A Trump supporter is facing assault charges after she threw a beer can at Uncle Vinnie's Comedy Club in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.
Comedian Ariel Elias was performing her opening set around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night when she delivered her usual material about body image and being a woman.
'Did You Vote for Donald Trump?'
The audience seemed to be having a good time, but she decided to open it up for a Q&A — something Elias does to elicit laughs and work the crowd.
That's when a woman in the rowdy group raised her hand and asked something Elias wasn't ready for: "Did you vote for Donald Trump?"
"Um, fuck," Elias recalled to BuzzFeed News of what she thought in that moment. "I think it was mostly just like, Why are you asking me this? What's your endgame here?"
As video of the encounter shows, the crowd seems uncomfortable with the politics question, and Elias does her best to bat it away with a joke: "Why would you ask me that knowing I'm the only Jew in this room? Are you trying to get me killed?!"
'I Could Tell By Your Jokes You Voted for Biden'
"So you voted for Biden?" the woman yells back.
"I dunno. What does it matter?" Elias responds.
"Yes, you did!" the heckler replies. "I could just tell by your jokes you voted for Biden."
"I can tell by the fact that you're still talking when nobody wants you to that you voted for Trump," Elias responds, evoking cheers and laughter from the crowd.
As the woman complains that the club owner was asking her to stop talking, Elias asks the crowd to make some noise if they want the woman to shut up, and she's soon met with some more very loud cheering.
Elias tries to get back to her routine when a beer can is launched at her, hitting the wall behind her.
"Oh my god!" people in the crowd can be heard shouting.
Elias told BuzzFeed News that she saw the can as soon as it landed — but then made a very fast decision.
"At first I was in shock. Did that really just happen?" she said. "And then I saw the beer can and I was like, I mean, I have to drink this. Like, there's nothing else I can do with this. This is the only way to recover. I have to drink it.
"So I drank it!"
Elias lifts the beer can above her head and drinks what was left inside as the crowd applauds. Watch the clip, which has since gone viral with close to 3 million views, below:
Club Pressing Charges Against the Heckler
Club owner Dino Ibelli told BuzzFeed News that the heckling woman and her male partner, who he said was the one who threw the can, quickly left the venue, but Ibelli said that he had been in touch with local police on Sunday morning after he was able to identify the patrons.
An official from the Point Pleasant Beach Police Department told BuzzFeed News that investigators were at the club Sunday afternoon to collect evidence, which Ibelli said included security footage.
Elias later tweeted, "Fwiw the club is pressing charges against the guy and booked me to come back in April."
