Simon Cain loses two months' work after stage attack

A comedian has lost two months’ work after a violent heckler attacked him on stage, breaking his leg.

Simon Cain says he was left ‘mentally scarred’ after a man in the audience 'side-swiped’ him at a pub in Bacup, Lancashire.

The 49-year-old also believes high-profile stage attacks, such as Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, have emboldened hecklers.

He told ITV News: ‘I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I can’t believe what happened.’

The heckler proved problematic even before the gig started, as he had to tell him to stop messing about with the microphone.

Then, during the show, the man ‘was stood by the fruit machines heckling me,’ Cain recalled. ‘I gave him something back so he side-swiped me, kicked my leg and broke my tibia.

‘I’ve never been hit so hard in my life, the pain was excruciating. He was massive, he made Dolph Lundgren look like one of the Seven Dwarves. I can’t repeat the line I gave back to him….

Cain – who describes himself in publicity as ‘one of the UK’s most brutal comedians’ – said he feared for his safety so much that he drove the two hours back to his Billingham home with a broken leg ‘and crawled out of the car crying’. He went to hospital the next day. 

Immediately after the assault, he wrote on Facebook:’ At a venue that any performer plays at, he should be safe in his work. I’m a comedian - if you can’t take a joke and enjoy for what it is, then don’t come. This has caused myself and my wife and kids financial difficulties as I won’t be able to work for foreseeable future and also mental health stress.’

And he told ITV. ‘My material is not for the easily offended. This guy was heckling and if you heckle a comedian, you expect something back. [But] now I’m thinking "can I really go back… and perform?"’

Watch the ITV report here.

Published: 25 Aug 2022