To have more than two people, instruments, or dancers occupying the stage at once would, I feel, move away from the stand-up and into some other performance art form. The main objective of the stand-up routine is to entertain and play to the audience. Feedback is necessary to the stand-up comedian. The show must be performed in front of a live audience to create excitement and the feeling that anything can happen. Due to the spontaneous energy created, and the fact that the audience is encouraged to participate in the routine, heckling is a common occurrence.
Hecklers are members of the audience who harass or taunt the comic while the comic is on the stage.
Hecklers can be a challenge, especially to the amateur comic, but can also be a means by which the comic learns to think on his feet. There is an atmosphere of anything goes in stand-up comedy today, a trend begun by the comics of the early 1960 s. Lenny Bruce, in fact, was arrested on charges of obscenity due to his stand-up act. No subject is taboo. Drugs, sex, violence, and drinking are all common topics of discussion.