Of all the people involved in this article, who is the most reprehensible?

The head and subhead:

Laugh Factory to add therapy to stand-up comics’ routine
Owner Jamie Masada is on a mission to help ease comedians’ demons: For four nights a week, a psychologist will be on hand to offer free counseling.

Is it the LA Times reporter Deborah Vankin? She’s the one who wrote it. (Did we call her a reporter? More like a stenographer. This story stinks badly. We suppose a reporter is obligated to frump up something if the orders from the editor are clear. Perhaps she’s off the hook.)

Is it Masada? The man clearly has a knack for creating Timesbait. He comes up with the most eye-rolling garbage that is just crazy enough to work– he creates fake events, and he does it on regular intervals (with just enough space between them so he isn’t pestering the shit out of the people who guard the ink.) And, like we said, it works. He’s got a huge club, in an expensive location. He’s got to get the name out there or he’s toast. A comedy club proprietor in Hollywood can’t fill a room that size with Groupons.

We’re guessing the lowest cockroach in the story is “clinical psychologist Ildiko L. Tabori.” She’ll be “‘in residence’ at the Laugh Factory for an indefinite stretch,” says the piece. Tabori says the program, “represents a sizable financial commitment for Masada.” (Which must be why Variety.com says that “Masada’s generosity reaches new levels.”)

Masada’s meddling reaches new levels. His opinion of comedians reaches new lows. And the potential damage to the public’s opinion of standup comics is furthered.

The ghosts of Rich Jeni, Greg Giraldo and Chris Farley are exploited in the name of keeping the turnstiles at the Factory spinning.

Ildiko is shameless:

“Research shows that there is a higher degree of depression and bipolar disorder in comedians,” she says.

None is cited. We doubt any exists. Some people will say anything to pad the resume and get the name in the Times.

More nonsense follows:

“It’s the only profession where you get heckled. You’re being criticized right in front of your face. Can you imagine someone standing over Picasso’s shoulder saying, ‘No, you idiot, more green!’ If you don’t have the self-esteem, the confidence, the support system, it does impact you and then you crash and it can lead to other things.”

Yes, Ildiko, but it’s also the only profession where the one who is heckled can say (with the aid of a Shure microphone and a battery of Bose public address speakers), “Go fuck yourself.”

To the experienced comic– who, we hasten to add, has self-esteem, confidence and a support system– the heckling does not have any kind of impact. None of us “crash” because of heckling. It’s actually rather rare.

At least for now. But, if idiotic articles like this one keep appearing, the public might get the idea that heckling is a good way to get under the skin of a comedian.  And that will ruin the show for everyone.  Even the patrons who are dopey enough to go to the Laugh Factory because the owner is paying  a hack shrink to sit in the back of the room until people forget the article.

The only person in the Heckler/Comedian equation who has any possible psychological problem is… the heckler.  Perhaps Tabori would better serve Masada’s club (and standup in general) if she were to approach the people who might disrupt the show by harassing the performers.  Of course, there’s no “research” that seeks to figure out just why some blowhard who pays good money to see a comedy show feels compelled to interrupt the comedian, ruin the show for those around him and draw the spotlight on himself.  And, since it almost always ends badly for the heckler (and by “badly” we mean he/she is degraded, silenced and made to look like a buffoon), we gotta wonder about his intelligence.