This is a very familiar scenario to me. I've seen a few guys lose it like this a couple of times here in Melbourne (No. I wasn't one of them

), and it gets very ugly. One guy jumped off stage and started thumping the table that three girls (and they were girls - 19-20 tops) were sitting at and screaming at them "Why aren't you laughing you s****", "This is funny you w*****". It got very ugly. Basically the guy wasn't funny and also had issues with women. Another time one guy had to be escorted to his car by three bouncers 'cos he had been very over the top with some hecklers and the hecklers decided to wait for him after the gig and "discuss" it with him.
Even after what I've seen you've got to wonder what Richards was thinking. I saw somewhere that he claims he was being a character that is a racist and that it was in context. Looking at that footage that seems very unlikely. Also as far as I know the guy is more a physical comedian than someone who does that sort of stuff on stage.
Lenny Bruce did a thing once where he would play the racist. But he pulled it off.
He'd come out and without saying a word go to a black guy in the audience and get right in his face and say "N******" then let that sink in and then go to guy next him and yell "W**" and would then go through the auidence using the appriotate racial slur and then turn on himself and say "K***". "Okay I've got 10 n******, 8 w***, and 6 K****. Do I hear 11 n*******" and someone would yell out "Yeah me". "So okay I've got 11 n****** do I hear 12?" You get the idea.
Then again Lenny Bruce was a comic genuis. Richards isn't near that class. He looked to me like a guy who had a very weak routine - wasn't getting laughs - and blamed it on the audience.
The best way to handle hecklers is do what Anthony Morgan does. He starts up a polite discussion with them (ignoring everyone else in the room) and after a while the heckler is pleading him to go back to his routine.
