Club refuses to book comic who complained

A Canadian comedian has caused a storm after claiming she was fired from a comedy club after complaining of sexist abuse from the audience.

Christina Walkinshaw was heckled by a group of about eight men chanting: ‘Show us your tits’ when she played the Yuk Yuk’s in Casino Niagara.

She decided not to engage with the hecklers, as the club stresses to the comedians that they should not engage with the audience during their set – but said the fallout from the incident reduced her to tears.

Writing on her blog, Walkinshaw said: ‘Under normal circumstances, I would shoot them a sassy line, and tell them to shut up. But this club sends us all memos, telling us NOT to talk to the crowd, or engage the staff in our acts. So basically, I have two choices. Keep going, or show them my tits. I decide to just keep going. 

‘A few minutes later, they started chanting again, “Show us your bush! Show us your bush! Show us your bush!”

‘All I could do was sigh…stare out into the blinding lights… and keep going… I actually did my full time, believe it or not.’

She said the headliner had tried to get staff to silence the rowdy table, but ‘they wouldn’t’.

Walkinshaw said she did her time, then brought up the issue with the manager of the show backstage, telling told her: ‘Hey, next time some audience members shout “Show us your tits! Show us your bush!” You might want to tell them to be quiet.’

Then the comic burst into tears.

‘My tears seemed to shock her,’ she added. ’At least I didn’t cry on stage, right?’

Walkinshaw nevertheless completed the rest of her weekend engagements at the club.

The heckling happened back in September, but the comic said that she got an email from her agent last week, telling her that the casino would not book her in for any more dates ‘due to an “incident” that happened last time I was there.’

Walkinshaw said she was angry with the casino staff, not club chain Yuk Yuk’s which books the gig – and has promised to fight to have her reinstated at the venue... although she said: ‘ I don’t want to go back there now anyway.’

‘The fact is, they want to treat a comedian like an “employee” of their casino, but they won’t protect us like one,’ she added. ‘I’d be willing to bet all $500 I’m losing by not playing their club, that if a bunch of guys chanted “Show us your bush! Show us your bush!” to a Blackjack dealer, they’d be kicked out.’

The casino have said that they ‘stood by’ their decision not to re-book Walkinshaw, having reviewed the details of the night, including post-show reports filed by their staff.

Since she posted her account of the gig, Walkinshaw’s Facebook page has been filled with fellow comedians promising to boycott the venue

Here she is in front of a better behaved audience:

Published: 23 May 2013