eviltechie.co.uk Life and times of a sit-down comedian

Racist gigs

I’ve been thinking about writing this gig up for a while, but I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t know how to write it without making the person involved sound like an absolute arsehole.  But I think I’ll just tell it and not mention their name.

teh date: christ knows it was ages ago

teh place: Get Happy Comedy, the crown

Bit of a last minute thing, David messaged me on facebook asking if I could do a 5 spot on the day, and for once I said yes.

Gig started out nicely enough, about 10-15 audience, the compere was telling a story about he’d been accidentally racist at a gig by substituting the line ’still, that’s black people for you’ rather than the intended ’still, that’s fat people for you’ - which was quite funny because the butt of the joke was the compere himself, and the unfortunate situation he had got himself into.

And then the first act came on and opened with the line

“I thought about inventing a disease that kills black people.  And then I remembered about AIDS”

Which caused a sort of stunned, shocked silence, as you might imagine.  It was a bit like the Bateman cartoons in punch, where everyone reacts with shock and horror to a minor faux pas - e.g. The Man Who Offered a 5 Pound Note In Woolworths - except this time this was a real, genuine shock moment.

And then I started laughing.

Not at the joke itself, or at least I don’t think it was - I don’t think I’m that racist (just to explain my theory about racism: we still live in a racist society and it would be strange if I wasn’t slightly racist - the best I can do is to accept my racism and try and deal with it rather than pretend it doesn’t exist).

More at the staggering, monstrous inappropriateness of the joke.  The notion that someone could get up on stage and say that - and the discrepancy between what I knew of the comic and the joke.

This wasn’t like the exhibit (my previous experience with racist jokes) where the compere was very much in the old-skool working mans club so his racist joke (whilst he was talking, a black guy walked in, and quick as a flash, the compere says - can’t see you at the back, smile) fitted more with the persona.

I suppose what I found funny about it was the release of tension.  Except there was no payoff line here - there was no line that resolved the tension in a way that my brain would interpret as funny.

So why did I laugh?  Who was I laughing at?

I suppose in this instance the butt of the joke was the comedian still - the humour came partially out of pure shock and partially out of the discrepancy between what I knew (or thought I knew) about the man and the joke.

I remember logan’s line about if it happened in real life it’d be a tragedy, but as it’s on stage it’s funny.

Increasingly I’m coming to believe that material is only part of comedy - more of it is the performance - if another act who fitted the profile of a racist comedian, by which I mean if they were older & sounded less posh had told the joke, I don’t think I would have laughed - or at least I hope I wouldn’t.

Or maybe I am actually just more racist than I realised.

Anyway, I went on after that guy and opened with my special needs bit.  Christ knows what the audience made out of any of it.  I had fun though - to the extent that I was laughing all the way through my set.