The first 3 comedians were very funny indeed. The Capital One tours have always been a good night out.
Dimitri Martin started off ok as well. Then, about halfway through his routine someone in the audience commented as Mr. Martin was in the middle of setting up another joke. And he reacted rather poorly. He called the fellow out and told him to leave. When he did not do this, Mr. Martin (and the audience) waited a while. Then he walked off the stage and got the ushers to remove this fellow. He explained to the audience that he thought the individual was selfish and that we were not there to listen to him go one on one with a heckler. This was certainly true, but it did interrupt the flow of the show and the mood of the show as well. I think he would have been better served to respond to the remark by telling the fellow that this was not the venue for such an exchange and he would appreciate it if the fellow would not interrupt again. I personally think that would have done the trick,.
Sure enough a little while later another fellow yelled out that Mr. Martin was wrong to throw the first man out of the show. This time Mr. Martin treated this man as a heckler – and had the typical exchange in which the performer tries to make fun of the heckler. Except this time it was clearly unpleasant and it went on for several minutes before Mr. Martin had this man thrown out as well. Following this Mr. Martin told the audience how many years he had been doing comedy and that he knew how to deal with hecklers. He explained again how it was wrong for someone to do this – the audience did not pay to hear him talk with a customer.
Again, Mr. Martin was correct. But that is not really the point. He himself had interrupted the show – for maybe 10 minutes -- and certainly had changed the atmosphere of the theatre. He handled this quite badly. He may know how to deal with hecklers in a club, but he does not know how to deal with a rude audience member in a theatre without at the same time ruining his own act.