James Acaster - Hecklers Welcome tour

[Tiggles]

First dates just announced for this, tickets go on sale next week. More dates to be added. I am really looking forward to it - I have only caught him live the once, and he is a different level. Definitely not median.

https://littlewander.co.uk/show/james-acaster-hecklers-welcome/

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Thanks for the heads up. My sister's birthday is approaching and he's her favourite comedian.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

'Hecklers welcome' sounds like reverse psychology.

[Bad Ambassador]

He's just been announced as cast in the next Ghostbusters film, in news that sounds obviously made up but really isn't, honestly.

https://deadline.com/2023/03/kumail-nanjiani-patton-oswalt-ghostbusters-afterlife-sequel-1235308852/

[chip]

That's a funny tour name.

[phantom_power]

'Hecklers welcome' sounds like reverse psychology.

He has had a notoriously difficult relationship with hostile audiences so this is his attempt to reconcile with that by facing it head-on

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

"Duration: 30 mins, interval, 90 minutes"

Is this accurate? Seems a bit of a strange running time.

[Twilkes]

"Duration: 30 mins, interval, 90 minutes"

Is this accurate? Seems a bit of a strange running time.

Two hours in total, seems reasonable? The audience are generally a bit more receptive after an interval so makes sense to have the bulk of a show after it. He might also have crafted a 90 minute art-comedy piece that just can't be broken down to less than an hour and a half.

[McDead]

The show is thirty minutes long and the interval is ninety minutes? I endorse it, personally

[Blinder Data]

thanks for highlighting, hopefully I'll manage to get tickets before the taskmaster wankers snaffle them all like the last tour

I imagine the strange running time will have a specific reason. go heckle crazy for the first half an hour, let the audience burn themselves out and then do more of a proper show second half? God knows

[Rankersbo]

"Oi mate, this isn't the 'Hecklers welcome tour'. [Pause] That was *last year*"

[iamcoop]

"Duration: 30 mins, interval, 90 minutes"

Is this accurate? Seems a bit of a strange running time.

When I saw Kitson years ago this is how he structured his show.

It meant the audience went a bit wild for the first half an hour and then after the break people seemed more relaxed and he got stuck into the material properly.

On paper it looks like an odd structure but it worked well enough.

[Famous Mortimer]

He's just been announced as cast in the next Ghostbusters film, in news that sounds obviously made up but really isn't, honestly.

https://deadline.com/2023/03/kumail-nanjiani-patton-oswalt-ghostbusters-afterlife-sequel-1235308852/

Someone who went to a show in the back room of Meltdown Comics around 2005 cast this movie, apparently.

[Twilkes]

Someone who went to a show in the back room of Meltdown Comics around 2005 cast this movie, apparently.

Not sure if you were referring to this, but Acaster genuinely got cast in the Cinderella movie because a different actor dropped out and the director had just seen a clip of Acaster's standup and said "What about this guy?"

[Famous Mortimer]

It was more Nanjiani and Oswalt, who appear to be top of some casting person's to-call list for pretty much every nerd-related property. I'm chuffed that Acaster is getting more work as opposed to being tired at the mere mention of their name (re: the other two).

[dead-ced-dead]

Not sure if you were referring to this, but Acaster genuinely got cast in the Cinderella movie because a different actor dropped out and the director had just seen a clip of Acaster's standup and said "What about this guy?"

It was meant to be John Delaney.

As bad as Corden is, something makes me happy that we're living in a bizarro timeline where Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster are considered for Hollywood films.

[The Mollusk]

It meant the audience went a bit wild for the first half an hour and then after the break people seemed more relaxed and he got stuck into the material properly.

On paper it looks like an odd structure but it worked well enough.

It's not unlike a lot of old prog rock albums where the first side is 3 or 4 shorter and more direct tracks to get you into the swing of it, and then you get up and flip the record and sit down for a 19 minute side-long epic that blows your tits off.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

It's not unlike a lot of old prog rock albums where the first side is 3 or 4 shorter and more direct tracks to get you into the swing of it, and then you get up and flip the record and sit down for a 19 minute side-long epic that blows your tits off.

The opposite of Diamond Dogs, then.

[Icehaven]

Does he have a particular issue with heckling then? I've been listening to Off Menu recently now I'm slow overcoming my weird aversion to his voice and he mentions/moans about having loads of people shouting at him at his gigs in the Joe Lycett one and that was over 3 years ago.

[Twilkes]

Does he have a particular issue with heckling then? I've been listening to Off Menu recently now I'm slow overcoming my weird aversion to his voice and he mentions/moans about having loads of people shouting at him at his gigs in the Joe Lycett one and that was over 3 years ago.

His last tour was over three years ago. He's always had a reputation for bombing really badly when he bombs, but from this article - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/james-acaster-interview-social-media-book-ricky-gervais-b2147553.html

"His 2019 tour Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 saw him at his most vulnerable on stage, speaking candidly about his mental health. But fame had brought with it an increased number of hecklers who, when combined with the personal material, were hard to handle.

After recording Cold Lasagne in December 2019, Acaster took his break from stand-up. The tour had been a tricky one. He'd gone into it excited to let go of some of that onstage persona and talk about his real life. By the end, audience members were writing online that Acaster was spending large chunks of every show engaging with his hecklers, unable to ignore their shouts.

What that time allowed him was an opportunity to work on his relationship with the audience, get a handle on hecklers, and think about how he can protect his mental health on stage. "I'm going into it knowing, 'Here are the things that I really didn't enjoy before, so let's focus on those things and let's focus on making that better, and making that aspect of my performance better,'" he says. "To now pick it up from there and go, 'OK, I don't like all those things, but what are we going to do about that? How are we going to make sure those things don't ruin it for you?' – that's been really positive."

[Tiggles]

Cold Lasagne really reminded me of some of Kitson's work in its vulnerability - a massive shift from his Netflix quartet, which felt more like Stewart Lee in its tricksy-ness. Both excellent in different ways, but the former is especially open to being entirely derailed by drunk try-hards who want to make the show about them.

Acaster is clearly not going down the "carefully whittle down your audience to acolytes" route, so it makes sense for him to structure a show where he can give those members of the audience who want to be dicks space to get it out for a bit at the start.

[Pink Gregory]

When I saw Kitson years ago this is how he structured his show.

It meant the audience went a bit wild for the first half an hour and then after the break people seemed more relaxed and he got stuck into the material properly.

On paper it looks like an odd structure but it worked well enough.

Not just Kitson, I've seen quite  a few people do it.  The first bit is usually old material that's more suited to unfamiliar audiences and then the show proper is after the interval.

[Icehaven]

His last tour was over three years ago. He's always had a reputation for bombing really badly when he bombs, but from this article - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/james-acaster-interview-social-media-book-ricky-gervais-b2147553.html

"His 2019 tour Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 saw him at his most vulnerable on stage, speaking candidly about his mental health. But fame had brought with it an increased number of hecklers who, when combined with the personal material, were hard to handle.

After recording Cold Lasagne in December 2019, Acaster took his break from stand-up. The tour had been a tricky one. He'd gone into it excited to let go of some of that onstage persona and talk about his real life. By the end, audience members were writing online that Acaster was spending large chunks of every show engaging with his hecklers, unable to ignore their shouts.

What that time allowed him was an opportunity to work on his relationship with the audience, get a handle on hecklers, and think about how he can protect his mental health on stage. "I'm going into it knowing, 'Here are the things that I really didn't enjoy before, so let's focus on those things and let's focus on making that better, and making that aspect of my performance better,'" he says. "To now pick it up from there and go, 'OK, I don't like all those things, but what are we going to do about that? How are we going to make sure those things don't ruin it for you?' – that's been really positive."

Okey doke, that's interesting. I'm not a big fan of the standup format and I definitely don't get the thought process of buying a ticket to see a comedian then trying to yell them off stage, but I'm really enjoying Off Menu and he's excellent in it so I hope he has a better experience this time.

[Ray Travez]

I definitely don't get the thought process of buying a ticket to see a comedian then trying to yell them off stage

When they buy the ticket, they're sober

[Icehaven]

When they buy the ticket, they're sober

Good point. I'm quite the pisshead myself but I'm more likely to watch live music than comedy so maybe the next gig I go to I'll get licquered up and take a guitar and amp along and show them how it's done.

[jobotic]

Live the live stuff I've seen on TV and Hate Myself so thought of getting tickets Brighton. Can't afford £33 particularly if he has a habit of off nights.

[The Mollusk]

To be fair, if he's directly inviting an "off-night" experience from the audience, he's surely prepared enough to be able to spin those interactions into a good show as opposed to letting them derail him. Probably a guarantee that you're gonna get fairly unique results on any given night too which is enticing in itself.

[Icehaven]

I've just got visions of the poor guy getting ChatGPT to heckle him ruthlessly for months on end so he can prepare every possible riposte.

[Tiggles]

Someone I know saw him on his wip tour in the USA last autumn, at the Boston date. He wasn't splitting the show at that point. Their description:

"He said at the beginning that any sort of shouting out, getting up, recording, talking, or heckling was allowed and encouraged ... At one point he remarked that we were 45 minutes into the show, and he'd only done about 5 minutes of prepared material. It was an interesting push-and-pull dynamic between audience members who clearly wanted to hear the new material, and the more vocal people."

[Snrub]

Live the live stuff I've seen on TV and Hate Myself so thought of getting tickets Brighton. Can't afford £33 particularly if he has a habit of off nights.

The WIP I saw last September I think was - in part - the story of some of those off nights on the last tour and how he's moving past it. Interesting and funny, but appreciate that might not be worth the gamble.