Comedian Paul Mooney says Michael Richards had a complete emotional and nervous breakdown on stage at the Laugh Factory the other night.

I spoke to Mooney this morning.

He says look for Richards to appear on Oprah or Dr. Phil soon... and he doesn't quite buy Richards' apology on the David Letterman show. 

The racial outburst reveals some truth about Richards' opinions, says Mooney. To hear the whole interview, click on the link below.

Download paulmooney-ericspillman.wmv

If you've ever been to a comedy club, you know there's always at least one drunken heckler in the audience.  The truly talented standup guys can work that to their advantage.  They can turn it around and get a laugh out of confronting the heckler.  They know how to use humor to get control of the situation.

We see hecklers from time to time in our travels.  Sometimes they show up at the scene of news stories hoping to disrupt our live broadcasts.

The key is not to get angry, I've found.  It never works.  The audience doesn't want to see rudeness.  Ever.  And they don't want to see racism.  That much is for sure.