Jen Kirkman can be sharp, self-aware, smart, and political, but in this story from her early career, she’s mostly naïve and scared of the drunken Long Island yahoos who enjoy a boob cake more than they enjoy her stand-up. Throw in a white mailman who steals Bill Cosby’s routines, a New York still reeling from post-9/11 trauma, an ill-timed Vietnam joke, and an evening that ends in a broom closet, and this amounts to one of the most harrowing Stand Down stories yet. 

Next up: The Sklar Brothers play a corporate Christmas party. 

Did you miss Jen Kirkman's Twitter Q&A last night? Catch it on Storify.