James Acaster fixed his relationship with his audience by letting them do whatever they wanted

At the beginning of comedian James Acaster's new special Hecklers welcomeAn announcer makes the rules of the evening clear: unlike other comedy shows, there are very few rules. Specifically, according to the title, the audience is encouraged to do pretty much whatever they want while Acaster performs. “When I started the tour, I had no idea what the outcome would be,” he says. Consequence. “I thought this might be chaos.”

Instead, traveling with Hecklers welcome, now streaming on MaxIt became an opportunity for the comedian to examine what it means to him to perform in front of a crowd, especially since, after the worst of the pandemic, Acaster “felt a lot of trepidation about getting back on stage.”

For him, returning to touring meant potentially hitting a wall he'd hit in the past, “where I ended up sabotaging gigs, telling the crowd that the gig was rubbish and that they were the worst crowd I'd ever had, and then coming back.” “. off stage and feeling guilty and bad about it. I would just feel bad for the people who had paid to see me and were now returning home disappointed. There will always be people disappointed because you are doing something subjective, but it shouldn't be because you literally refuse to do what they pay to see.

So, Acaster says, he decided to confront that problem within the program itself… although talking about it directly didn't interest him, because “that sounded like a very boring program to me.” So he decided to let the audience “do whatever they wanted, so it wasn’t just a comedian on stage talking about comedy and his relationship to comedy. “I wanted it to be about my relationship with the audience.”

The special begins with a clear recitation of Acaster's rules for the night, detailing the limitations of those in attendance, although Acaster was very careful with how things were worded. While “all the rules were based on what the audience has been like in the past,” he says that initially, it was phrased as “the audience can interrupt, they're allowed to be on their phones, they're allowed to talk.” between them… And that always seemed to create an atmosphere that was too formal.”

So instead, he changed things so that he was the focus of rules, such as “'James Acaster can't get upset with the audience if he does these things.' Because then all the house rules depend on me, so that's what not able do instead of what they are permitted do. “That made it feel nicer.”

The only exception was the rule that audience members were ejected for violence or hate speech. “And I wish I didn't have to put that house rule in there, but once in every tour, those things are going to happen, and I just didn't want that to happen,” he says. “So that not-so-fun rule had to be there.”

However, it's a rule that means the special feels like a relatively safe space, and Acaster acknowledges that “something I didn't really address in the show is that there are a lot of audience members who really appreciate rules at comedy gigs.” and they hate the rules.” They interrupt and hate it when people are on their phones and all that. I hate being in the audience, you know?

However, while I knew that “there would be audience members who would get upset with hecklers and get upset with people who were disruptive, I just had to say, yeah, you know what? At no point am I going to sell them something.” different”. show. Here I am, the show is called. Hecklers welcome. The propaganda for the show when they bought the tickets said that the public can do whatever they want. I understand why people go to comedy shows and get upset when the audience is disruptive, but I haven't really sold this wrong. And if you feel upset by this, I think it's a good opportunity for you to reflect on how you feel about live shows. Because, again, it's as much about them as it is about me, including the audience members who would really like everyone to follow the rules.”