Mean Girls star Daniel Franzese sparked fan fears after fleeing a star-studded comedy show in the middle of his set on Tuesday.
The actor, 48, who played high school student Damian in Tina Fey‘s hit 2004 comedy Mean Girls alongside Lindsay Lohan, was booked to perform at LA’s The Comedy Store alongside huge names including Arsenio Hall, Jay Leno and Chelsea Handler.
However, Franzese’s set fell completely flat, with the actor abruptly running off stage in the middle of his set and not returning, an insider exclusively revealed to The Daily Mail.
Franzese’s set started off strong with quips about Tom Cruise starring in a Scientology movie and the actor claiming the ‘number one horror movie in West Hollywood right now is syphilis’ – but the audience reaction quickly died off.
The star quickly moved onto anecdotes of his mom’s recent and first trip to California, his Italian roots and their experience seeing Ryan Gosling in a convertible in LA, yet failed to win over the crowd – with an attendee revealing Franzese was ‘painful’ to watch and ‘dying onstage.’
During one excruciating moment, Franzese said he would ‘act out all of the Paranormal Activity’ movies, saying ‘OK, and only to be fair, there’s 27 Paranormal Activities because they made them for $27 and they made $27 million.
Mean Girls star Daniel Franzese sparked fan fears after fleeing a star-studded comedy show in the middle of his set on Tuesday – pictured as Damian in the 2004 film with Lindsay Lohan
The actor, 48, who played high school student Damian in Tina Fey’s hit 2004 comedy Mean Girls alongside Lindsay Lohan , was booked to perform at LA’s The Comedy Store alongside huge names including Arsenio Hall, Jay Leno and Chelsea Handler – pictured 2024
‘This is like a poltergeist movie that they make and it’s made with GoPro. Does a GoPro here, here, here and here, OK.’
As the crowd grew silent, Franzese appeared flustered and stopped midway through his next anecdote and only 11 minutes into his 15-minute set, saying, ‘I recently came back from New York.
‘I’d like to go to New York all the time because my family’s there, but I’m Italian and I’m from Brooklyn and… oh s**t.
‘Hold on a second. I’m sorry.’
He then called for host Keenan, saying, ‘Jessica Keenan, can you come out here real quick? You guys give it up for Jessica Keenan. I’m sorry, I gotta go’ – before running behind a curtain.
An attendee told The Daily Mail: ‘It was painful to watch because he had just followed some legendary names. And his jokes about his mother just didn’t land with the audience.
‘He was very nervous and there was a point where there was zero laughter from the audience. He seemed to be cuing up for a joke when he suddenly turned around and called into the back stage for the host, Jessica Keenan, to come back on stage.
‘And then he just ran off back behind the curtain. Keenan came back into the stage and looked as shocked and perplexed as the members of the audience.
However, Franzese’s set fell completely flat, with the actor abruptly running off stage in the middle of his set and not returning, an insider exclusively revealed to The Daily Mail – pictured with Chelsea Handler and host Jessica Keenan ahead of the show
As the crowd grew silent, Franzese appeared flustered and stopped midway through his next anecdote and only 11 minutes into his 15 minute set, saying, ‘oh s**t. ‘Hold on a second. I’m sorry’ – pictured with Lohan and Lizzy Caplan in Mean Girls
Franzese did not address the stage drama later that night as he posted a selfie
‘I feel so bad for him. He had to follow some comedic legends- Damon Wayans, Deon Cole, Arsenio Hall, Chelsea Handler, Jay Leno! Even Pauly Shore killed it.
‘By the time Daniel got on stage, a third of the audience had already left, but even that couldn’t save his set.’
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Franzese and The Comedy Store for comment and has yet to hear back.
Franzese is best known for his fan favorite character Damian, who is best friends with Kady (Lindsay Lohan) and joins her in plotting to take Regina George (Rachel McAdams) down.
In 2024 he reflected on filming the now-iconic 2004 movie, and revealed which famous lines he improvised on set.
‘I’m an improv guy, I had a little bit of freedom. The “I want my pink shirt back” line was improvised on set and was something I was allowed to do”,’ he said.
‘[Tina] allowed us to do some things. I think in the script I think it was my grandma takes her wig off when she’s drunk, but I mentioned my Nana in all my films so she allowed to change that to Nana.’
Speaking about nabbing the iconic role, the actor admitted he was quite ‘awkward’ during the audition process but revealed exactly how he won Tina and the producers over.
‘I met Tina in the lobby and Amanda was there and she was choosing between two shirts, like the maroon and tan shirt. She was like “I don’t know which one I should go to” and I was like, “I’d go with the Merlot” and she was like “oh!”.’
‘[Tina] was like “oh I thought you just worked here, I didn’t know you were auditioning, now I’m excited, go!”. I had a really good opening walking in the door. This has just been the gift that keeps on giving, it’s amazing that everyone still identifies with this movie so many years later.’
In April 2014, Franzese publicly came out in an open letter to his Mean Girls character that he shared to mark the 10th anniversary of the film’s release.
He said that he was inspired to come out after reading a touching note from a fan who thanked him for his positive portrayal of a LGBTQ character in the film.
‘And to me, that was really impactful because that’s all I was missing,’ Daniel said. ‘Like, I was just missing one person that told me that I could do that. I could be who I want to be and do what I want to do.’
In 2022, Franzese revealed he had put himself into gay conversion therapy with the goal of changing his sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.
The comedian recalled that there were gay and lesbian members in his Catholic and Pentecostal Christian family and that homosexuality was ‘lovingly tolerated.’
However, he admitted that ‘it was the world around’ him and growing up around people from less tolerant families that ‘made me feel that being gay was not OK.’
The performer told the outlet that he sought help from his grandmother who consulted her pastor.
‘I needed help. I didn’t want to be gay. I didn’t know what to do,’ he said.
He was eventually connected with a conversion therapist who he met for six months.
‘I went to one-on-one therapy sessions with a person who was trying to change me straight and make me pray the gay away and alienate all my allies,’ he explained.
The New York City native said that he felt ‘brainwashed’ into cutting off ties with his supportive mother during the process.
Years later, the actor was cast as openly gay high school student Damian.
