Punter had booked in to see stand-up to help her baby along

A comic made a pregnant woman laugh so hard during his gig that her waters broke.

The woman, called Olivia, went to last night’s gig in Melbourne, Australia, precisely because she was nine days overdue, and hoped to induce her baby though laughter.

And during the second half of the gig she was, indeed, so entertained by host Ethan Cavanagh, pictured, that she went into labour – dashing out of the venue and straight to hospital.

The stand-up told Chortle how the ‘chaotic’ night unfolded at the weekly Local Laughs night in the suburb of St Kilda.

He said: ‘I was hosting, and there was this super-friendly couple in the front row. I chatted to them a little bit early on, they were both lawyers, I did think she might have been pregnant but naturally figured it best not to ask in case I got it wrong and made fast enemies at the start of the gig.

‘I opened the second half of the show with a set about my property manager Brenton, and how that's a terrible name for any person to have. They were laughing along plenty, and then all of a sudden they stood up and dashed out of the venue, faster than I could ask them where they were off to. 

‘Everyone was a bit shocked, including me because they seemed to be having a great time up till then. I made a quip about them clearly being landlords and the promoter yelled "it's pregnancy stuff!" from the sidelines.’

He said that another comic spoke to the couple outside as they waited fro their Uber to the hospital, and they explained they had booked into see some comedy in the hope that a good laugh might get things moving. 

Olivia contacted Cavanagh on Instagram today and said  she was thrilled at how things turned out, because she had an induction booked for tonight and it's apparently much less painful to go into labour naturally.

She joked that she'd name the baby after the comic, who replied: ‘I told her so long as it's not Brenton I'm happy.’

Local Laughs promoter Janet McLeod said Cavanagh would be dubbed ’the babymaker’ following the incident. 

She said she knew about their condition as she chatted to them before the show about a parent-and-baby session she hosts at the State Library Victoria called Babybounce.

McLeod explained: ‘When they jumped up suddenly mid-show and dashed past me she leaned in and said "Water's broken!". I whispered back "See you at the library".'

In 2015, Michael McIntyre made a woman laugh so hard during his gig at the O2 in London, she gave birth six weeks early

Published: 8 Oct 2024