Sunday, November 30, 2008

Indianapolis, IN

Crackers Comedy Club - Downtown Indianapolis is really becoming a rough room. It was pretty obvious that an overwhelming majority of the audience members were there to get drunk and not necessarily listen to comedy. It is getting close to a show that would happen in a bar, where the comedians have to battle the audience for attention. Except this is a comedy club in the downtown of a large city, so it shouldn't be like this at all. Comedy club audiences should respect the stage and what the performers are doing. If you want to get drunk, then don't come to a comedy show. It's that simple.

This all came together at the late show last night. The headliner, Geoff Keith, likes to talk to the audience a lot and make fun of some of the people. It came out that a guy in the audience was Shaun Parker, a semi-pro Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He was there with his girlfriend and two other couples.

Across the room, was a drunk guy that did not like Geoff's act at all. He decided to yell out "you're queer" about 30 times. Geoff had had enough and really shredded this guy to the audiences approval. He was wearing a red sweatshirt and red hat, as if he was a trying to a tough white gangster but he was obviously just a loser.

The staff finally decided to kick this guy out with his entire party. He wasn't going easily because he was completely embarrassed in front of the crowd. All of a sudden, he grabs a beer bottle and hits one of Shaun Parker's friends in the back of the head and the entire room blew up. Luckily, Shaun took control and pushed the melee out into the lobby as most of the crowd ran out the back exit. The comedy club manager called the police three times before they finally showed up -- after everything calmed down and the red sweatshirt guy had left. The police conclusion: despite having the reservation name and phone number, no charges will be filed since the red sweatshirt guy wasn't there anymore. How is that possible?

Shaun's friend was holding napkins to the back of his head, so I asked if he was doing okay. His exact response: "It's not my first rodeo." Well, that was definitely my first and I would hope that it will be my last.

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