![]() He actually hadn’t thought about that” – but his only solid red line is the existence of a criminal conviction associated with the comedy itself. On one occasion, Witts asked a white comic to stop using the N-word – “I had a quiet word and said it’s upsetting people. If people are constantly worried about possibly of offending a single person in an audience, they will never be funny Andy Shaw “You can’t dictate what people say on stage indeed there’s no way you can prepare for some things that are said on stage, either.” He doesn’t personally endorse all the acts he hosts – Lawrence, who had gigs cancelled for racist tweets about black footballers missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final, has some material he finds “a bit reprehensible” – but Witts sees that as irrelevant. Martin Witts, the Leicester Square theatre’s artistic director, believes every comedy club “should be a free speech comedy club”, and that standup is an art that is almost impossible to police. ![]() ![]() This autumn, Andrew Lawrence will play the Leicester Square theatre, one of London’s best-known comedy venues. While Linehan – whose Father Ted musical was axed as a result of his Twitter campaign against trans-rights activists – has only ever gigged at Comedy Unleashed, Bourke frequently appears at other clubs and O’Reilly will next year embark on a 22-date UK tour. ![]() Welcoming cancelled comedians may be Comedy Unleashed’s calling card, but is it a USP? There are other venues that are willing to host complained-about standups. Photograph: Dymond/Thames/Syco/Rex/Shutterstock Nabil Abdulrashid, whose routines on race relations on Britain’s Got Talent attracted thousands of complaints, which Ofcom did not uphold. On the morning we speak, Shaw tweets an open invitation to TikTok star NoHun, who made the news that week for repeatedly commenting “men can’t get pregnant” under the Instagram posts of a trans man. “If somebody’s cancelled we’ll put them on, on principle and let the audience decide if they’re funny or not,” he says. Shaw makes a point of courting comics who have been lambasted online for expressing particular views. Although the “say-what-I-like” megastars remain Teflon-coated – the likes of Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Dave Chappelle get Netflix specials and play major venues – it is also true that the strata of standups below them have had gigs cancelled for making offensive jokes. These clubs position themselves as a necessary corrective to an over-censorious comedy industry. The “free-thinking” comedy club is cropping up across the pond, too: in March, podcast megastar Joe Rogan – himself no stranger to a backlash thanks to his use of the N-word and antisemitic tropes – opened his Comedy Mothership venue in Austin, Texas, with Roseanne Barr (who was removed from her own sitcom after tweeting racist insults) and Tony Hinchcliffe (who was dropped by his agent for using racial slurs on stage) on the opening lineup. Five years in, its 300-seater London gigs regularly sell out, it has a monthly event in Leeds – which according to co-founder Andy Shaw is booked in for the next two years – and last year embarked on a UK-wide tour, featuring Reginald D Hunter, Geoff Norcott and Tony Law. ![]() Say what you like about Comedy Unleashed (and as free speech advocates, I’m sure they would encourage that), but the demand is clearly there. Comedy Unleashed is also clear about what it won’t tolerate: “nodding along to sermons with wisecracks is out”. Notably, that includes “cancelled” figures who have faced censure for their comic material or social media posts, among them standup Andrew Lawrence and Father Ted writer Graham Linehan – both on the bill tonight – as well as Daniel O’Reilly (otherwise known as Dapper Laughs), Mary Bourke and Leo Kearse. This is not your run-of-the-mill comedy night this is Comedy Unleashed: a rebellion against the “safe, tramline orthodoxy” of the contemporary comedy circuit, according to its website, and a haven for “free-thinking comedians who leave their self-censorship button at the door”. Slightly older than average, perhaps, but I still spot plenty of young couples, and even a teenager or two.īut don’t be fooled. They seem like a fairly typical audience: white, but not exclusively so male, but not overwhelmingly. I t is a blustery evening in early April, and a crowd has gathered in east London’s Bethnal Green to watch a comedy show. ![]()
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