The Funny or Die-sponsored Run the Jewels set at The Belmont started like any other Run the Jewels set: with Killer Mike and El-P triumphantly taking the stage to Queen’s “We are the Champions.” But what followed was a little out of the ordinary: a warning from Killer Mike—delivered with a smile—that “if you try to come up on stage, we will beat you up.”
It was a reference to what went down a few hours earlier at the rap duo’s Spotify House show, where a man stage-crashed and tried to attack them, and weirdly, it reflected what would be a weird theme on Monday night: if you’re watching someone perform, don’t be an idiot.
This mantra provides a helpful answer to the question “should I try to get up on stage and throw a punch at Killer Mike?”, but it was also relevant to queries like “should I yell a Hannibal Buress joke out while he’s in the middle of telling a different joke?” and “should I try to outshine Tig Notaro while she’s doing crowd work?”. Notaro found herself dealing with a guy unable to simply demonstrate the proper delivery of “That’s what she said,” as well as a few audience members yelling innuendos to try to help him out, and Buress shut his interrupter down with a lengthy rant that concluded with “I hope you don’t achieve your top three aspirations in life.”
But despite the distractions, all three acts were (rightfully) met with overwhelmingly appreciative crowds. Notaro’s dry wit was in top form on Monday night, and she demonstrated why she was one of our favorite comedians of 2014. Whether she’s recalling unknowingly doing a set and picking up a check with a chocolate ice cream mustache or giving a play-by-play of her experience being patted down by the TSA, Notaro never hesitates to make herself the butt of the joke, and the audience never shied from laughing with her.
