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Comedian Peter Kay halted show at London’s O2 Arena to call out audience members causing a disturbance, warning them that security would remove anyone kicking off
Peter Kay threatens to kick audience members out of show
Comedian Peter Kay threatened to kick audience members out of his show at London’s 02 Arena on Thursday evening. The 51-year-old comedian, who was slammed earlier this year for mocking a heckling audience member after comparing her to Emmerdale star Lisa Riley, poked fun at the criticism he faced as he once again halted his latest show to make an example of one of his fans.
Addressing the distracting fans during his show in London tonight, Peter halted his performance to call out the noisy fan in question. Addressing the crowds, he asked: “Is it them in that box? Is that them? Who is it? Eh, it’s you monkeys there. Now then, what are we going to do with you now? These people in this area now, do any of you look like Lisa Riley? No, alright,” he joked as the crowd erupted into laughter.
Peter then jokingly dared the audience member to jump from their box. “Jump, go on. See if you bounce.” Peter then asked the audience if the two audience members were annoying them, before they crowds cheered to signify that they were. He asked: “So what are we going to do about this. I’m not getting involved this time. Please, the lovely people in that area, would you like to raise your hands if those gentlemen are p****ing you off.”
“I’m going to leave it to the security team to go up there and sort it out,” he joked. “Nah, you can carry on, but if you’re rambunctious, you’re going home early… you naughty boys.”
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, an audience member told: “Peter waded in as the crowd was audibly kicking off due to some disagreement in the crowd. He poked fun at the idea of kicking them out, then dished out the issue to his security.
“But he did reference it again twice in the show as they kept shouting, comparing it to a ‘boot sale’ at one point. It seemed like the audience in the area wanted him to kick the person out due to all the drama.”
Last month, Peter said he had “no choice” but to ask security to eject two hecklers at his show because their “repeated disruptions” made it “impossible to continue”. At the time, the comedian asked staff at Manchester’s AO Arena to remove a man who shouted “Garlic bread”, his Phoenix Nights catchphrase, before telling them to throw out a woman who kept calling his name. At the time he dubbed her Lisa Riley because of her resemblance to the actress.
In his statement at the time Kay was adamant the two people he threw out had been “disrupting from the very start”. Following a backlash and complaints from the two people, he explained in a statement: “I then tried to ignore them, hoping they’d settle down, but when the disruption persisted into the second half of the show, I asked the audience around them if they were being bothered by the noise. They all shouted ‘yes,’ and when I asked for a show of hands, at least 40 people raised theirs.
“At that point, I had no choice but to take action. The lady who was escorted out did bear a striking resemblance to Lisa Riley, though I don’t see how that’s an insult.” He said he had only kicked out one other person in the previous 114 shows of his three-year tour.
“As a comedian, you never want to eject anyone, but when repeated disruptions make it impossible to continue, it’s important to consider the experience of the rest of the audience, who’ve paid to see a show without interruption,” he added.
After Riley made headlines, she shared a post on her Instagram page, which suggested that she saw the funny side to the situation. Riley shared an image that read: “Keep calm and laugh,” adding as a caption: “It’s a laugh, it’s funny!”
But Myar Curran, 25, who was the butt of the ‘Lisa Riley’ comment said on Good Morning Britain she will never watch the comedian again. She said: “I didn’t mean to cause any harm, I was just showing my love as he kicked someone out but he obviously didn’t like it. I feel like what I said was not abusive or aggressive – it wasn’t anti-social and I wasn’t drunk,’ she added. “I was just standing up chanting “we love you Peter, we do”. It’s just been a bit over the top, his reaction.”
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