Dealing with hecklers...

In my years of playing live, I had to deal lots of hecklers. Twice I jumped in the audience to try and fight them (which was foolish) and once I stopped the show to have a conversation, which was admittedly lame, but overall I could usually take ’em down in the between-song banter. I have some stock takedowns, but I generally just go with the flow. As you may imagine from reading this site, I’m pretty quick with the mediocre wit.

In any event, the best artist I’ve ever seen on stage consistently dealing with hecklers is Billy Bragg. I think, by this point, people heckle him just to get him to do his thing between songs. On the tour he did with Wilco doing the Woodie Guthrie stuff, people heckled him between every song, and I couldn’t really figure out why someone would pay $45 to see a headliner then talk so much shit, until it occurred to me that dealing with hecklers was kind of his stock in trade, and as entertaining as the show itself. Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers) is another one I’ve seen who’s pretty good with that sort of thing.

In any event, I just watched the Kevin Smith pwnage from ComicCon the other day, and have to say that this is more how I’d deal with a heckler than how Billy Bragg would. My thought was always that, well, I have the last laugh for two reasons. (1) I have the microphone, and (2) you paid to see me. So while you might not be entertained, I’m still leaving with your money. That always made me feel better.

How do you deal with hecklers? What’s your favorite takedown?