Comedy club punters hit by falling grubs

Punters walked out of a comedy club in disgust after maggots started falling from the ceiling.

The Jongleurs show at Oceana nightclub in Nottingham on Friday night descended into chaos as the grubs rained down on the front rows from the air conditioning.

Sean D, who was sitting in the front row, told Chortle: ‘I felt something hit my arm which I thought was spit from the comic. I wiped my arm and thought nothing of it. Then what I thought was a drip of water passed by my head; then something hit my head; then the couple on the next table started to point at the floor where I could see maggots wriggling.

‘At first I thought the hecklers were throwing them, but then another fell and on and on it went to the point where the comic asked if anything could be done to stop it happening.

‘He was told to carry on, but the maggots kept dropping so he walked off and they called a break. They moved the audience back to other tables and gave us a cheap bottle of perry wine... Lambrini basically. The other acts came on while the maggots continued to drop from the air ventilation grid above the stage onto the comics. People left in droves – it was a purely awful, awful night!’

Another audience member, Emma G, posted her disgust on Trip Advisor.

She stared by criticising the food and the entertainment ‘basically a slagging match between [the compere] and a group of guys who were being ridiculously rude, which made the atmosphere edgy.’

The she added: ‘Something small fell from the ceiling. At first I thought it was water dripping from the air con unit above us and wondered why the people on the front row were getting tetchy, however … we soon discovered that it wasn't water at all. It was small, breathing and live maggots falling into the laps of the audience! This absolutely disgusted us knowing we had just eaten a meal here.

‘Then when the comedian cracked on to what was happening and asked the DJ if something was going to get done, he got told to carry on the show! In the end he walked off the stage, also disgusted and said he refused to stand there with maggots falling on him any longer. By this point that we didn't want to sit around for the final part and decided to leave’.

A statement from Jongleurs and Oceana said: 'Jongleurs is all about giving people a great comedy experience and we can only apologise that we fell short on this occasion.

'We accept there was a minor issue with the air conditioning, which was completely out of our control, and has since been rectified. However, we would like to stress that the vast majority of the audience enjoyed the evening and stayed for the duration of the show.'

Published: 23 Jul 2014