Known for his appearances in Adam Sandler movies and as a roller-skating prostitute on Reno 911, Swardson made headlines after he was booted from the stage just twenty minutes into his set at the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek on Monday, March 4.
In a video taken by an audience member, fans boo the 47-year-old comedian as he attempts to begin an impression of action-movie star Jason Statham. Fans are heard groaning and yelling "You suck!" as Swardson repeatedly tries to begin the bit, saying, "Here we go."
"Can we ask for our money back?" a woman in the audience asks.
"Fuck, we're going to," her neighbor replies.
As Swardson attempts to keep his show going, more complaints spill out from the crowd. "It's so bad, it's historical," says one fan.
"I've never seen anything like this happen in my entire life," says another.
"I have to go, I have to go," comes another comment. "I can't take it. Sorry."
Eventually the boos rise to a crescendo before Swardson asks, "Do you want me to finish this or not?"
The crowd responded with a loud, synchronized, "NO!"
"But what if I finish this?" Swardson offers again.
"What if you were funny?" a man claps back.
In another video taken by an audience member, we see Swardson's mic is then turned off, and the comedian is escorted off stage as the remaining audience members — many have already left — cheer. The VPAC director of operations then comes on stage with a working mic. "We've decided to conclude the show early in the best interest of those who bought tickets," he says. "We apologize for what you've seen tonight."
Swardson, who performed in Aspen the next night, apologized the morning after the incident, writing on X that he blames booze, edibles and the high altitude.
"Just casually woke up on TMZ," he wrote. "Travel tip: don't drink and take edibles in high altitude. Fucking brain diarrhea. I'll make it up to Beaver Creek!"
Swardson was performing in a four-part comedy series at the Vilar, which did not respond to a request for comment. The 500-seat Beaver Creek venue, located almost two hours from Denver, has hosted such big-name comedians as Robin Williams and Jay Leno. Those greats didn't have any issues with their sets, but Swardson is hardly the first famous comic to be booted from the stage at a Colorado venue.
Here are some other big names that went from headliner to the next day's headlines in this state:
Comedian Ralphie May had to be escorted from his 2015 show in Grand Junction after coming on stage a bit too high.
Daily Mail
Ralphie May
Swardson isn't the only comedian to blame weed for a bad Colorado comedy set.Ralphie May, who died in 2017, irked fans during his January 2015 show at the Avalon Theater in Grand Junction, and not with his jokes about why Denver International Airport is "hot garbage."
May showed up to his show too intoxicated to perform. He started by stumbling up the stairs as he took the stage and then began mumbling incoherently. Audience members told TMZ he couldn't string a sentence together or finish a joke.
The comedian bombed so bad that a group of fifteen to twenty audience members formed in the lobby and demanded refunds. That scene led the theater's staff to call the police. According to a statement by the Grand Junction Police Department that came soon after, private security guards hired by the Avalon "had to escort a handful of people out of the theater who were yelling at May during his performance."
"Four officers arrived on scene and quickly calmed the group and de-escalated the situation," according to the statement. "No one was hurt during the incident, and further investigation showed no laws were broken, so there were no arrests or citations issued."
The next day, May's manager, Andrew Dorfman, lightheartedly blamed Colorado's dispensaries as he played damage control, telling media that the comedian was the "first victim of legalized marijuana." Colorado voted to legalize recreational weed in 2012 and began retail sales in January 2014, the first state in the country to do so.
"He was a big kid in a candy store, and he had fun with it," Dorfman told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. "For anybody to be surprised that Ralphie May was in Colorado and was stoned on stage, when he's the king of stoners, is crazy."
May offered a few other explanations in an interview with KEZO radio, including monitor problems and cold medication. On X — then Twitter — he wrote that a mixture of "cold medicine, altitude and fat" also played a role. "Heckling started before I was onstage," he added, and "the sound system stunk."
Unlike Swardson, May was able to finish his show before the cops escorted May to his bus and the comedian and his crew left town.
George Lopez
When George Lopez walked out of a charity gala in October 2017, he didn't have edibles to blame for getting booed off the stage — just his jokes about Donald Trump.The Mexican-American comedian, who had his own family sitcom from 2002 to 2007, was escorted out of the Carousel Ball for insisting on making jokes about then-President Donald Trump at a gala benefiting the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes. Billionaire couple Barbara and Marvin Davis had introduced the annual bash in 1978, after their daughter Dana Davis was diagnosed with diabetes. Although the Davises subsequently moved to California, the Carousel Ball stayed in Denver.
In 2017, Lopez was chosen to emcee the glitzy event, where people paid between $5,000 to $10,000 for a table. Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, a Trump supporter, put down a $250,000 donation that year.
But then Lopez started making jokes about border walls, orange men and white people, and reportedly said something along the lines of "I apologize to your white privilege."
Guests started heckling and walking out. Lopez dropped an F-bomb before walking off as well, leaving the show runners to ask veteran weatherman Ed Greene to fill in as emcee for the rest of the night.
Katt Williams
In November 2012, comedian Katt Williams didn't need to be booed off stage or given the hook. He jumped off stage on his own when he lost his shit over a Denver heckler during a show at the 5,000-seat Bellco Theatre, then called the Wells Fargo Theatre.During his show, Williams called out a heckler who told the comedian that he's "not funny." With the audience on his side, Williams started talking back to the heckler, but he couldn't keep his cool.
The comedian jumped off the stage, walked up the aisle to the fan and shouted, "You're a pussy!" He then spit on the fan. The police surrounded Williams while the crowd filmed the incident.
"The police got me. How funny. Wow. Wow," Williams said. "That's just how Malcolm X got shot."
The comic was able to get back on stage, where he took his anger out on the Denver audience, saying he was glad he didn't bring out rap legends E-40 and Too Short for the show. "I didn't think it would motherfuckin' work...and I was fuckin' right, as fuckin' usual," Williams told the crowd.
He then walked off the stage and ended his show, but not before he reassured fans that "everybody in this show gets their money back."
Like Swardson, Williams had another Colorado show scheduled for the night following his meltdown, but unlike Swardson, he had to return to the same venue. That set did not make headlines.
