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James Acaster reaches a new level of maturity in Hecklers Welcome

Acaster has found a way to combine his trademark silliness with stories of his emotional growth - and make it funny

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At the beginning of Hecklers Welcome, the disembodied voice of James Acaster sets up some rules. Hecklers are allowed to heckle, and Acaster (barring any serious issues from the hecklers) is not allowed to kick them out of the theater. They're the kind of rules that feel like they come with a precedent, and as the show goes on, you learn about that precedent.

Though no one really ended up heckling his show this past Saturday at The United Theater on Broadway, the subject of hecklers and how they (and a host of other kind of audience reactions, including from children) get under Acaster's skin is everpresent in the set. Hecklers Welcome bobs and weaves through Acaster's history to figure out why Acaster has reacted so strongly to hecklers in the past and what he can do about it.

It's no secret that James Acaster is funny. Anyone who has seen him do his banana bit gets that. He's also, like many comedians, facing a serious moment of confronting himself about what his career is and whether or not its healthy for him, as we saw in his last special Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999.

Now, Acaster's new show combines the two parts of Acaster that have become familiar, addressing trauma in a way that suggests he's working through it instead of experiencing it, and layering it with the fun bits we expect from him (as well as some well-timed breaks with Acaster banging out a beat on a tiny drumset or whacking a small tether ball with paddles). Hecklers Welcome, in its title and its subject, is a full on confrontation of what worries Acaster, the childhood that follows him (and all of us), and the weird relationship between performer and audience.

As more comedians begin to lean into the "serious" comedy show, a la Hannah Gadbsy's Nanette and Bo Burnham's Inside, there seems to be a trend to write these shows off as "not quite standup." But this is not the kind of show you're going to want to write off. It's hilarious, for one, but it also uses that humor to get to the personal. By the end of the show, you get the sense of what it has taken for Acaster to get where he is, both on the stage and emotionally, and start to think, too, about how we as individual audience members have gotten to where we are.

Of course there are classic Acaster bits - ones that will likely be quoted along the aforementioned banana bit and his British Museum bit. But what marks Hecklers Welcome as different is a level of self understanding and acceptance that allows Acaster to go where it hurts, but also contextualize it, all the while making the audience laugh harder than they have in weeks.

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Welcome to the number one coolest website on the net, jamesacaster.com .  i’ve decided social media can take a hike and am now focusing all my online efforts on this mother.  i’ll be regularly updating you all on what i’m up to, shows, projects, goings on…  as well as sending news to you all via my snazzy new mailing list, so please sign up above for even more fun, i’ll leave you now to explore the site and disregard all other responsibilities in your life because let’s face it, this is all you need now. , we are the future.  believe. , latest update….

In late 2022 Temps introduced themselves to the world with their first single “no,no”. Now, the a 40-strong international music collective devised, curated and produced by James Acaster, have announced news of their debut album, PARTY GATOR PURGATORY, released via Bella Union and available to buy now…

The debut album: PARTY GATOR PURGATORY

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Listen to Perfect Sounds and the Off Menu podcast with James' friend Ed Gamble

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I filmed 4 stand up shows that can be found on Netflix under the name Repertoire

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This has been a big old project for me.

guide to quitting social media

Being the Best You You Can Be and Saving Yourself from Loneliness Vol. 1

cold lasagne hate myself 1999

James filmed his show at EartH in Hackney last December

sweet home ketteringa

James returns to Kettering, with a camera crew in tow, to visit some of his old haunts.

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I have lived an extremely blessed life save for enough awful/stupid experiences to fill a book with.

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In these five shows, James probes deeply into a variety of subjects – and shares his eye-opening conclusions.

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• Consequence

James Acaster Announces 2022 “Hecklers Welcome Tour”

The British funnyman hits the states this fall

James Acaster is bringing the laughs stateside. The British comedian has announced a run of US tour dates for November 2022.

The “Hecklers Welcome Tour” kicks off in Seattle on November 2nd. The 11-city trek will take Acaster through major cities including San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and more before wrapping up in Atlanta on November 14th.

Tickets for the “Hecklers Welcome Tour” go on sale this Thursday, August 4th at 9:00 a.m. local time, and you can grab yours at Ticketmaster . See Acaster’s full tour schedule below.

Acaster is perhaps best known for his four-part stand-up Netflix special Repertoire , though he also co-hosts the food podcast Off Menu and the British game show Hypothetical, h e’s a jack of many humorous trades.

James Acaster 2022 Tour Dates: 11/02 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre 11/03 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theatre 11/04 – San Francisco, CA @ Castro Theatre 11/05 – Austin, TX @ Stateside at the Paramount 11/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent 11/08 – New York, NY @ Sony Hall 11/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Punch Line 11/11 – Chicago, IL @ Athenaeum Theatre 11/12 – Washington, DC @ Capital Turnaround 11/13 – Somerville, MA @ Arts at The Armory 11/14 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre

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James Acaster Announces 2022 "Hecklers Welcome Tour"

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James acaster: hecklers welcome.

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James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome review – comic boldly goes with the flow

Theatre Royal, Glasgow Delivering his own ‘origin story’, with interruptions encouraged, Acaster skilfully pieces together big-yield routines from inauspicious beginnings

W e all learned something during lockdown, says James Acaster , and he learned that “I don’t like doing standup comedy”. Wracked with nerves before each gig, annoyed that the wrong people came to his shows, the Kettering comic had hit a wall. This show is his response. For the first time in Acaster’s standup career, Hecklers Welcome takes us back into his childhood to unearth the roots of his love/hate relationship with performance. It also obliges the 38-year-old to embrace audience input. James “has to accept whatever happens”, we’re told pre-show – even if that’s sometimes through gritted teeth.

It’s a two-times gift of a set, then, offering a glimpse behind the curtain of one of the best comics now working , and obliging him to be phlegmatic – which is not his default mode. The first half in particular is fascinating as well as funny, as Acaster interrogates the standup psyche and pores over those moments he’s allowed audiences (too silent, too rowdy) to get under his skin. Then comes his “origin story”, the tale of a spinning-wheel workshop five-year-old James’s granny once delivered at his school. Summoned onstage by gran, Acaster was emotionally overwhelmed – and ( pace his therapist) that same fragile infant has been looking over his shoulder at every live appearance since.

Ridiculous? Of course. True? Quite possibly. It certainly makes for a fantastic self-lacerating story, as do its follow-ups, which stake out further staging posts (the humiliating Prince Charles impression; the dog show gone wrong) on Acaster’s journey to tormented star of the stage. As ever, it’s a marvel how he constructs big-yield routines, piece by fastidious piece, from inauspicious beginnings. There’s some endearing ad hoc material, too, as the Off Menu man riffs on the phrase “take [something] to the grave” or impersonates Shrek for the Scottish crowd.

If the gig has an Achilles heel, it’s that the obligation to accept all heckles interrupts its rhythm, and (even while heckles are few and far between) spins a long show even deeper into its third hour. But too much Acaster is still a treat to watch – and perhaps, for the first time, a treat to perform, too?

Touring until 22 June

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James Acaster Announces 2022 “Hecklers Welcome Tour”

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The post James Acaster Announces 2022 “Hecklers Welcome Tour” appeared first on Consequence .

James Acaster is bringing the laughs stateside. The British comedian has announced a run of US tour dates for November 2022.

The “Hecklers Welcome Tour” kicks off in Seattle on November 2nd. The 11-city trek will take Acaster through major cities including San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and more before wrapping up in Atlanta on November 14th.

Tickets for the “Hecklers Welcome Tour” go on sale this Thursday, August 4th at 9:00 a.m. local time, and you can grab yours at Ticketmaster . See Acaster’s full tour schedule below.

Acaster is perhaps best known for his four-part stand-up Netflix special Repertoire , though he also co-hosts the food podcast Off Menu and the British game show Hypothetical, h e’s a jack of many humorous trades.

James Acaster 2022 Tour Dates: 11/02 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre 11/03 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theatre 11/04 – San Francisco, CA @ Castro Theatre 11/05 – Austin, TX @ Stateside at the Paramount 11/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent 11/08 – New York, NY @ Sony Hall 11/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Punch Line 11/11 – Chicago, IL @ Athenaeum Theatre 11/12 – Washington, DC @ Capital Turnaround 11/13 – Somerville, MA @ Arts at The Armory 11/14 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre

James Acaster Announces 2022 “Hecklers Welcome Tour” Abby Jones

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James Acaster – Hecklers Welcome: one of the funniest and most brilliantly constructed shows of the year

Hilarious, poignant and completely ingenious, this is a show that re-writes the rules of live stand-up

Most people who attend or perform comedy don’t have a particularly complex relationship with hecklers: these schmucks are almost always drunk, never funny, often incomprehensible, but always up for trying to insert themselves into the middle of something you’ve paid to see. This sort of stuff never happens at the theatre.

Throughout his rise to become arguably England’s most widely acclaimed young comic, Acaster felt similarly, and was known to regularly sabotage his own gigs in frustration at how inconsiderate his audience could be.

Hecklers Welcome is an exceptionally rich text, but one of its major themes is a dawning of acceptance, briskly encapsulated with a great routine about the people who gum up the baggage carousel at the airport, unable to step back and wait their turn. Their selfishness may never stop making Acaster angry, but he also has to acknowledge that it’s happened every single time he has ever been to the airport. He can’t change other people, so it’s up to him to reframe the issue.

“I don’t like doing standup,” he says in this show. And he means it! But maybe there’s a way that can be reframed as well? In a series of hilarious and poignant anecdotes from his childhood, he shows how performance is connected to trauma for him, and describes the feeling of trying to protect his childhood self on stage.

For this tour, he has a set of house rules which boil down to: the audience can heckle James whenever they want, and James can’t get angry about it. And there were plenty of heckles at the Bristol Old Vic on Wednesday night, none of them wise or helpful or funny in their own right. But when one woman offensively tries to speak on behalf of Acaster’s dead grandmother, he teases out the heckle with patience, charm and genuine curiosity, in one of the best bits of extended crowdwork I’ve ever seen. In a weird way, the interruptions, while still unwelcome, are essential in allowing this show to assume its optimum form, and key to the fascinating questions it poses (and answers) about the performer/audience relationship.

A nerve-wracking final story about bullies on a train puts us all in the headspace of the scared boy that (figuratively) accompanies Acaster on stage, before beautifully illustrating the transformative importance of admitting when you’re scared. It’s a perfect thematic capper to one of the year’s funniest and most brilliantly constructed shows, and a proving ground for a radical doctrine in comedy: even the foolish, the selfish and the ignorant can and should be treated with love and respect.

Touring the UK until June 2024; jamesacaster.com

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James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome

• Comedy, Stand-up
• Royal Festival Hall, South Bank
• 31 May 1 Jun 2024

Time Out says

Heckers are indeed welcome in Acaster’s new show, in which he gets to grips with his dislike of performing live

The hugely successful, perennial cool comic follows up his West End run at the start of the year with a couple of dates at the prestigious Southbank Centre for his new live stand-up show in which he attempts to grapple with the fact that he recently concluded that he doesn’t like performing live stand-up shows. In ‘Hecklers Welcome’ Acaster talks through his phobia of performance, and as the title suggests, he promises he’ll give any heckler a fair hearing.

Dates and times

Fri, 31 May 2024 19:30 Royal Festival Hall £35. Runs 2hr 20min

Sat, 1 Jun 2024 19:30 Royal Festival Hall £35. Runs 2hr 20min

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James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome

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Mon 8 Jan - Sun 14 Jan 2024

Book James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome Tickets at the Harold Pinter Theatre Official Box Office

"one of comedy's most original voices" (evening standard) has written a new show. he's very proud of it. that being said, you are allowed to ruin it. fill your boots..

" A comedy genius at the peak of his powers " - Guardian

" A remarkable storyteller, a comedian who can identify one situation and spin into an elaborate, multifaceted, and thematically rich narrative! - Vulture

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James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome

Review of the comic's current tour

James Acaster’s been a comedian for 15 years and at the top of his game for a good two-thirds of that. Yet  he’s still pushing himself creatively even though – as he confesses here – he really doesn’t like doing stand-up. He learned that in lockdown, free from the rigmarole of having to do it.

Hecklers Welcome is an attempt to address both those points, by learning to be in the moment a bit more, to go with the flow of the gig, whatever the crowd may throw at him, even if it means deviating from his carefully crafted routines.

By his own admission he’s been bad-tempered and sulky with audiences before, going in hard on the most good-natured of interruptions or railing testily against a room for being quiet and unappreciative when they had – until then – been having a perfectly nice time. Even if that audience were nursery-aged children he was reading a Roald Dahl story to.

Thanks to therapy, he’s come to realise much of this is on him. And because it came from therapy, of course it all stems from childhood. When he was little boy watching any sort of performance he immediately wanted to be part of it – and when he did join it, it usually ended in humiliation. That combination of an ego that’s both huge and fragile defines so many comedians, and was evident at such a young age.

Despite the title, hecklers aren’t so much welcome here as tolerated. Setting out the ground rules at the start, Acaster essentially says he’ll take them in good grace, as well being chill about people wandering to the loo or checking their phones.

They’re a pretty well-behaved lot in Brighton tonight. During the show itself only a few heckles are attempted, and only one is delivered with enough confidence to be heard above the laughs and hubbub of the show, and is subsequently addressed in the same well-intentioned spirit it was intended. For why would anyone want to derail the work of a comedian known for meticulous storytelling, skilfully engineered to build up a bigger picture?

The key story on which all else hangs involves the five-year-old Acaster reduced to tears when taking part in a demonstration in front of his classmates. The therapist has this as the defining incident, with the adult comic always trying to protect that version of himself whenever he’s on stage.

That’s not the only humiliation. The story of him entering a dog show with an uncooperative pet is vivid in its detail, but funnier when we learn just why the sausage-dog came to be named Stephen Minney, and the consequences of that odd decision. 

Even a story about a truly terrible impression of the then Prince Charles for a school talent contest, which is wilfully anticlimactic, has his place. And as an adult, ignominy still stalks him – witness his unconventional approach to the teenage tearaways who terrorise a train carriage he was on.

Funny as these are – exaggerated by Acaster’s ever-indignant retelling and awkward, angular physicality as much as his spry turn of phrase – it’s how these stories piece together into a bigger picture that sets Hecklers Welcome aside. Psychologists will tell us that aggressors are so often scared people lashing out against the world, and that’s what Acaster subtly points towards at every turn. 

For an encore, Acaster properly confronts his nemeses and actively invites the heckles. And in truth, it’s a mess, primarily comprising people shouting out bits of old routines, which doesn’t give him much to work with. Plus the question about Russell Brand could never have provided a funny payoff. Hecklers may be welcome… but only if you’re as sharp as Acaster.

Review date: 27 Sep 2023 Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

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James acaster: hecklers welcome.

James Acaster, ‘one of comedy’s most original voices’ ( Evening Standard ), has written a new show.

He’s very proud of it. That being said, you are allowed to ruin it. Fill your boots.

‘A comedy genius at the peak of his powers’ The Guardian

‘A remarkable storyteller, a comedian who can identify one situation and spin it into an elaborate, multifaceted, and thematically rich narrative’ Vulture

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The performance on Friday 31 May is Speech-to-Text transcribed (STT).

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Contains language which some might find offensive.

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More about Access & facilities

Blue Badge holders and those with access requirements can be dropped off on the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road off Belvedere Road (the road between the Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery).

There are four Blue Badge parking spaces available for visitors located on the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road. Spaces are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and are free to use. You must display your Blue Badge as you enter the site. Vehicles that do not display a Blue Badge are refused entry.

Blue Badge parking at National Theatre

Alternative parking for Blue Badge holders visiting the Southbank Centre can be found at the National Theatre car park (330 metres). If you are visiting the Hayward Gallery, just take your badge and car park ticket to the Ticket Desk in the gallery foyer for validation before you leave.

Please note: when the National Theatre building is closed (on Sundays, and on days without performances) there is no step-free access from the car park. Please contact the National Theatre directly to check before travelling. Call 020 7452 3961 or email [email protected]

Alternative parking is available nearby at the APCOA Cornwall Road Car Park (490 metres), subject to charges.

Blue Badge parking at APCOA Cornwall Road

Alternative parking for Blue Badge holders visiting the Southbank Centre can also be found at the South Bank Car Park – APCOA Cornwall Road Car Park. Just take your badge and car park ticket to the parking attendant office at the entrance to the car park for validation before you leave.

A drop-off point at the Royal Festival Hall (30 metres) has been created for visitors who are unable to walk from alternative car parks.

Our Access Scheme

If you have any access requirements, please sign up to our Access Scheme for discounts, wheelchair spaces, dedicated seats and free companion tickets. You can also join our mailing list to get news about accessible events and exhibitions.

More about our Access Scheme

From a snack with coffee to cocktails and fine dining, plus some of London's best street food – it's all here on the Southbank Centre site.

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Stand Up Comedy

James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome

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Tickets & Times

DIRECTOR: CARY JOJI FUKUNAGA

STARRING: DANIEL CRAIG, RALPH FIENNES, NAOMIE HARRIS, RAMI MALEK, LÉA SEYDOUX

CERTIFICATE: 12A

Little Wander in association with PBJ Management presents

“A comedy genius at the peak of his powers” Guardian

“A remarkable story-teller, a comedian who can identify one situation and spin it into an elaborate, multifaceted, and thematically rich narrative” Vulture

“One of comedy’s most original voices” (Evening Standard) has written a new show. He’s very proud of it. That being said, you are allowed to ruin it. Fill your boots.

14+, Please note that strong language features in the production

This is a relaxed performance. Bars will be open throughout the show and people are able to come and go as needed.

This performance will be live open captioned by Claire Hill. Captions will be visible from anywhere in the auditorium and seats for this service can be booked online as normal.

Members - we've streamlined things! You no longer need to log in on this page and will instead be prompted to log in after selecting your tickets. It is at this point your discounts will be applied, where applicable.

Not a member? You are missing out! Check out our membership options and join us today.

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James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome 90 -->

Wed 22 - Sat 25 May 2024, 7:30pm

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Sun 2 Jun 2024, 7:30pm

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Thu 13 Jun 2024, 8pm

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