POINT PLEASANT, N.J. — Comic Ariel Elias stated her arms had been shaking, however she did not present it, when somebody within the viewers at a New Jersey membership threw a beer at her over the weekend.
Viral video of the incident reveals Elias picked up the can, chugged the beer and the viewers roared with applause.
CBS2’s Ali Bauman spoke with Elias about how she stayed cool to deal with the politically-charged heckler.
“Had been you as calm, cool and picked up on the within as you appeared on the skin?” requested Bauman.
“No, I had a lot adrenaline and was making an attempt to breathe, take a beat, not let anyone see that my arms had been shaking,” stated Elias.
Elias was doing standup on Saturday evening at Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Membership in Level Nice Seaside. As she usually does, she requested if anybody within the crowd had a query for her.
One lady did.
“Did you vote for Donald Trump?” the girl requested.
“Did I vote for Donald Trump? What do you suppose,” Elias replied.
Elias tried altering the topic, however the heckler persevered.
“I wasn’t speaking about politics in any respect. So it was similar to, ‘Oh, you are clearly searching for a combat,'” Elias advised CBS2.
The lady within the viewers stated, “I can simply inform by your jokes, you voted for Biden.”
“Alright. I can inform by the truth that you are still speaking when no one desires you to that you simply voted for Trump,” Elias advised the girl.
Dino Ibelli, the membership’s proprietor, then walked over to the heckler.
“I stated ‘Hear, it is not about you anymore. You might want to maintain it quiet or that you must depart,'” stated Ibelli.
The lady walked out. Then, in accordance with Ibelli, a person she was with threw the closed beer can and ran out.
Ibelli stated the man who threw the beer was sitting all the way in which within the again, which implies he threw it over the heads of individuals within the viewers earlier than almost hanging Elias.
There was not a bouncer on the membership that evening, however Ibelli stated a bouncer wouldn’t have modified a lot.
“If any person’s throwing one thing, what do you do?” stated Ibelli. “It is not just like the Chris Rock state of affairs and Will Smith, and also you see the 30 second stroll to the stage.”
Elias stated she by no means anxious about bodily violence on stage in her 11 years as a standup comedian earlier than this.
“Audiences are a lot drunker than they was once, I feel. I feel COVID actually taught folks learn how to drink,” stated Elias. “All of us bottled up a lot for thus lengthy and could not work together with one another and we needed to bury all of those feelings, all of those emotions and all of this trauma. So, now individuals are performing on impulse.”
Ibelli filed a police report and plans to press prices. Elias is able to get again on stage.
