A heckler can really throw a curveball into your set, it is infinitely important when engaged with a heckler to "repeat" what they say into the mic, for the purpose of letting the rest of the crowd hear what he said . Reason being , you are naturally going to respond with to what he says , having repeated it will get the crowd on your side when you strike back , nobody likes a heckler so you can get away with some pretty cheesy comebacks , a stock example would be "I don't go to your job and mess with you" insert your own twist to that , replace job with something visual about the heckler and replace the end with something more to the point , example - in the event that the heckler is a biker "I don't go to your biker weekends and yell at you when you guys are jerkin each other off" ... again , I must double stamp that this is a very stock comeback you want to be a little more creative than that , have some guns in your holster ----------- the best defence is a good offense , if your jokes are funny there should be no reason a heckler would mess with you , hit em hard , hit em fast , and keep them in the air for as long as you can. Figure out which of your jokes are the quickest and have the most broad range, these are the jokes you want to lead with , break the ice , let them know a little about who you are and what kind of comic you are within the first 2 minutes , then after you've got em on your side you can bring the darker edgier jokes , catering to the audience this way while staying true to your values as a comedian is the best form of prevention with hecklers ---------- if you must engage , use their own stupidity against them , just start talking to them, and let them bury themselves , sometimes a simple "where do you work" will be enough to open up something you can rib them for , best case scenario would be if you already had a joke about that field ------ that's my advice