Comedian Steve Brown Responds To Onstage Attack Viral Video

Comedian Steve Brown's Sunday stand-up performance was cut short after he called out a man "staring into space" in the crowd. But instead of any back-and-forth banter or verbal heckling, the man came onstage and attacked Brown using both his microphone stand and stage stool.

Update: The attacker's name is "Marvin" according to TMZ, and he managed to flee the Columbia, S.C., comedy club after causing more than $400 in damages and punching a security guard at the venue, Columbia police say.

Video from Tumika La'Sha has gone viral from the Columbia, South Carolina, show in which comic Steve Brown was attacked by the man as members of the audience finally break up the fight after nearly a minute of the attempt to beat Brown with the mic and stool he was previously using.

Brown said he is baffled by the attack and that the show was "going really, really well" and that in an effort to engage his audience he looked out and made eye contact with the man in the crowd and attempted to address him. Brown told TMZ it appeared his attacker was "having the time of his life" just before the violent outburst.

Brown says that later in the set he asked the man, who now appeared "dazed," what was wrong -- and the man followed that up by slapping a woman sitting by him in the audience and then attacking him onstage.

Brown responded to TMZ Tuesday, showing off several bandages on his left arms and wrist that he said were from "lacerations" caused by the audience member throwing the mic stand and stool. The venue's security failed to intervene, although Brown said one member of the security team initially was able to restrain the crazy audience member.

"I saw the guy was getting up from the table. So, when the comedian said, 'This ain't what you want.' The guy was coming toward him and trying to get to the stage. He was trying to keep the guy off. The guy came around toward my table and jumped over my table to get to the stage," Tumika La'Sha told KTRK-TV.

Asked if he would press charges against the man in the crowd, who remains unidentified Tuesday, Brown said he wasn't sure but that he'd prefer to just talk to him and find out what was so troubling about the set.