss it.
Yes, when I mocked Fox News’ interruption of the hurricane coverage for an update about the girl in Aruba, it fell flat. And that was the only joke that didn’t get laughs the entire night. An hour of comedy and you criticize my ability by pointing out that one joke didn’t work. To me, that defends my ability.
My job is to entertain people, and my style is to educate while doing it. I spent an hour on your campus getting huge laughs while discussing race, religion, politics, and body image. But you seem to have wanted me to say, “hey, you ever notice…†I, and the majority of people at the event, prefer my style.
What it comes down to is that you, and perhaps your friends, disliked my show. That is your right – my comedy will never be for everybody (and nobody’s is). But I spent 20 minutes afterwards signing autographs, posing for pictures, and shaking hands. Maybe I know my audience better than you do.
I respect my audience a great deal, and the more honest I get, the more it grows. It is your choice if you want to be a part of it.
-Steve