Have You Ever Used a Plant in the Audience?

Never.

And I can tell you 99% of my fellow comedians never do either. It’s funny to me because when I have a good clip on social media of a crowd work interaction o response to something organic that happened, like a bottle breaking or an alarm clock going off, they think think it was a plant. I see other comedians accused of this as well, and I know it’s not true and I know the comedian is ready to respond to anything that happens because they are professionals. I try not to do crowd work anymore, but when I started it, I loved it because I never had time to write a joke but it is an art form that I happen to be good at, perhaps from my training as a lawyer that taught me to think on my feet.

There was a rumor about a comedian who used to have plants when I started who he would hire to heckle him so he can destroy them, but I am not sure that was ever confirmed as accurate. And I know when I used to do improv, people assumed the show was preplanned when it wasn’t. 

It's flattering in a way because if people think that the audience member is a plant, that means they think the segment was so funny that it had to be prepared. But no, never have I ever had a plant in the audience.