Advice for 2020 Candidates: Think Like a Stand-Up

Trump’s basically a heckler, and who’s good at shutting those down? Comedians.

Photo: Al Drago — Pool/Getty Images

Last week, Donald Trump won some easy headlines picking a fight with CNN’s Jim Acosta. He’d just lost the House and fired Jeff Sessions. What better way to change the headlines than taking on the people who make them?

I found this troubling for three reasons:

1. Trump can still control a great deal of media attention by expending relatively little time and energy.
2. Journalists are still using a dated playbook to respond to Trump’s trolling.
3. A lot of 2020 contenders will also use the same playbook and need to rethink how they approach confrontation with Trump.

We have to recognize that Trump is talking, acting, and thinking like a heckler. He’s constantly trying to push other people who have stage time off their game, so he can dominate the conversation.

Good stand-up comedians don’t take the statements hecklers make at face value or respond to them seriously. When a drunken crowd member starts yelling, “Do your old stuff!” a comedian doesn’t launch into a three-minute explanation of why they’d like to share their new material. They do things like pretending to check their watch and…