Comedians with balls

I’m planning on doing an open mic Saturday night at Duke’s Pub in Glenmont. I haven’t been on stage in about 4 months, so there’s a good possibility I could totally suck. This place is new to me and I don’t really have any new material; I’ll be spouting out the old crap. I just don’t want to get too rusty. Come on over if you’re not doing anything!

You’ve probably figured out that I don’t exactly love doing stand-up; I’d much rather get in front of people as a speaker who happens to be humorous than as a comedian who has to be humorous. But I am so diggin’ Louis C.K.’s new show, Louie, that I’m starting to get inspired.

I’ve been a Louis C.K. fan for quite a few years now, and like almost all comics, this guy is one brave mo-fo. Talk about pushing comedy to the limits, and on TV no less. Last week he opened his show with a bit where he’s responding to a heckler. It’s funny, awkward, vulgar, and brilliant all at the same time. Amazing.

In the new Joan Rivers movie, which I’m evidently talking about ad nauseum, there’s a scene that shows her handling an indignant heckler who shouts, “Hey, my son is deaf!” after she makes a Helen Keller joke. We then get to watch the master as she pulls the audience over to her side. So well done.

But back up. If that guy is so friggin’ sensitive, what the hell was he doing at her show in the first place? You can’t go to see Joan Rivers and expect her to stay inside the politically correct lines. Same with Louis C.K., Rickles, hell... just about any comic. Any that's funny. How would comics even have an act if they had to worry about offending someone in the audience? If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen, right?

It takes a lot of balls to do comedy, people. And sometimes (ironically), some of the biggest balls belong to the women.