Making a drama out of a comedy: Pleasance, Sadowitz and free speech

WAS THE PLEASANCE RIGHT TO CANCEL SECOND SADOWICZ SHOW?

THE ROW over the cancellation of Jerry Sadowwitz’s show at the EICC shows no sign of abating.

The Pleasance axed the controversial comedian’s second show at the venue following ‘an unprecedented number of complaints’. Pleasance chose not to go into further detail about the nature of the complaints following the cancellation of Saturday’s show.

However in a further statement yesterday, The Pleasance said: “We became immediately aware of content that was considered, among other things, extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny.

“We will not associate with content which attacks people’s dignity and the language used on stage was, in our view, completely unacceptable.

“We received an unprecedented number of complaints that could not be ignored and we had a duty to respond.”

Late last night Sadowicz, a veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, tweeted:

It seems incredible that any Scottish venue would be unaware of the controversial nature of Jerry Sadowitz’s humour – it’s not as if he’s some unknown new kid on the block!

If Jerry Sadowitz’s brand of humour ‘does not align with the Pleasance values’ why book him in the first place?