Go ahead and heckle
Bob Larson wants the audience to be part of the show

By John Hansen - Entertainment Editor

Bob Larson twice fought in the international Toughman finals, and for 12 years he taught Wing Chun Kung Fu. None of that prepared him for Hecklefest.

"They're coming from everywhere in Hecklefest," said the Coon Rapids comedian, who will host his unique show - wherein the peanut gallery is encouraged to jeer the comedians - Friday and Saturday at the Rail in Brainerd. "There's only one guy in the ring. With Hecklefest, I have to be prepared not for a left or right, but for things coming from left field or right field."

One thing Toughmen and funnymen have in common: "You roll with the punches," Larson said.

Larson, now 53, got into comedy when he was 32; he hadn't even seen live stand-up until a few months before his first paying gig. However, he had been developing his stage presence his whole adult life, bulking up his 6-foot-2 frame as a lumberjack, mechanic and coal dock worker - to say nothing of being a Toughman or Kung Fu fighter - in his hometown of Duluth.

"I was kind of a class clown," Larson said. "My goal was to be as comfortable on stage as I used to be in the lunch room, making guys laugh at the coal dock."

Since creating Hecklefest five years ago, he hasn't exactly been comfortable on stage, but he has certainly had fun.

"I had a drunk heckler one night," Larson said of the show's origin. "He was kind of entertaining, and it was an ongoing thing. After the show somebody asked me if he was part of the act. So I got the idea for Hecklefest. Instead of shutting up the audience, (I decided to) knock down that third wall, let them communicate with the comedian."

Larson even passes out a starter booklet of 60 basic heckles.

"I like the antics of Hecklefest because it's an unrehearsed thing and the comic has to stay on his toes," said Larson, who lives with his wife, Suzie, and children Jolie, 8, and John, 5.

"You've got to be a little likable. You don't want it to get too out of hand. Our answers can't be anything where someone doesn't want to heckle again. I tell my comedians, 'Don't try to shut a guy up.' It's a fine line when you open it up to the crowd. You know what happens when a pitcher is pitching bad."

When it goes well, it can be a home run. Larson once had a 10-minute exchange with a woman who told him she used to walk five miles a day but recently started walking 10 a day.

"So your dates don't want to drive you home anymore?" the comedian quipped.

Larson - who has previously performed at T Maxwell's in Staples and the Rail - and the other comedians will come prepared with their acts, so if no one feels like heckling, patrons will still have something to laugh at.

But the Toughman-turned-funnyman hopes to field plenty of jeers. He loves the fact that he'll hear something new at every Hecklefest.

"I'm just trying to make a living and try as many things as possible," Larson said. "I traveled all over fighting, now I travel all over doing comedy. My wife likes me better without black eyes."