By Francesca Halliwell and Eleanor Whalley
(Reuters) – Comedian Ariel Elias got more than she bargained for when she was heckled while performing in New Jersey.
But Elias got the last laugh, after the incident – and her reaction – went viral on social media, leading to a guest spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” according to a spokesperson for the late-night U.S. TV talk show. A date has yet to be confirmed.
A clip of the performance shows Elias, 33, asking her audience on Oct. 8 for questions. One person wanted to know if she had voted for former President Donald Trump. In an interchange with the heckler, Elias said she voted for his rival, Joe Biden, and the woman in the audience responded that she could tell from her jokes.
Shortly afterwards a beer can was thrown at Elias onstage. Elias then picks up the beer can and drinks it while the audience cheers.
“I felt shocked. I felt a lot of adrenaline,” she said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. “I was telling myself to breathe. There weren’t a whole lot of thoughts going through my head to be honest.”
The video of the incident she uploaded on Twitter the next day has been viewed over 5.5 million times.
“I felt like a duck swimming where on the outside… I looked calm, but if you look under my feet were frantically paddling,” Elias said.
The atmosphere during her sets has shifted in the last couple of years, she said.
“There is more tension in the air. I think everywhere in this country there’s a lot of ‘which side are you on,’ so it makes sense that it would leak into comedy clubs a bit.”
It was unclear who threw the beer can. Elias declined to press charges or sign a criminal complaint, according to a statement by Point Pleasant Beach police.
Instead, the comedian dispensed this advice for hecklers: “I highly recommend just like getting a journal and writing down your feelings, because I think you’ll be less inclined to throw things at people.”
(Reporting by Francesca Halliwell and Eleanor Whalley; Additional reporting by Danielle Broadway; Writing by Richard Chang; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
