“The Reading Festival, as you know, is one of the premier rock & roll nightmare hell festivals of all time,” muses Neil Hamburger , America's $1 Funnyman, of his ill-fated Aug. 28 appearance. “Limp Bizkit and Guns N' Roses and blink-182; the worst of the worst. They ask, ‘Neil, would it be okay if you went on a little early? One of our acts is running late.' Of course I'm always willing to accommodate. They bumped me up, but apparently the 2 o'clock spot was held by a very popular Scottish comedian by the name of Kevin Bridges. I stepped onto the stage and saw several thousand kids waiting to see this guy, not me. And they were very upset. I told a couple jokes to total silence. Then the silence gave way to chanting, booing, people charging the stage, and of course an endless stream of bottles and cans, and you name it. If it could be thrown, they were throwing it. I admit that I departed from my usual routine and just started saying horrible, horrible things about their favorite bands and about the festival itself and about them. And that just made it worse. I was given the signal to leave the stage after about 10 minutes and never really got to complete the set.” Bummer. Must feel mighty good to return to L.A. and his monthly Spaceland gig, huh? “Oh yes, it's a good hometown crowd. Some of the local farmers and pharmacists and others who work in our little community come out to the show, and that's always very nice.”

Sun., Sept. 26, 8:30 p.m., 2010

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