Cynics Unlimited

People still want to know what could have driven Michael Richards to his ugly tirade against several hecklers in an L.A. nightclub. Fellow comedian Ross Bennett provides some insight on his MySpace page [mildly edited]:

A few weeks ago I was talking to a agent from LA and he was saying that watching Michael going up at the clubs of late was very uncomfortable, he wasn’t real funny and it was embarrassing. His take was that since Michael was an Actor who sometimes performed in Comedy Clubs he does not go up with an act and an attitude he is trying to sell, he goes up to discover different comedy moments etc.

Well I am trying to analyze what all this means in the context of his recent outburst at THE LAUGH FACTORY.

My opinion is he went up that night and ultimately went down a road he had no intention of going down when he walked on that stage that night. He had a blast of anger that blinded him and combined with his Kamikaze attitude he let himself show his darkest side and the skills to somehow make it all work out in the end just were not there.

I don’t think he is a racist, just a comic who snapped and went over the edge.

At the core of this issue is in fact how Richards dealt with the semi-common occurrence of audience hecklers. As Bennett and others have pointed out, Richards is an actor first and comedian second. Furthermore, it was not just the hecklers who considered his act a lame duck. A second look at the video does suggest he was trying to back-peddle around the 0:45 mark, so perhaps Richards really did just “lose it” for a second. Hell of a way to lose it, regardless.

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