Offensive, yes, but comics say outright ban not the answer

Jerry Fink, Las Vegas Sun

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006 | 7:11 a.m.

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Michael Richards' onstage meltdown has comedians talking - about the use of the n-word and the push-pull between free speech and offensive language.

On Nov. 17, Richards, who played Kramer on "Seinfeld," created a furor while performing at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, Calif. Responding to hecklers, he made several racial slurs, which were caught on tape. His meltdown made headlines and thrust Richards into the limelight, which had largely eluded him since "Seinfeld" ended in 1998.

The Laugh Factory has banned the n-word, and club owner Jamie Masada has said he would fine a comedian $20 every time he or she uses the word and ban them from his establishment for three months.

Comedians Robert Schimmel and David Brenner, who will be performing in Las Vegas this month, talked about the Richards incident.

Robert Schimmel

After the incident, Schimmel wrote an open letter to Richards, criticizing him for using the n-word but also criticizing the club owner for banning its use.

"The thing that bothers me about it is, the prospect of having a club owner banning a word in a comedy club is really scary," Schimmel said during a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "Today, it's that word; we don't know what word it will be tomorrow.

"When you go to a comedy club, the person walking in basically assumes the risk that they're going to hear something off-color or offensive."

Schimmel said the issue is free speech, but he made no excuses for Richards.

"There is no reason for that word to come up in anger. There just isn't," he said. "But for the club owner to say he's going to ban Richards or anyone else who uses the word isn't right, either."

In defiance of the ban, comedian Damon Wayans took to the stage at the club and used the n-word 16 times, paid a $320 fine and accepted not being welcome back at the club.

"Damon doesn't really need to work at the Laugh Factory," Schimmel said. "When you travel around the country, like I do, performing, when you ask people to name a comedy club in L.A., it's either the Comedy Store or the Improv. Nobody says the Laugh Factory."

Schimmel challenged the owner of the club to not be a hypocrite. "If he wants Michael Richards to pay a fine for every time he said the word and to donate the money to charity, is (the owner) going to fine himself and donate to charity?" Schimmel said. "That word has been used every night in that club - and also slurs against gays, Hispanics, Jews, women, people with muscular dystrophy, blind people - anything.

"Nothing is sacred onstage and he has no right profiting from that and then one night suddenly it makes a difference because someone got it on tape."

While none of it was planned, Schimmel says, everyone seems to be benefiting from the publicity - the club suddenly has national recognition, and Richards' name is back in the public's mind just in time for the release of the seventh season of "Seinfeld" on DVD.

Schimmel compared it to Mel Gibson having a meltdown during a traffic stop earlier this year, making anti-Semitic remarks and then apologizing.

"He went on national television and apologized, which really means a lot considering his movie 'Apocalypto' just opened," he said.

He said Richards could probably appear in a concert now and sell out. "That's the way it works."

Schimmel said he has performed in a few clubs since the Richards incident.

"They're definitely telling us not to use that word," he said. "Most white comics don't use that word. Very few can get away with it."

David Brenner

"I think Richards is a nice guy. I met him a few times and he's always been cordial, nice and friendly and funny and all," Brenner said. "I also think that Mel Gibson seems to be a nice guy. But that being said, I think you don't say things that you don't have inside of your makeup. If you don't have prejudice and bigotry, if you don't have it, there's no way you could drink enough, take enough drugs, get angry enough or humiliated enough or embarrassed enough to express bigotry and make prejudicial remarks.

"You couldn't get me drunk enough to have me attack any group of people. What this is - alcohol, embarrassment, whatever - that's a door that opens and releases their bigotry."

Brenner says he would group Gibson and Richards with Iranian President Mah moud Ahmadinejad, "who's hosting a symposium about the Holocaust never happening."

Brenner also was critical of the owner of the Laugh Factory for banning the use of the n-word. "That's against the First Amendment," he said. "If they ban the word from comedy, 90 percent of black comedians are unemployed."

Brenner uses a lot of topical humor, ripping his from the headlines. But he hasn't hit the Richards issue too hard.

"Certain popular subjects become so popular that it's like shooting fish in a barrel with a cannon," Brenner said. "Even when President Clinton was having the affair, I didn't get into it, but for one time on 'Politically Incorrect' with Bill Maher.

"It was interesting. Everyone was talking about Monica Lewinsky. They went on and on and on. I said, 'I just have one question. Who is this Monica Lewinsky?' And the audience went crazy and they had to go to a commercial break."

Brenner said he read in a news magazine an article written by a black woman about the use of the n-word. "She said it was almost a spotlight to pick out the bigot," he said. "When you have a politician say something about the Hispanic population in a derogatory manner it throws a light on him.

"When you have Mel Gibson or Michael Richards come out with these negative terms and expressions, what it does is it exposes them - without the n-word, there is no exposure."

By banning words and ideas, Brenner said, it drives them underground. It doesn't make them go away.

"The owner of the Laugh Factory is a nice guy," Brenner said. "But first of all he is a businessman. His club has a lot of blacks and Hispanics in the audience. I've worked there, and he doesn't want to lose them.

"He doesn't want them not to come because they're afraid they're going to get insulted."