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NY Comedy Club Owner on Kramer: "The club should've intervened."

By Corina Zappia, Monday, Nov. 27 2006 @ 2:04PM
Comments (5)


Washingtonpost.com

We asked Chris Mazzilli, owner of popular New York comedy club Gotham (scene of Seinfeld's film Comedian), for his opinion on the Michael Richards incident. How will this affect Richards' comedic career? His chances of performing at other comedy clubs? Has he become a pariah?

"It's an unforunate thing, and really the public will decide that. Obviously, he apologized right away and I think he's really sorry for what he did. At the end of the day, the public will decide, and I think his next moves are important. What Seinfeld did was a classy move, standing by his friend on Letterman. Hopefully people will find it in their hearts to forgive him and move on with it."

Mazzelli followed this with another point that's been left out of much of the discussions thus far: Where was the Laugh Factory in all of this?

"What's interesting to me, being in the club business, [the heckling] had been going on for a while,and the club should've intervened. It should not have gotten that far. Comedy isn't a dialogue, it's a monologue. That doesn't discount what he said, but he shouldn't have to deal with that stuff."

And beyond interrupting the hecklers—why didn't they stop the slur-spewing Richards? Why, as the Times points out, was Richards allowed to come back to the Laugh Factory and perform the next night, after all this had happened?

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Comments (5)

klyde says:

yea the club should have intervened. But if richards can't handle hecklers he shouldn't be doing stand up.

Posted On: Monday, Nov. 27 2006 @ 2:45PM
Deanna says:

I find it sad that Chris Mazzeli found more fault with the "hecklers" than Kramer's racially motivated comments. He is right, the club should have intervened. Intervened by escorting him off the stage and not allowing him back. There is no excuse for racism. Comedians know that comedy is interactive. Sometimes it is well received and sometimes it is not. However, the club inadvertently endorsed Kramer's comments by allowing him to continue on. It is one thing to criticize a comic's routine verbally it is another to loosely throw around racist comments in a country that obviously has a long way to come in battling racism. I don't think that any amount of heckling could evoke such a response unless the person who uttered them, in this case Kramer truly meant it. There is nothing funny about Laugh Factory or Kramer. I will never patron Laugh Factory nor view any of Kramer's future/past work. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Posted On: Monday, Nov. 27 2006 @ 5:07PM
Charlie Kane says:

There's no question the whole thing was a disaster; of course, the objects of Richards' affections have certainly jumped up to try to make a buck out of it. They were so personally wounded by it all that the only 'news show' they didn't make the rounds to within the week was a public access station in St. Louis. In the end, I'd guess any pending lawsuits is what the comedy club will be most concerned about. I'm not sure how many free drink tickets are needed to make good on that. (note to Deanna; his name is Michael Richards, his character's name on television was 'Kramer'. The inability to differentiate between the two is something which has elevated an admittedly vitriolic and racist rant by Richards into a cause celebre. If this was some Laff Factory regular, nobody would have heard a word about it. Because it was that 'nice' Kramer it becomes grist for the mill. I'm not defending it, I'm just saying...)I don't mean to make light of what Richards said...but if he is successfully sued for what he said, in the context of the comic vs. audience, I'd advise all comedians in the future to just sit there and take it, lest they get served with a subpoena before the second show.

Posted On: Monday, Nov. 27 2006 @ 10:59PM
Linda D Bryant says:

I do not believe that
Richards was sorry for
is "outburst" or breakdown, or whatever it was. He only expressed what most
Caucasians actually still feel to this day
about African-Americans!!!!!

Posted On: Tuesday, Nov. 28 2006 @ 12:23PM
Patrick Brunson says:

I'am a in my last semester of grad school. My major is African American history. What Richards said is what the vast majority of white people believe. America has never come to tems with race. Explain the incident in NYC, with the police firing 50 bullets at unarmed blacks. When have you ever heard of a black cop shooting or beating up a white person. I believe that white people are racist. Every year there is a law suit which stems from white racism. Richards responded the way whites typically respond-anger. Whai is in white people, eventually comes out. It was probably not the his first, plus he is Jewish.

Posted On: Tuesday, Nov. 28 2006 @ 3:26PM

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