Comic denies claims collated by The Hollywood Reporter

HBO Max has dropped James Veitch’s stand-up special amid claims of rape and sexual assault.

The British comedian is said to deny all the allegations detailed in The Hollywood Reporter last night.

According to the trade paper, more than a dozen women who attended Sarah Lawrence College  have come forward with their stories from their time there. The British comedian attended the New York college as a graduate student between 2008 and 2010 when aged around 30; and the women were between 20 and 22 at the time.

They shared their stories on Facebook, and  said they alerted Team Coco, Conan O’Brien’s production company which shot the special.

HBO Max  told the Hollywood Reporter: ‘We were deeply disturbed to learn of these allegations of unacceptable behaviour by James Veitch and will be removing the special from our platform for now.

And Team Coco say they took the allegations ‘very seriously’ and supported HBO Max's decision.

Whatever the outcome of the investigations into the allegations, they seem certain to derail Veitch’s burgeoning US career. 

He has been in demand since his 2016 TED talk about mischievously dealing with spam emails went viral, attracting.  nearly 62 million views. A follow-up 2017 appearance on Conan also went viral, with almost 27 million YouTube views, and  last year he hosted Bafta’s prestigious Britannia Awards in Los Angeles.

As well as the HBO Max special, which dropped on August 20, Veitch was set to host a talk show on short-form platform Quibi later this year.

Last year he also made the Radio 4 series James Veitch's Contractual Obligation.

Published: 2 Sep 2020