It’s a comedian’s wet dream: to turn the heckles back on the heckler. That’s what the once-comedian-now-mayoral-candidate Steve Berke is doing to Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson.
Berke announced this week that he has video of Wolfson repeatedly calling him an “asshole” from the crowd at a recent mayoral debate hosted by the West Avenue Neighborhood Association.
“What a disrespectful embarrassment to our commission,” Berke wrote on a global Facebook post immediately after the debate.
“He thought he was being sly, but he didn’t know that I had one of my cameras focused on him while he was yelling it,” Berke said on the post.
Berke is documenting his run for office in a piece he hopes will expose the well-funded special interests behind Miami Beach politics.
Earlier this year he tried to raise $190,000 on Kickstarter to fund his own documentary. He fell short by only raising $120,614.
Now, Berke has teamed up with MTV to document his run. Because the video belonged to the external production agency, it was not immediately released, but according to postings by Berke that will change and the video will be posted soon.
Wolfson confirmed the outburst to the Herald’s David Smiley. “I stand by my description of Berke,” he told the education reporter.
Wolfson is not shy with his stances. Recently he dropped an F bomb in a cover story on the city’s towing companies written by the NewTimes’ Francisco Alvarado.
At a recent Commission Group 3 debate, Wolfson was observed loudly clapping and whooping it up when a candidate would land a good dig on Mayor and Commission Candidate Matti Bower. He and the mayor have had plenty of war of words in public on the dais.
When the video does come out, expect it to be around for a while according to Berke says he’ll trout it out whenever Wolfson makes another run.
“I’ll hold onto that video and wait to release it at just the right time (perhaps the next time he runs for office, or when he tries to become MB’s City Attorney.)” Berke wrote on social media.
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