VIDEO: Contestant takes rejection badly...

Comedian Andrew Ryan has been attacked on stage by a gong show contestant who’d been booed off.

Would-be stand-up Phil Gerard threw a pint at compere Ryan after the audience voted him off at the combative new act night at the Manchester Comedy Store last night.

Gerard had been heckling Ryan throughout the show, and when his turn came to face the audience, things went awry.

Ryan, who had not previously hosted the King Gong show, fumbled Gerard’s introduction by announcing him one act too soon – but since he had already arrived on stage, he was allowed to do his set.

Things then went further awry when he bellowed at the crowd: ‘Ladies and gents! I’m Phil Gerard and I’m a pisshead. Give it up you’re getting ruined tonight!’

When little response came from the audience, he said: ‘Oh, fuck you all’ and started a rambling, incoherent story about getting ‘wasted’ and thrown out of a local nightclub.

Judges put up their red cards, and Ryan gonged him off.

Gerard then tried – and failed – to get the microphone in the stand, pointed aggressively at the compere, then marched off stage.

Then, when Ryan’s back was turned, Gerard threw his plastic pint glass half-full of beer, hitting him in on the side and bouncing on to his head. Then security staff swooped and led Gerard out of the venue.

While settling the audience down, Ryan referred to the video of Jim Jefferies being punched on stage at the same club in 2007, which went viral. ‘This better go on YouTube so I can get thousands of hits,’ he said. ‘My career is going really well at the moment, I do need to be bottled to get attention.’

Ryan told Chortle that Gerard had been identified as a ‘lively character’ before the night started, when he was boasting about his chances, ‘He was being cocky, saying he had 4 minutes and  20 seconds of jokes and other 40 seconds was for laughter and he was going to win the gong,’ he compere said. ‘He was booked to go on in the second half. He heckled me a few times then he went outside for a bit.’

Gerard was not the only person ejected from the venue last night. Ryan asked for another man to be thrown out along with the failed Gong Show contestant. ‘It was a judge from the first half who I took the card off after the break as he was playing on his phone and not watching the acts,’ Ryan explained. ‘He was arguing that Gerard  should be given more time!’

As bouncers led the former judge out, he protested: 'It was a joke. I thought this was the Comedy Store not the fucking...’ before losing his train of thought and following up with something unintelligible.

Ryan added: ‘I also had to kick out another act out who was gonged after one minute, but came back on stage and wanted another go. Security removed him.’

But he said the incidents won't put him off, saying: ‘ It was my first time hosting the gong and I loved it!’

Here is the footage of the incident.

Published: 8 Jul 2013