Heckler horror stories: Marito Lopez & the racist cake
A heckler is a person who interrupts a performer with jeering or even abusive comments. There's nothing more cringeworthy than watching a comedian and heckler go at it. It often feels like the antithesis of comedy -- like the moment you close your eyes in a horror movie when someone is about to get murdered.
El Salvadorian Canadian comedian, Marito Lopez, is at a club in Hamilton. He's the middler of the night and his two best friends, Aisha Brown and Hunter Collin, are the bread and together they are try to make a delicious comedy sandwich. Any kind of group celebration at a comedy club can send up red flags. They often drink heavily and there's that group mentality that starts to spread that makes people think the can do or say anything. Marito shares a heckling horror story which involves a rowdy group, racism and cake.
"So I was middling a show and the crowd was already rowdy. There was a birthday party for a hot White woman, and they sat front row -- drunk, loud, and obnoxious. I went up on stage and started doing my thing. I was doing well but then I made a rookie mistake of addressing the drunk table too much.
I made fun of them and the birthday girl which got some pops. I should've left it at that but I kept going. They started yelling back, talking over me. I asked if there was any Latinos in the audience. A dude at their table said NO THANK GOD! They all start laughing.
It was crazy. The whole room laughed.
I said is this a White Supremacist Party or something?
They all laughed and the table started doing the Nazi Salute. I was shocked and hurt but I'm a pro. I did my job. I continued my set and got off. Security kicked them out and I went to the bar, Hunter (Collins, a fellow comedian from Toronto) was with me.
The Birthday Girl and her boyfriend were drunk by the doors. She was crying on the phone. Some of her friends at the table came up to me and started apologizing on her behalf.
Her boyfriend came up to me and tried to shake my hand. He said all jokes: "You win some you lose some."
I refused to shake his hand. He asked if I wanted to fight. I said bro, "LET'S DO IT."
We were on the second floor. Buddy kept insisting, let's take this outside. I said bro, I'm not taking an elevator to fight you my dude. What, are we just gonna calmly take an elevator down and then take our shirts off and fight once we get out? Anyways, buddy and his girl got escorted out.
Nobody got hurt, but she left her giant birthday cake behind.
And I ate the hell out of it. It tasted like racism."
Marito is a fiery, high-energy and charismatic comedy persona. He's performed on stages and screens across the country, including appearances at the Hubcap Comedy Festival, NXNE, JFL42, MTV Canada and countless comedy clubs in between. In 2015, in association with his comedy collective Runnin' At The Mouth, Marito launched a parody rap album, Wit' My Woes, which went #1 on iTunes.
FOLLOW MARITO LOPEZ