Tiffany Haddish kicked off her 2019 pretty roughly after bombing her New Year’s Eve stand-up set in Miami. The hour-long set started to unravel when she forgot her material and started skipping around to unconnected jokes. Seeing fans walking out, she joked she was going to end up on TMZ (which she did). Haddish seemed to grow frustrated with the the boos and heckling, exchanging disses with an extra-loud heckler in the front row. But she still used her trademark charisma to turn the situation around as best she could, whipping out a giant bottle of Ciroc vodka and ending the show to drink with fans.
The following day she apologized and addressed the incident on Twitter, saying she has a strong feeling her mess up “will never happen again.” Her fellow comedians quickly rushed to her defense reminding everyone how normal it is for comics to bomb every now and then.
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But not all corners of the internet were as sympathetic. Outlets were quick to point out she posted an Instagram video the day of the show saying she’d been partying until 7am and wanted to keep the party going with her set. And Katt Williams had also recently challenged her skills as a stand-up comedian last September on V-103’s Frank and Wanda in the Morning Show, saying she rose to fame as an actress in Girls Trip (2017) and “hasn’t proven she can tell (her own) jokes, back to back for an hour.” Of course, some saw her New Year’s debacle as proof Williams was right, and others were disturbed by the impulse to jump on Haddish for what she already admitted was an embarrassing slip up.
The queen of keeping it real leveled with the audience to get some positive energy back as she tried to save the night, but her energy wasn’t reciprocated. Instead, an attendee, whose name is Andrew Chesnutt, recorded a selfie video standing just below the stage yelling that she’s “having a rough night” and posted it on Twitter. Through her visible discomfort she mustered the response, “you are too,” before inviting him on stage.
One look at Chesnutt’s mentions and the responses haven’t been too warm for him. Haddish’s brush with an on stage bomb wasn’t pretty, but hopefully it’s uphill from here for her.
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