The last time Tony Hinchcliffe appeared at Madison Square Garden, he generated national headlines and a lot of anger from both political parties — not to mention Bad Bunny — for a joke he made about Puerto Rico at a rally for then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump days before the election.
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And judging from the enthusiastic reception he got during an appearance at New York comedy club The Stand on Thursday night, his popularity has not suffered.
Hinchcliffe was among the talent who took part in a fundraiser for Tunnel to Towers — a charity that helps the families of Gold Star military members and fallen first responders — a lineup that also featured Joe DeRosa, Damien Speranza, Ian Lara, Aaron Berg, TIm Dillon and Paul Virzi.
The performance was a warm-up for his two-night return to the Garden on Aug. 15 and 16 — his first apperances there since the Trump rally. Tonight’s performance is billed as the Killers of Kill Tony, which will feature comedians who have become regulars on his wildly popular comedy competition. The Aug.. 16 show, which is sold out, will be a typical Kill Tony episode, in which aspiring comedians’ names are drawn at random and given 60 seconds to impress the often-merciless Hinchcliffe and a panel of his funny friends.
In the aftermath of his appearance at the Trump rally, Hinchcliffe stated, “I apologize to absolutely nobody” — and he was unrepentant during his set at The Stand too. He got a big laugh when he referred to his jokes at the Trump rally as an event “that changed some people’s lives forever.”
After a story about giving a “crackhead” outside his hotel $100 “just so he’d overdose,” then returning to his lifeless body to get “my $60 change back,” he told the crowd that he was “doubling down” and his next comedy special would “cover every single race.”
Hinchcliffe, who grew up in Youngstown, Ohio (and now calls Austin, Texas home) said he was “raised in an all-Black neighborhood,” before setting up a joke that Black men “do indeed love eating chicken” but “do not love eating eggs,” because “even in the chicken world, they don’t want to be with the children.”
When the punchline provoked a robust laugh from the packed crowd, Hinchcliffe said with a smile, “You guys are coming around the curve! Truly progressive.”
Hinchcliffe then asked how many Latinos were in the crowd. The light applause prompted a “Whoa!” from the comedian. “They used to be louder and prouder,” he said, an apparent reference to ICE’s recent arrests of undocumented (and some documented) immigrants, many of them from Latin countries. He followed up with a joke about his Hispanic housekeeper lamenting to him, “You had me tell everyone I know to vote for the president,” which now had a lot of people angry at her. Effecting a concerned voice, Hinchcliffe said he replied, “Reina, the guest bedroom toilet is clogged.”
Before leaving the stage, Hinchcliffe said the audience was probably wondering why there were no “Jew jokes” in his set. The answer: “I signed a three-year, 12-special deal with Netflix, and I don’t want to make Jew jokes anymore.”