But disruptions of this kind are rare in the United States, and we’re surprised when they happen.  In 0160;Stand-up comedians relish their ability to make it painful for hecklers – they can chop people off at the knees. When a heckler interrupted Obama’s speech on abortion at Notre Dame in May 2009, the president immediately responded: “It’s all right. Any article written by my Fripp Associate Ian Griffin is worth reading or reposting. This was first published in a Ragan newsletter.

Hecklers are everywhere these days it seems!" Heckling can happen in all sorts of speaker settings and it's good to think through how you'll respond, so you can seize and defuse the heckler's main weapon: surprise. And while you're unlikely to experience the kinds of high-visibility heckling seen in recent days, there are still lessons to learn from the experiences of President Obama and Taylor Swift: Let the heckler show you what to do. In a two-week period when Rep. Joe Wilson heckled the President on live prime-time television, and singer Kanye West interrupted

That is heart-breaking, it is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America.” He ends up by stating the obvious, “that is heart-breaking” to drive home the point. How would you handle a heckler? I watched U.S. President Obama’s speech this morning, having taped it from last night.