George Lopez walks off stage over hecklers
George Lopez is caught in a back-and-forth with Eagle Mountain Casino over who is to blame for his unfinished show
Aux News George Lopez
George Lopez must have seen his fair share of unruly crowds over his long career, but he’s reached a place where he doesn’t want to (or need to) listen to hecklers. Last Friday, the comic caught heat for walking out of his show at Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, California after just 30 minutes. Lopez blamed the crowd and the casino for fostering an unsafe environment; the casino hit back that his exit “came as a shock to everyone” and that his claims were “not consistent with casino footage and surveillance.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Lopez told TMZ, “It’s the venue or casino’s job to provide a good experience for both the artist and the fans, but the casino failed in this regard. The audience was overserved and unruly, and the casino staff was unable to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for the artist and guests.” They continued, “George’s personal security team worked with the venue security staff to maintain order, ensure safety, and eject disruptive individuals. Unfortunately, the casino security team was not adequate to accomplish this task. George is not obligated to perform in an unsafe environment. He feels badly that those who came to see the show were unable to do so as a result.”
The casino, meanwhile, shifts the responsibility for managing the unruly guests onto Lopez and his team. “It was the job of Lopez private security team to inform casino security if they wanted to escort anyone out which never occurred,” Eagle Mountain wrote in its official statement, posted to its Facebook page. “Mr. Lopez or his private security had every opportunity to inform casino team if they wanted a guest escorted out and they did not.”
The casino’s assistant general manager acknowledged that the recording did show “guests yelling out,” but that the heckling was positive—“we love you, can we buy you a drink, etc.” Video obtained by TMZ bears this out but also shows Lopez becoming frustrated with the frequent interruptions. After stopping and restarting a joke multiple times, he asks the crowd if they’re going to let him do his show: “I’m serious… I seem like an asshole, I’m the one working,” he says.
Eagle Mountain noted in its statement that the show was initially scheduled for April and “was canceled by the comedian just an hour before the show citing a health emergency.” The casino “supported the entertainer and wished him well,” accommodating the date change from April to June. “Now, for a second time, the comedian is causing the casino to once again accommodate guests by reimbursing show tickets and going above and beyond to ensure guests know the casino values their business and only wants to provide a positive experience while visiting.” Eagle Mountain offered both an apology and the opportunity to refund their tickets to any guests who attended the show.
48 Comments
Good for him. Every audience member who shouts out unprompted at a comedy gig is, at best, a child with no impulse control, and they need to remember they’re not just interrupting the performer, but everyone around them who paid to see the gig. Such people are why I’d consider bringing back the stocks as punishment for arsehole-type misdemeanours (if only we didn’t have cameras and internet everywhere, so that a day in the stocks didn’t become a life sentence of humiliation)….Good gravy, I’ve become my father.
…Good gravy, I’ve become my father. Nah, you’re good, people just forgot that it’s occasionally fine to shut the fuck up in spaces in which everyone agrees to largely shut the fuck up.
It’s one thing I don’t care for seeing Rifftrax live. I’m there to watch Professional Comedy Professionals cracks jokes, not assholes in the audience trying to get their improv on. I don’t care for Lopez, but hecklers are terrible.
Haven’t performed in a long while, but yeah, hecklers ruin shit.There’s already a heckler-friendly show. It’s called the Rocky Horror (Picture) Show, and it plays approximately everywhere. They should go THERE.
I think the offenders in the stocks would adapt to the omnipresence of cameras.“So, fam, it’s me, your boo, live streaming from the stocks. Am I crazy, or am I totally pulling off this look?”
Always good to see another fan of Stock Talk with Todd Bloch on Tik Tok.
thanks to george lopez walking offstage i now know what ‘the stocks’ is.every day’s a schoolday.
Are… are you 5 years old? How is it even possible to not know that? As an adult? It’s as if you would have to actively try to avoid learning it. Have you never, for example, seen a cartoon in your life? Because that is a common trope in Looney Tunes and damn near every other cartoon ever made. Or any of dozens upon dozens upon dozens of movies, TV shows, etc etc… to say nothing of just extremely basic historical knowledge.
At comedy shows people somehow think they’re helping or that they’re part of the show.
As Paul F. Tompkins said, “It’s a MONO-logue.”
You were fine until you said good gravy
My backup exclamations were: Chicken jalfrezi!B. A. Baracus!Great balls of fire! Oxford Circus!
There’s a YouTube supercut of all of The Middleman’s family-friendly expletives that would work well here. “Knights of Columbus!” is my favorite.
Pete on “Ghosts” has a lot of good ones too. My current favorite is “Great grape juice!”
You know, it isn’t actually easy to find good gravy. It seems like one of those things that everyone does, but few do well.
Once again: if you’re at a live performance, barring an emergency that generates a cry of pain or some other kind of involuntary noise, your task is simple: shut the fuck up, and watch the show.React? Sure. React loudly, as in howls of laughter at a comedy set? Sure!Take a phone call? No, go the fuck outside. Have a conversation? No, go the fuck outside, what’s wrong with you?Start bantering *with* the performer, because you’ve decided to be a particularly drunken child that night? Get the fuck out and go the fuck home, sleep it off.Feel the need to assert your right to disrupt a performance, because you apparently have more power than any other shmuck who paid for a ticket? Stop being a fucking child, and follow the social contract that you willingly entered into and (most likely) paid for.Simple shit, really.
At least, and I can’t believe the bar is this low, it doesn’t sound like anyone actually threw an object at the person on stage as has happened on fucking multiple recent occasions.
oh man – I saw Marc Maron perform a few months ago and this lady interrupted his closing bit. You could tell he was pissed and he definitely called her on it – but I thought let her off rather easy. But I hope she burned with shame the rest of the night, because what a stupid fucking thing to do. You are not part of the show just because you are in one of the front rows.
The casino’s assistant general manager acknowledged that the recording did show “guests yelling out,” but that the heckling was positive.What a dumb stance. Whether it’s positive or not it’s still being disruptive and an annoyance to not only the performer but the other venue guests as well. And besides, “positive heckling” sounds like an oxymoron.
Also, the guy is just trying to do his job. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to have to keep restarting something that I’m getting paid to do because the people who are paying me are constantly fucking it up and causing me to deliver substandard product.
Never had a micromanager for a boss then?
Hate to defend George Lopez, but fuck all hecklers. Shut the fuck up. It doesn’t matter that the comments were “positive”. This goes for dipshits singing along and screaming at concerts too.
We can’t sing along at concerts? Whuuuuuuuu? I get you on the screaming out though.
the concert stuff can be a fine line, but when it’s a large number of people and the cumulative sound drowns out the actual performance it begs the question of “i paid money for what exactly?” my mom saw the beatles in 1964 and (granted PA/sound system technology wasn’t there yet) she said all you heard was girls screaming and had no idea what/if a song was being played
On the one hand, fuck hecklers. Stop trying to ruin the show I paid to see.On the other hand, this is a casino stand-up gig and this type of behaviour is literally expected from that kind of crowd. Patton Oswald has a bit about how he did a routine for a drunk audience in Vegas where all he did was stand there while they screamed “King of Queens! Ratatouille! KFC!” at him and he was paid an amount of money that he described as “sacrilegious.”George Lopez is far too old in the game to not understand what he was getting himself into booking an audience he knows ahead of time are drunk boors, and too old to not know how to shift his show in response to that.
I would absolutely never see a comedian I actually enjoy in a casino if I were there to hear their jokes.
Casinos are such despair pits Off to see Elvis Costello at a casino in Lincoln, CA tomorrow 🙄
Yeah he was asking for it in that skimpy little venue.
That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying he brought the wrong show to the venue and he must have known that.It’s one thing to have a drunk asshole come heckle you. That sucks for everyone. It’s another thing to actively seek out an audience of drunk assholes.
I agree! He should have known better. What was he thinking, he could just go somewhere and do his job and expect to not be harassed? That’s not realistic! Besides, audiences will be audiences. He should just relax.
I’m not sure he draws enough interest to book venues better than this one.
The bottom 10% of society is just sooooo in need of attention:Obnoxious exhausts on cars, yelling at the stage, walking around Costco with the name of an adjudicated rapist on your red hat…NOTICE ME.
HEH! Yeah, I remember watching that “All Gas, No Brakes” documentary a couple years back, and most of the people interviewed at Trump rallies were like “We need to TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY and LOOK HOW MANY PUSHUPS I CAN DO!”
yeah, this is also definitely one of those things you can blame, if not social media, then certainly undiagnosed ‘main characters syndrome’. ‘of course the comedian can’t wait to hear what i have to say!’
It’s a lot more than 10%
It’s 27%:http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html
Patton Oswalt has a joke about doing a casino show that’s pretty good; the dynamics of these things are not setup for a successful comedy show. Lopez should have tried listing the shows and movies he’s been in:
Most of what I know Lopez from are shows with his name in the title, so I really like the idea of him doing this and just saying his name over and over.
Shout out to Tulalip Casino- a short drive north of Seattle!
Anyone else amazed how he’s visually transitioned into Beethoven over the years?
I’m amazed at how his forehead looks more carved up than an old professional wrestler. George, you know the razor is for your coke, not your face, right?
I’m with Lopez on this one. I’ve been to a few casino shows, and they really do have all the power to control the room and the audience – up to and including just turning on the lights when they think the show is done and the audience should be back out on the floor throwing their money away. If the venue allowed the audience to be unruly and remain unruly, that’s on them.Casino venues are notoriously controlling. Saw B.B. King at a casino years back, and during his last song, the lights came back on and the exit doors opened. King, bless him, just kept playing a stellar solo, glaring at the now-turned-on house lights.
Honestly good for him. Screaming out, even positively, at someone trying to do a show is a dick move. And instead of ranting or dropping some ethnic slurs, he just left.
George Lopez walks off stage over hecklersSo did the hecklers lie down, or was it a crowd-surfing sort of situation?
So these jackasses got to heckle a comedian AND got their money back. People suck.
the recording did show “guests yelling out,” but that the heckling was positive—“we love you, can we buy you a drink, etc.”… in what universe do people yell that out at a COMEDY SHOW, no matter how much they’re killing it??? I mean… the manager’s clearly a fucking liar.
Lopez: “The audience was overserved and unruly, and the casino staff was unable
to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for the artist and guests.”. . . .The casino: “Mr. Lopez or his private security had every opportunity to inform casino
team if they wanted a guest escorted out and they did not.”That’s a very specific defence from the casino. If the entire audience is acting like rowdy drunks, then of course Lopez’s team won’t be able to single out anyone in particular.
racist unfunny comedian gets…cheered(?) off the stage? too bad.
Not enough here to determine much, but if his security team removed people when they only had power to identify them to hotel security THAT’S A HUGE PROBLEM…INCLUDING ASSAULT IF THREATENED AND/OR PHYSICALLY TOUCHED.