There’s often a simmering rage between comedians and their audiences on the fringe. but this year there are reports that in some cases it has spilled over into real violence. At the Smirnoff Underbelly, no doubt aided by the venue’s sponsor drink or other beverages, there has been not one but two occasions when stand-up comedians have challenged hecklers to put (‘em) up or shut up….
At the (perhaps appropriately titled) Free Beer Show, the MC Ray Peacock got the better of his assailant.
Says Peacock, “There was a young lad at the front and he went a step too far. Sometimes you have someone who wants to be part of the show.” Evidently the young man had already gone too far by admitting to being a Conservative Party agent, and after exchanging words about the 1984 Miners’ Strike, Peackock invited him onto the stage, and pulled his shirt off. “I panicked because he was quite a muscly lad. I’ve got a six-pack as well, but it’s more hidden. I like to keep it warm. He charged at me, but I am very quick for a man of my size and I was able to dodge him. As he went past I clipped him on the back of the head. He was more surprised than anything. He fell over and he was beginning to get up, so I put my foot on his head… He lay there for quite a while…. Once he realised he was beat, he was beat. There was a degree of humiliation.”
Meanwhile another comedian at the same venue, Andrew Lawrence, had to be rescued by three members of the venue’s staff on the same night when he was knocked to the ground by one of his heckers. Apparently, he had issued a direct challenge to the vociferous audience. According the venue’s marketing manager Penny Sims, “he was being heckled and said, ‘if you don’t like what I’m doing here come up and fight me’.” And someone took him up on the challenge: “His shirt was ripped open, but it looked worse than it was because the shirt had poppers rather than buttons.”
