Side by side placement of ukranian flag and palestinian flag

[TakeMe2Insanity]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/14/soho-theatre-bans-comedian-paul-currie-jewish-audience-members

Interesting situation: side by side placement of the flags.

It’s the bit, should a person on stage start arguing with the crowd? Should members of the audience object to flags on stage?

If a Palestinian told you that they considered this man's behaviour as racist, would you accept that it was therefore racist?

What behaviour was racist? Not standing for a flag?

For the hundredth time, he was not asked to stand for the flag.

He says that he'd enjoyed the show until the Palestinian flag was brought out and then argued with the comedian that it was wrong to compare it to Ukraine.

If that behaviour was deemed racist by a Palestinian, should we accept without question that he was racist, in the same way you saw we should about antisemetism?

As usual on here, a pro-Palestinian is accused of something so straight away an Israeli is accused of the exact same thing but in reverse.

The audience member did nothing wrong. He was not racist because he didn't fucking say or do anything! He didn't argue with the "comedian", the "comedian" argued with him. Why are you using the victim in this situation to somehow try and score a point? Why can't you just accept that Paul Currie behaved despicably and leave it at that? No buts needed. Regardless of the audience members religion, he was a victim of intimidation and harassment. Just condemn it and move on.

I did say that he behaved unacceptably, several times in fact. He was offensive and abusive.

I was taking issue with the 'if I say it's antisemetic it is' given how selectively that principle is used. Being a member of a group gives you insight but doesn't make your opinion sacrosanct. Just because I feel something is sexism, doesn't mean it is, just because in a woman.

I don't think the man in the audience was racist. I don't think the comedian was antisemitic.

@quantumbutterfly

"Lord of the flies comes to mind."

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Nuremberg rallies comes to my mind.

@Babyboomtastic why was the man racist? That's not a brilliant comparison tbh.

He's not IMO.

But the Comedian wasn't antisemetic either. Awful, but not antisemetic IMO.

My point is that someone claiming 'I am from x group and this is racist/sexist/transphobic/antisemetic' should be listened to, but their opinion isn't determinative.

An eye witness account from an audience member who was in the front row during the incident.

They claim that the man made "overtly racist" statements including saying "we hate that flag and we hate you for using it"

According to this audience member this is what prompted the comedian to tell the man to leave.

Sorry I attached the wrong photo to the post. Here is the correct one.

Do you have something that's readable instead of a blurry screenshot of an instagram story?

@DreamVortex Apologies, it's not blurry on my phone but has become blurry once uploaded. If you are interested in reading it you can find it on @paulcurriecomedian on Instagram. It's on his stories.

@inkworks273 how does Paul Currie promote peace and inclusivity by haranguing an audience member and throwing them out? I’m sorry, I just don’t buy this. It doesn’t match any of the other accounts so far.

This was posted 6 hours ago on Paul Curries Instagram page by someone who attended the show...

The comedian has also put out a request for audience members who were there that night to send eye witness statements of what they saw. Sounds like he is trying to gather evidence to dispute the man's version of events.

I hope people can get to the bottom of this.

Understandable. I would imagine you are pumped up on adrenaline when you are performing like that so maybe he doesn't even trust his own version of events. I think it's important for everyone to have a fair hearing in this situation, would hate to see someone lose their career without proper scrutiny of what exactly happened

I agree. If it turns out that the comedian is in the wrong then he should face consequences. I just think it is important to have all the facts before piling on.

Seeing as some of his shows are being cancelled, there's been a financial impact due to the allegations.

I imagine he has engaged a lawyer and is exploring his legal options. The unequivocal statement put out by the Soho Theatre could prove costly for them if the allegations are unfounded.

I think anyone who goes to a "surrealist dadaesque non-verbal comedy session" deserves whatever they get - if only PC could have shut up for a bit longer, he wouldn't be in all this trouble.

Just to be clear, he wasn't calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine? I wonder why, given his lived experiences in Belfast? And PC will know that in general the Russians, Iranians and Chinese are backing Hamas, while the West (including Ukraine, but excluding Ireland) are backing Israel, so it is a bit odd to put the flags together.

I guess maybe that’s the point? He’s against all types of war/occupation /killing of innocent people? I think I agree with you on the 1st sentence. It does seem that ‘recollections may vary’. Maybe a bit of a knee jerk reaction for the theatre? Who knows. I think they need to investigate properly and gather info from the plenty of eye whitenesses.

Sounds like extreme male ego to get a two minutes hate going for audience members who don't give you a standing ovation. Really sick behaviour, no one should want to live in a society based on mob intimidation. But all of that's been said, I just wanted to add this. I didn't RTFT as it got repetitive, so apologies if similar has already been posted.

I didn't realise at first that there was no video of the incident, but found this when I went looking:

Can't bring myself to watch the whole thing, but immediately noticed a few interesting things about it:

1. His shows seem to be based around a lot of very hyped up audience interaction
2. Much of that interaction is quite uncomfortably boundary pushing. See 4.59, 10.52 and 12.30 for some moments that make my skin crawl (I think in one of these he returns to a woman he has previous singled out in a way that makes it extra creepy).
3. it's not at all funny to watch online, and I wouldn't want to go to something like this, but I can see why people are laughing. They're being bombarded by loud music, absurdity, the boundary-pushing, and participating in silly skits that mean overcoming social inhibitions. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that as a form of entertainment (I wouldn't call it comedy), but I can see why at a show of his there was a mob ready to join in with a hysterical scapegoating. It makes his actions worse that his whole thing is evoking those weird group emotions, that he then sicced that on a single person in the front row.

Actually it sounds more like he is trying to get sympathetic audience members to put out more favourable statements in support of him in order to save his career.

The most impartial source of information of the events that occurred i can think of is Soho Theatre themselves:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68290650.amp

@BelleHathor

"Seeing as some of his shows are being cancelled, there's been a financial impact due to the allegations.

I imagine he has engaged a lawyer and is exploring his legal options. The unequivocal statement put out by the Soho Theatre could prove costly for them if the allegations are unfounded"

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Which is why the Soho Theatre would have thought long and hard about what they had put in their statement.

If there is an impact on his career and finances for his anti semitism then my sympathy is somewhat absent.

There is absolutely no evidence this poster even attended the show.

The most credible account of what actually happened must be from the Soho Theatre itself.