Instead of delivering punchlines, comedian Nick Swardson unexpectedly became the punchline at his own show and had to be pulled off stage about 20 minutes into it. The spur of events led to Nick telling social media that he was suffering from a case of “brain diarrhea” during the embarrassing display.
On Sunday, stand-up comedy fans showed up at a venue in Colorado’s Beaver Creek for a night of gut-busting laughter courtesy of the 47-year-old comedian. However, the evening took a nosedive after Nick showed up, appearing intoxicated and becoming the comedic fodder for the evening.
The Reno 911! actor was captured doling out incoherent rants to the audience, along with a touch of profanity-laced exchanges with the crowd at Vilar Performing Arts Center.
“Let’s go,” the Minnesota-born comedian repeatedly told the crowd.
Nick Swardson’s recent stand-up comedy show went sideways after a high-altitude mix-up
Videos shared online captured Nick shouting and arguing with his audience as he continued being the casualty at his comedy show for about 20 minutes.
While some members of the audience were clearly uneasy with the downward spiral of the night, others jeered the comedian on, with some even offering support in his possibly inebriated state.
Eventually, organizers of the event decided to put a stop to Nick’s sharp pivot from the script.
A man from the sidelines of the stage emerged in front of the audience, walked towards Nick, and had a quick, hushed conversation with the comedian. The man clearly managed to convince Nick without much of a fuss because Nick promptly followed him off stage after waving goodbye to his audience.
The comedian became the punchline of jokes at the stand-up comedy show
Nick’s exit was promptly followed by the entry of someone who introduced himself to the crowd as the director of operations and apologized for the flop show.
“Hi. Good evening. My name is Justin. I’m the director of operations. We’ve decided to conclude the show early in the best interest of those who bought tickets. We apologize for what you’ve seen tonight,” he said.
He also offered the audience the consolation of a refund and assured them that they would get their money back.
In the aftermath of the evening’s unexpected turn, Nick took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and blamed a high-altitude mix-up of drinks and edibles for the blunder.
“Just casually woke up on TMZ. Travel tip: don’t drink and take edibles in high altitude. F—–g brain diarrhea,” the comedian wrote.
“What’d you smoke before the show?” a member of the audience asked him during the show
@NickSwardson just taken off stage after being bombed out of his mind pic.twitter.com/RvbklPGj78
— Sean Guy (@seanrguy) March 4, 2024
He also expressed his willingness to make amends by saying, “I’ll make it up to you Beaver Creek!”
On one hand, several fans were quick to support Nick following the event.
“Everyone makes mistakes. Especially at high altitude,” one said. “One drink at 8K+ feet will hit you like a six pack.”
“Happens to the best of us,” said another.
On the other hand, some social media users did not take the incident too well.
“I think you have a problem dude,” one wrote, while another added, “It’s a trend with you.”
Nick was taken off stage after about 20 minutes of embarrassing himself
Brutal. I really hope @NickSwardson apologizes publicly. pic.twitter.com/iiNKtU6u5F
— Seth Levy (@letsgoskatepool) March 4, 2024
Those who bought tickets for Nick’s show received an email from the organizers apologizing for the event once again.
“We apologize for the negative experience you may have had at this evening’s performance with Nick Swardson. Unfortunately, this show did not meet the Vilar Performing Arts Center’s standards as a world-class presenter of the performing arts,” read the email, as quoted by TMZ.
“Therefore, all tickets will be refunded to the original payment method. Please accept our sincere apologies, and be in touch if there is anything we can do to further assist you,” the message continued.
Some members of the audience jeered him on, while others couldn’t stand to see him become comedic fodder
Nick has previously spoken about how he was a bit reckless in his younger days. He also spoke about how stand-up comedy gave him some direction in life.
“I got into trouble in high school. It’s kind of a cliche story, but my parents got divorced when I was 13, which is always a phenomenal time to deal with that. So I started high school and just kinda went rogue. Me and my friends were just crazy. We would… God, it was bad. We would steal cars, we would break into stuff, we would do drugs. We just didn’t play by any rules,” he said in an interview with Screen Rant.
“By the time I hit my sophomore year in high school, I was just off the rails. I smoked a blunt in high school, got arrested, and then got court-ordered rehab. So I had to go to these classes and everything. After that, I was like, ‘Okay, I need to get my grades up.’ So I started acting.”
Nick said that once he started acting, he felt the new-found passion replacing the rush that drugs initially gave him.
Members of the audience were promised a refund for the flop show
Damn. Nick Swardson removed from stage and show canceled because he was too drunk to perform. Sounded like some people still wanted to see him. pic.twitter.com/Rd3SYgioWA
— Coach Duggs (@CoachDuggs) March 4, 2024
“I did theater in high school and started improv. I cleaned up, and by the time I graduated high school, my grades were still bad. I’d fallen in love with acting. It had taken the place of that rush of drugs and everything. And I didn’t have the grades to go to college, but my mom was like, ‘You have to go to college.’ So I decided to take a year off to figure out how I wanted to proceed,” he continued. “So I did, and I kept acting in theater companies and improv. And then I started doing stand-up, and that just took off immediately. Then, I became obsessed. That became my life.”
Nick also spoke to the outlet about getting into stand-up comedy, which he initially thought was “kinda corny.”
“I was obsessed with comedy. I became such a junkie for it. I watched everything. I became obsessed with Charlie Chaplin. I got every movie he did, all the short films. That and SNL of the time. So, mid-90s Saturday Night Live was Sandler, Farley, Spade, Schneider, Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman, Chris Rock… I mean, all these people. That was just my bible. I watched it, taped it religiously. Those were big influences,” he said
“Then, when I got into stand-up, I actually thought stand-up was kinda corny. In the mid-90s, it was coming out of the 80s, where it was guys with piano ties talking about their wives and stuff,” the Grandma’s Boy star continued. “I didn’t think that much of it. I came from an improv background, where that was more rogue and balls-out for me because you don’t know what’s going to happen. So stand-up was more prepared, so I was like, ‘Ok, I’ll try it.’ But I didn’t really model myself after anybody. I just kinda followed where that took me.”
People online had mixed reactions to the news of the comedian being pulled off stage in the middle of his show
