Death to Hecklers!

Yesterday, the New York Times took on the age-old problem of hecklers, arguing that heckling is on the rise and giving some good publicity for Jamie Kennedy and Michael Addis' new film, Heckler, which premieres later this month at the Tribeca Film Festival. They even found an actual heckler willing to stick up for himself:

"Indeed, Asher Patrick, a temp worker
whose hectoring of the comedian Jamie Kennedy at a Nashville comedy
club last year earned him a brief appearance in the movie, said in a
telephone interview last week that he saw his role as “more of a
critic” than a hooligan."

“I would never go somewhere intentionally to be a jackass,” Mr.
Patrick, 22, said. But Mr. Kennedy’s flatulence jokes were unworthy of
what he considers “good” comedy, he said, and live settings are the
perfect forum to censure unsatisfactory performers. “It’s kind of a
cool opportunity to tell them how terrible they are,” Mr. Patrick said."

Personally, my first reaction to this was that it was kind of a cool opportunity to do a Google search for Asher Patrick and invite commenters to tell him how terrible he is, but apparently Mr. Patrick prefers to do his volunteer "you suck" work in live forums only. Too bad.

Related Links:

* the Heckler movie official site (with trailer)

* Video: Jamie Kennedy rips a heckler apart