Comedians' show pulled in town with a large Jewish population

A venue has cancelled a Reginald D Hunter show following the antisemitism storm that has blown up at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The news comes after Police Scotland confirmed it was investigating the incident in which two Israeli audience members were booed out of the comedian's show after heckling an anti-Israeli joke.

Now Eastwood Park Theatre, on the outskirts of Glasgow, has pulled the comic’s planned appearance there on September 28.

The venue is in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, home to the largest Jewish religious congregation in Scotland.

East Renfrewshire council, which owns the venue, said: ‘We’ve taken the decision to cancel Eastwood Park Theatre’s scheduled show featuring Reginald D Hunter on Saturday, September 28, due to controversial comments made during a recent performance. All customers who have purchased tickets for this show will receive a full refund.’

Yesterday, Hunter broke his silence over Sunday’s incident at Assembly George Square, saying he ‘regretted’ what happened, but stopping short of an apology.

The couple reportedly left the venue to cries of ‘genocidal maniac', ‘you’re not welcome’ and ‘free Palestine’ after the run-in with Hunter.

The comic called it an ‘unfortunate incident’, saying: ‘As a comedian I do push boundaries in creating humour, it's part of my job. This inevitably creates divided opinions but I am staunchly anti-war and anti-bully. I regret any stress caused to the audience and staff members.’

Daily Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish was in the audience and accused the 55-year-old stand-up  of ‘countenancing a mob mentality and purveying an anti-Semitic trope’.

It kicked off after Hunter spoke about watching a TV documentary about an abusive marriage, and joking: ‘When I saw that, I thought, my God, it’s like being married to Israel.’

The couple then shouted out ‘not funny’, to which the American-born comic replied: ‘You can say it’s not funny to you, but if you say it to a room full of people who laughed, you look foolish.’

Things turned toxic after the pair revealed they were from Israel, with the woman remonstrating with the audience who were booing her. 'Look at you making everyone love Israel even more,’ Cavendish reported Hunter saying sarcastically.

And after the pair left, Hunter told the audience: ‘That tells me that I still got voltage.’

He also recalled trying to read a review of his act on he Jewish Chronicle website, saying: ‘Typical fucking Jews, they won’t tell you anything unless you subscribe.’

The Campaign Against Antisemitism have said they are considering legal action and asked anyone who was there to get in touch.

A spokesperson said: 'The events described at the Edinburgh Fringe are extremely concerning. Comedians are rightly given broad latitude, but they also have a responsibility to their audience.

'Reginald D. Hunter has laughed off his Holocaust jokes and another supposed joke about ‘typical f***ing Jews’ in the past, but watching on and cracking jokes as Jews are hounded out of your show is a sickening low that cannot be disguised as comedy.

'We have seen this before in recent months, and venues must stand extremely firm against this kind of behaviour. Our lawyers are examining this incident.'

Assembly have said they were ‘aware of an audience member choosing to leave’ and said the front-of-house team ‘attended and supported’ them after they left.

Published: 16 Aug 2024