While reading your recent article about comedians and crowd work (Crowd work is the hottest thing in standup comedy – and not everybody is laughing, 24 June), I was struck by two things: the elbow of a drunk patron at the comedy show I was performing at, and the gulf between older and younger comedians. The fact is that comedians have always interacted with their audience, but in general, it was rarely on the comedians’ terms. Looking back, performers were more likely to get assaulted by their audience than engaged in friendly banter. Maybe this is why older comedians are so hostile towards crowd work – their crowds were hostile to them.
I started performing in 2013, and have played to thousands of people across multiple continents. I’ve noticed that younger crowds are on the whole gentler, less drunk and more willing to chat than older attendees. They’re certainly less willing to get into a fight. Most of us have never been in one.
I suspect that the crowd work debate actually disguises a more nuanced discussion about the nature of modern audiences. Today’s artists don’t have fans inasmuch as they have parasocial relationships, and today’s fans don’t want jokes, they want vibes: “Is it funny? Who cares? That’s my best friend on stage right now.”
Is this good for the art form? It depends on what kind of comedy you’re looking for, I suppose. Hang on … they’ve just called out my name. Time to go and talk to some audience members. I hope my camera is set up.
David Rose
Melbourne, Australia
• We had long enjoyed brilliant standup comedians, from Edinburgh to Essex. But now we avoid most of them, for the reason that Brian Logan highlights. Both people to whom I have been married have suffered humiliation from prominent televised comedians, whose own live material proved so thin that they fell back on attempted audience engagement. In neither case were we sitting near the front, heckling or inviting attention.
My first wife, enduring chemotherapy, was identified as “that bald bloke”. Some years later, a performer felt it would be amusing for the audience to make fun of my wife returning from the bathroom. Sharing her upset at his nastiness, I walked out.
We do not need to be bullied by performers. There are some who interact sensitively as part of their entertainment. I hope this social media generation can learn to follow such examples, so that we can confidently return to more comedy shows.
Yours, sadly not laughing.
Clive Needle
Rowhedge, Essex
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