From hurling insults to hurling furniture
Erik Griffin recounts the tale of an out-of-control heckler at L.A.’s fabled Comedy Store
For years, TV audiences knew Erik Griffin as the smooth-talking desk jockey Montez Walker on the Comedy Central series Workaholics.
“What happens in the business is you get pigeonholed,” Griffin said. “You’re a silly character in one thing, so everything you go out for, you have to be a silly character.” That changed when he joined the series I’m Dying Up Here, a 1970s-set drama now in its second season about comics in Los Angeles looking to make it big. (It is now airing in Canada on the Movie Network.)
Griffin is a standup comedian in real life as well. How close is the show to his own experiences? “Sometimes it feels like my own life,” he said. “Like the relationships he has with the young comics; I kind of have a mentor vibe with a lot of younger comics, too.” Griffin’s new standup special Amerikan
Warrior (which premiered Friday on Showtime in the U.S.) offers a chance to compare the differences between his fictional character and his own style of comedy. The special includes a brief heckle from the audience, which Griffin smoothly plays off with a cutting improvised joke.
When asked to share a story about the worst moment in his career, Griffin talked about yet another interaction with a noisome audience member.
It happened about five years ago at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles — which is coincidentally the inspiration for the fictionalized home base in I’m Dying Up Here.
My worst moment ...
“I was at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles one night. Just a random night. And there was this heckler in the crowd that was particularly rude to the comics. He was just obnoxious and I remember the tone and the manner, you could tell that he was drunk. He was being too aggressive, like he was trying to impress somebody.
“Nick Kroll was on stage trying to deal with it, and the guy just kept interrupting and interjecting, it was ruining the night. I was next. I go up and I think: ‘Maybe they’ve spoken to him because the guy hasn’t said anything yet during my act.’ And then all of sudden he says something like, ‘Oh, I want to answer that, but I was told I need to shut up.’ That just really set me off and I start going in on this guy. I’m calling him names and I’m calling him out.
“I could tell that it was getting to him — you wouldn’t even be able to print the things I was saying — and then out of nowhere, he beelines through the crowd and rushes the stage and he picks up a chair and he throws it at me.
“So now I go black. I’m like, ‘What the hell is happening?’ and I grab the chair and throw it back at him with no regard to anybody around him or anything like that.
“Then one of the managers, he tries to tackle the guy. He grabs him while I’m on stage and I punched the guy in the face and I remember as I punched him — I’ve never really punched anybody in my life and I’m thinking, in the movies, you punch someone and they go flying — this guy didn’t move at all and I’m like, ‘Oh no, I don’t think this was a good idea.’ I punch him again and he stumbles and then he takes off. I jump off the stage and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Lemme at him!’
“That’s when this other comic friend of mine, he grabs me from behind and he’s shaking me and talking in my ear: ‘It’s not worth it! It’s not worth it!’ And that’s when I snapped out of it like, what am I doing? And then I look around and the room is in chaos. Everybody is on their feet and I’m thinking, ‘Man, the show! The waitresses are going to lose money, there’s other comics on the lineup’ — this is all going through my head in a split second.
“So I beeline back to the stage, I grab the mic and I yell super loud into the mic with my best principal’s voice: ‘Everybody sit down!’ I get everybody’s attention, my finger’s bleeding from something, I don’t know what it was, and I just started doing my act again. I said, ‘You guys let that guy come all the way through the crowd and throw a chair at me and nobody did anything?’ And they kind of started laughing, I was able to go back to my material, I finish my act and I get a standing ovation.
“So I introduce the next guy, leave the stage and walk outside and it was just a huge exhale of, ‘What the hell just happened? That could have been a nightmare.’ I was on Workaholics at the time and I had to shoot in the morning and I just remember it running through my head: ‘Please don’t hit my face, because I don’t want to have to explain this tomorrow.’ I had an early call time and that’s what I was thinking as this guy is throwing a chair at me: ‘Whatever you do, don’t hit me in the face!’ Because then I would have to go to work tomorrow and be like, ‘Oh yeah, this black eye? I got into a fight.’
“That I was able to get the crowd back, that’s the great part. Raw emotions were happening.
“So that night is probably one of the worst — and best — experiences I’ve had.” Was the management of the Comedy Store upset with Griffin afterwards? “No, that’s a dark place. I’m sure other crazy things have happened there. I wasn’t banned or anything. For them, it was just another night: ‘Hey, a crazy thing happened last night with Erik.’ It’s just a dark place.
“I never worried he would press charges because, hey, the guy took off. He knew he was wrong. He attacked me. A roomful of people saw him throw a chair at me first. Anything that happens after that is self-defence anyway. I did get hurt, but I survived. It could have gone a lot worse.
“And I still have people to this day that will tweet at me and say: ‘Yo man, I was there that night you beat that guy up!’ And of course, in the telling of the story, it’s completely exaggerated — that I threw him through a plate-glass window or something. But it was just one of those moments I’ll never forget.” The takeaway “Make sure you know who is in the room to help you.
“I may be 6’3”, but I’m a cuddly-looking guy. I don’t come across as threatening. I can’t believe he hit me with the chair. That part was like, ‘Whoa, this is really happening!’ and it just set me off. I wanted a reaction and I got it! I certainly got it! (Laughs)
“So I should take some responsibility. I mean, standup comics are like karate experts, that’s how it is with your words if you’re a comedian; I’m an expert at making people feel bad. And being a jerk. And pushing buttons. So you know what? In all fairness to this guy, I didn’t need to do that. I could have dealt with it in a more fun way — embarrassed him so much he would have shut up or left, as opposed to egging him on to have a physical confrontation. I blame myself, really. There’s a lot of power in words.”