Jimmy Carr isn’t afraid to be ruthless over removing audience members who “don’t add value” to his show when things get rowdy. However, the comedian has revealed they have to truly overstep the line before he’ll kick them out and that he sees a huge difference between constructive contribution and “random drunken nonsense”.
Referencing his fellow comic Peter Kay, who’s been described by some fans lately as overly sensitive, he said: “The difference between me and Peter Kay is I don’t care.” Jimmy added frankly: “If they get kicked out, they get kicked out for a reason…” He told Capital Breakfast radio hosts Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby that he undoubtedly loves a “good heckle” and will even deliberately “leave enough space” in his show so that audience members can “join in”.
In fact, his reaction now, rather than worrying that he’ll be insulted, is simply: “Bring it!” However, he confirmed during his latest interview that he feels no fear about a backlash if he does need to eject anyone. Referring to an incident in February when Peter kicked three revellers out of a Manchester show, he mused: “I think Peter Kay is a national treasure, he’s a wonderful, wonderful man, and he’s incredibly likeable – but there’s 16,000 people in a room, and he had to get rid of some people who were getting in the way of the evening. His duty is to the 16,000 people who have booked a hotel, and they’ve bought a ticket and they’re there at the arena to watch the show.”
One heckler had allegedly been removed for merely yelling out Peter’s catchphrase “Garlic bread”, while another had simply shouted: “We love you, Peter!”, leading to fan claiming that the 51-year-old funnyman was overly fragile. Jimmy added: “We all know there’s a huge difference between shouting out something that’s disruptive and repetitive and annoying, and joining in and adding value.”
After he quipped that, unlike Peter, he doesn’t care about insults and will only send people packing for a good reason, Jordan teased: “You go for the jugular!” Earlier this month, after one audience member seemingly aimed a punch at another for repeatedly disrupting the first 30 minutes of his show, Jimmy took action.
He told him: “You’re blind drunk, you’re probably on cocaine, so I’ll give you three choices. You can either get up and leave, go away and come back and see me again, or you can sit there, refuse to go and I’ll get security.” The man was ejected after continuing to refuse to budge, prompting a wave of cheers from the audience. One onlooker, who was quoted in the Daily Mail, joked: “There must be something in the water at these comedy gigs at the moment!”
