One of the Conolly’s gets heckled, but he does have an extra “n”

Another Conolly who tells jokes, (well actually he’s “Connolly” which is a totally different, look he has one whole extra “n”!!) got heckled and walked off the stage twice in the last week (of course he did, he can do that with two “n’s”!!)  There are those in the audience who feel hurt and betrayed that the Great Yin could abandon them mid set “isn’t he a professional?”. It’s a weird thing heckling, in England I kind of got used to it and actually hoped it would come early so that I could stamp on it and move on. See, the rule is, get heckled, comically rape the heckler, humiliate them, subjugate them. Why? So that the comedian can then return to the set that he or she had planned out. In the U.S. I very rarely get heckled and if I do, it’s actually so benign that I usually just move on after a light witty reposte rather than a full thunderous public disembowling. Quite often I have British friends who rub their hands with glee at coming to see me in a show “I’m going to heckle you”….oh, really don’t do that, it’s kind of…well here’s the truth, I pretty much work out what I’m going to say as a comedian before I turn up to talk to the audience, in fact I’ve probably done it a few times and I don’t think I’m alone in the comedy world in that respect and yet hecklers tend to just interject at the most inconvenient moment of the show, temporarily at least, derailing the tacit agreement between performer and audience that one is the entertainer and the other the entertained. It’s very rare to hear a funny heckle, usually the story is much better in the bar afterwards “you know what I should have said…” but actually didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing I love more than a fully engaged audience that bounce off the comedian, but heckling by it’s very nature is obtrusive. Personally, I think Billy Connolly is one of the funniest men that ever walked the planet and has proven it time and time again. No disrepect to Blackpool and Scarborough, but you lucky buggers getting to see him live and some heckler ruined the show not Billy Connolly walking off. Yes he’s a professional, but why should he have to take someone screaming nonsense at him in the middle of doing his job, how would you like it? How about you’re sitting in your office getting to that final bit of your proposal and along comes the comedian from last Saturday’s show, “remember me you bastard? You just try and finish that report without interruptions!” or later when you’re having a bit of how’s your father with the Mrs and up pops “think you’re funny do you? She’s not smiling is she. Ask me she can’t wait for this to be over”…