Can you recall a gig so bad, it’s now funny?
A corporate gig for a financial reporting company. It was so bad, I was supposed to do 20 minutes but think I did eight. In my defence, it felt like half an hour, so that’s value! I said to them: “I’m going to go, because either I’m a terrible comedian or you’re a terrible audience. I’ve been a comedian for 25 years. How long have you been an audience?” Which I thought was a nice parting dig. Then I went off and the organiser said: “OK, fair enough. But you’ve got to go back on and do the charity auction.”
Best heckle?
It was in 1997, a hot November night in Sydney, no air in the room. I got nominated for the Perrier with a show called A Night at the Opera, but this night it just wasn’t flying. This woman who was half asleep opened one eye and just went: “Blah, blah, blah.” It was something about the silence with which that was met. Nobody cheered for her but nobody booed either. It just hung in the air.
