Three Comebacks

Here are three videos that show great ways of replying to your critics.


 The First is Doug Stanhope taking on an entire room of hecklers.  You have to be sharp to take on a heckler but you have to have a personality that is rock solid in order to address an audience who are collectively trying to bring you down.  It is glorious, the satisfaction I get out of Doug's performance is total and pleases me every time I watch it.  Plus he's in a goddam tux, which if you know him is really uncharacteristic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0FYAZluvY


This one is Christopher Hitchens who has provided many, many moments of brilliance especially when it comes to a little known technique called the 'Hitchslap'.  If you think of Hitchens as an insect then the 'Hitchslap' is a precise, damaging attack, like a Praying Mantis, and he eats his opponents alive on stage.  Now out of the many moments I could have chose from this moment is the one I remember the best.  Hitchens attacks brutally but those opposite him tend to still retort regardless.  Not in this case where Christopher has employed the 'Hitchslap' so hard that it actual renders the other person speechless.  If you need to know language potential power then look no further.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAJjO4aJL6I


This one needs a little context.  Bill Hicks is opinionated and often with venom but he is also completely controlled delivering his lines with polish.  Now he had been doing small town comedy shows for a long time from which he has grown a hatred for the narrow minded people that often populate them.  His outburst of pure rage must have been coming for a long time but it took only one drunk woman to push him to the edge.  There is a bit in the video, if you look closely, that I swear shows the exact moment when he snaps and you can almost hear that snap so distinct it is.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jzbj9wylwU