A comedian has had the last laugh after nearly getting bombarded by a can of beer while performing.
Ariel Elias was on stage at the comedy club in New Jersey on October 8 when a heckler demanded to know who she voted for in the 2020 US presidential election.
“I can just tell by your jokes that you voted for Biden,” the heckler said contemptuously.
“Alright, I can tell by the fact that you still speak when nobody wants you to, that you voted for Trump,” Elias retorted with a laugh.
“It was chaos in the room,” Elias recalled in an interview with CTV National News on Tuesday. “Everyone was watching what was happening. No one was paying attention to what was happening on stage.”
The woman heckling Elias was quickly kicked out of the room, but moments later the man sitting next to her threw a can of beer, which Elias narrowly missed before crashing into a wall.
Captured in a now viral videoElias barely misses a beat as she grabs the beer from the floor, smiles and drinks it to a rash of applause.
“I remember thinking, like, would it be funny if I drank this?” said Elias. “I still had five minutes left, so it was just like, how do I bring the focus back to the stage?”
From Chris Rock to Dave Chappelle, there have been several recent high-profile attacks on comedians.
Elias is praised for her grace under pressure and is already booked for late night TV spots. She won’t press charges.
Here is the clip pic.twitter.com/soeG3dixP4
— Ariel Elias (@Ariel_Comedy) October 9, 2022