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The Pest of British Comedy

Started by Tony Yeboah, July 03, 2020, 12:54:57 PM

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Tony Yeboah

There's been various outings on Twitter of pervy British comics, it's now getting some mainstream coverage
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8486409/British-comedy-stars-accused-sexual-harassment.html

Hardeep Singh Kohli had an incident behind the scenes on The One Show years ago. Tez Ilyas, George Rigden and Davey Reilly have apologised for their past conduct. Simon Caine has had some vague allegations against him.

A similar thing is happening in British Wrestling. Could become a bigger mainstream story if a household name gets accused. We obviously have to be careful what we post in here but social media is an outlet for accusations that would previously never be published due to fear of libel actions.

Keebleman


sevendaughters

I think there's a new wave of call-outs etc. in lots of micro-scenes. A local music journalist here just got cancelled for a historic episode of blackface and various obnoxious/creepy incidents with women, none of which were criminal but cumulatively seem a bit dodgy. Can't say I know enough about UK stand-up these days but I saw Tez Ilyas opening for Josie Long, which has made me quite surprised here.

lipsink

There was a Times article about Hardeep Singh Kohli last week with more stuff coming out on the comedy circuit of him being a creep.

gilbertharding

He's been known for being handsy for ages. And, of course, a slum landlord.

Luckily, the threat of Singh Kohli appearing on screen has receded considerably in recent years. Perhaps he was stealthily cancelled a while ago.

lipsink

He still did shows at the Edinburgh Stand every years so that will probably not happen anymore also.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: gilbertharding on July 03, 2020, 02:42:45 PM
Luckily, the threat of Singh Kohli appearing on screen has receded considerably in recent years. Perhaps he was stealthily cancelled a while ago.

From what I've seen, that's true - no big cancelling, just nobody wanted to work with him any more. Good.

Brundle-Fly

Shappi Khorsandi talked about bad behavior on the 1990s circuit in a podcast recently.

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/07/01/46415/shappi_khorsandi:_ladette_culture_stopped_us_talking_about_sexual_misconduct

What's happening on the comedy circuit is really interesting – you and I are both from the Nineties where we didn't talk about this stuff. We thought feminism was matching the men pint for pint, and pretending we really enjoyed one-night stands.

'But we had no way of verbalising that actually we didn't want that to happen, because we were meant to just enjoy what the men enjoyed.

'That was what the whole  "ladette" culture sold to us. '


But 'Laddettes' have been around years before Sarah Cox had her first pint. Khorsandi was an intelligent comedian in her early to mid-20s at the height of loathsome Loaded (let's face it, middle class) faux lad/ladette culture, so I'm surprised someone like her wasn't able to make her own decisions about how she conducted her social life. I can't believe her regret of getting pissed after gigs and having flings with strangers can entirely be put down to Chris Evans, The Girly Show and Baddiel & Skinner's Three Lions on your shirt.



Sebastian Cobb

There was a twitter thread from a relatively unknown woman comic describing Kohli being a bit of a creep, nothing major but trying to get her alone and then offering to help her 'break' the comedy scene and her wanting to get away from him. And the suggestion that these stories are ten a penny.

As someone said it sounds like people stopped wanting to work for him. It's not like he's a big personality or money spinner so it's in greedy people's interests to look the other way like with CK or whatever.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: gilbertharding on July 03, 2020, 02:42:45 PM
Luckily, the threat of Singh Kohli appearing on screen has receded considerably in recent years. Perhaps he was stealthily cancelled a while ago.
I was pleased his latest Edinburgh venture shut down after about a year. Nobody wants a craft beer and curry bar run by a pervy asshole. Or possibly by anybody else.

Sebastian Cobb

Paying for overpriced beer and curry is a fools errand given Mosque Kitchen.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: sevendaughters on July 03, 2020, 01:57:14 PM
I think there's a new wave of call-outs etc. in lots of micro-scenes. A local music journalist here just got cancelled for a historic episode of blackface and various obnoxious/creepy incidents with women, none of which were criminal but cumulatively seem a bit dodgy. Can't say I know enough about UK stand-up these days but I saw Tez Ilyas opening for Josie Long, which has made me quite surprised here.

I was surprised by Ilyas's confession, I vaguely knew him from my time on the stand up circuit (enough to say hi, have a brief chat with at least) and he always seemed like a decent guy. A friend did tell me recently that he hit on her once, but it was only in a flirty manner and in no way out of order, she just felt a bit disappointed as she thought they were friends and not potential sexual athletes.


Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 03, 2020, 04:21:21 PM
But 'Laddettes' have been around years before Sarah Cox had her first pint. Khorsandi was an intelligent comedian in her early to mid-20s at the height of loathsome Loaded (let's face it, middle class) faux lad/ladette culture, so I'm surprised someone like her wasn't able to make her own decisions about how she conducted her social life. I can't believe her regret of getting pissed after gigs and having flings with strangers can entirely be put down to Chris Evans, The Girly Show and Baddiel & Skinner's Three Lions on your shirt.
She seems to be talking about the trend. Are you saying that lad / ladette culture wasn't a big deal in the 90s?

king_tubby

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on July 03, 2020, 04:43:26 PM
I was pleased his latest Edinburgh venture shut down after about a year. Nobody wants a craft beer and curry bar run by a pervy asshole. Or possibly by anybody else.

I remember it getting a stellar review from the Guardian's restaurant critic, who would surely have known all about his ways.

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 03, 2020, 04:55:58 PM
Paying for overpriced beer and curry is a fools errand given Mosque Kitchen.

Oh yeah.

jobotic

Only been to Edinburgh Festival once, about 12 years ago. Glad know the Mosque Kitchen is still there. Had it been there for years before that?

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: jobotic on July 03, 2020, 10:13:28 PM
Only been to Edinburgh Festival once, about 12 years ago. Glad know the Mosque Kitchen is still there. Had it been there for years before that?

According to wikipedia it's been around since 2004, but has changed hands, this also explains why there's two of them:

Quote
The Mosque Kitchen (formerly called the Lunch Box) was opened to the public in 2004. It offers takeaway, outdoor tables and catering. The capacity is roughly 80–100. The menu consists of halal South Asian and Middle Eastern food, including various meat and vegetable curries, with rice or naan on the side. Barbecued chicken, shish kebabs and corn on the cob are also available on some days as well as barbecues on Saturdays.[7] The sitting area is specially opened at Iftar time during ramadan for the Muslims opening their fast. In August 2007, The Scotsman newspaper placed the Edinburgh Central Mosque's adjoining restaurant top of their list of Best Festival Food.[8] In Summer 2011, the team who originally ran the Mosque Kitchen left amidst a dispute with the mosque and moved to a more conventional restaurant on Nicolson Square (still called the Mosque Kitchen[9]); the kitchen at the mosque is now run under separate management and operates as 'The Original Mosque Kitchen and Café'.[7]

I'll have been to the 'original' reincarnation, it was great. I think I may have gone at an odd time when they'd finished the catering for the mosque but not-quite teatime. Either way one of the guys that worked there didn't have much to do and was around and chatting with me while I eat. Nice guy, and I quite enjoyed it given even if staff in a resturant are chatty they're usually frantic.

Jake Thingray

He actually posted on here fifteen years ago, calling himself themagoon, to tie in with a now forgotten C4 sitcom he did.

Brundle-Fly

#18
Quote from: Famous Mortimer on July 03, 2020, 07:47:07 PM
She seems to be talking about the trend. Are you saying that lad / ladette culture wasn't a big deal in the 90s?

Yes, it was. We know full well the reasons why 'Lad' culture came about back then (if not, read Taylor Parkes brilliant piece here)

https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/100-Fan-culture/8338-culture-wars

...but I'm not convinced by Shappa that there were all these young women up and down the UK in 1996, hoodwinked into becoming a 'ladette' just to fit in with some kind of nebulous ethos hawked by: Loaded magazine, 'Cool Brittania' or a pissed up Zoe Ball & Co.  When I was at university in the eighties, I knew fellow girl friend students who could drink me under the table and got up to far more nocturnal mischief than me (and as they well should, I must add) but who might these women blame for their bacchanalian and promiscuous behaviour today? Prince? Paula Yates? The Hitman And Her? I think not.

However, if that's SK's miserable experience of the mid-90s comedy scene? Fair enough; she has my complete sympathy. Men can be truly reprehensible and should be kicked into touch for any misconduct of a serious nature, but regrettably, this has always been the way, whatever decade we live in.

I keep hearing 'different times', but clearly, they never really are.





I think you're kind of missing the point that she felt it was essential to embrace that in order to get anywhere as a woman in comedy at that time, and I think that is undoubtedly true and there is still seemingly an expectation that women should fit into a male-dominated space in a lot of the comedy scene.

#20
New paywalled article here if anyone can get past it without giving money to the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/female-comedians-have-whatsapp-blacklist-predatory-men-time/

[Removed by request]

And I haven't listened to it yet, but a guest on Elis and John yesterday spoke about harassment faced by women in comedy: https://twitter.com/sorobotic/status/1279065995458555904?s=21

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: The Always Red Society on July 04, 2020, 07:44:01 AM
I think you're kind of missing the point that she felt it was essential to embrace that in order to get anywhere as a woman in comedy at that time, and I think that is undoubtedly true and there is still seemingly an expectation that women should fit into a male-dominated space in a lot of the comedy scene.

I get that. There has always been a heavy drinking culture in that profession, so I don't see what 'lads/ladettes' has got to do with it. Maybe exacerbated the situation, perhaps? The hellraising all started to gradually change in the 00's when money was being made, although many of the top tier comics stopped drinking or never started: Dan Kitson, Milton Jones, Jack Dee, Tim Vine, Peter Kay, Lucas & Walliams, Jimmy Carr, etc.  However, it was still a boozy world at the coalface of comedy. At the Edinburgh Fringe in the nineties, the venue bars would be packed with pissed up comics sharing stories and moaning about ticket sales. In the past fifteen years, they became quiet lounges full of young comedians sitting alone doing admin on their laptops, sipping fruit juice. That's why I'm slightly surprised to learn recently that sleaziness and sexist behavior is so prevalent in the modern stand up circuit.






lankyguy95

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 04, 2020, 02:47:26 PM
I get that. There has always been a heavy drinking culture in that profession, so I don't see what 'lads/ladettes' has got to do with it. Maybe exacerbated the situation, perhaps? The hellraising all started to gradually change in the 00's when money was being made, although many of the top tier comics stopped drinking or never started: Dan Kitson, Milton Jones, Jack Dee, Tim Vine, Peter Kay, Lucas & Walliams, Jimmy Carr, etc.  However, it was still a boozy world at the coalface of comedy. At the Edinburgh Fringe in the nineties, the venue bars would be packed with pissed up comics sharing stories and moaning about ticket sales. In the past fifteen years, they became quiet lounges full of young comedians sitting alone doing admin on their laptops, sipping fruit juice. That's why I'm slightly surprised to learn recently that sleaziness and sexist behavior is so prevalent in the modern stand up circuit.
Sleaziness and sexist behaviour is just prevalent in the world. I don't think stand up's any worse than any other industry. If you've got thousands of stand ups, then a few of them are going to be sleazy and/or abusive. The important thing is that it doesn't get ignored or brushed over when it does happen.


Brundle-Fly

Quote from: The Always Red Society on July 04, 2020, 06:09:31 PM
This is a good summary of things I think:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/sexual-harassment-exploitation-comedy-456463

Good piece.

I recently heard a story from a close friend in the industry regarding an old massive comedy hero of mine who was helping a starry-eyed newcomer develop a TV script. Eventually, over a series of meetings/ dinners, he began to get pushy subtly drop hints about drastically changing her plotline about the married mentor and his young female protege.  They should absolutely become lovers. It wasn't an overt pass, but apparently his intent was fairly transparent. 

Or was it?

Icehaven

Quote from: lankyguy95 on July 04, 2020, 03:43:44 PM
Sleaziness and sexist behaviour is just prevalent in the world. I don't think stand up's any worse than any other industry.

I dunno, maybe the levels of ego involved in comedy (and it's probably the same across the entertainment industry as a whole) means there's a greater level of entitlement than you'd see among a less self confident, narcissistic group. That, and as that article says there being few avenues of recourse.

BritishHobo

It's depressing how prevalent it is everywhere. There's a bit of a 'theme park' community online and I subscribe to a few people on YouTube because I quite like watching people going around theme parks and talking about them, and onride footage and stuff. That would be a fairly harmless community you'd think, as a bloke, just nice people enjoying theme parks. But this week it's come out that multiple people involved in one of the UK's biggest channels - and biggest is so relative compared to Hollywood or the comedy scene, but still notable, talking a few hundred thousand subscribers - have been preying on girls, teenage girls especially, and fans, for years. Over twenty girls have come out with stories about one guy. There's fucking no community where women can be truly safe, it's disgusting.

lankyguy95

Quote from: icehaven on July 05, 2020, 10:56:59 AM
I dunno, maybe the levels of ego involved in comedy (and it's probably the same across the entertainment industry as a whole) means there's a greater level of entitlement than you'd see among a less self confident, narcissistic group. That, and as that article says there being few avenues of recourse.
Lack of formal recourse is definitely pertinent here. The psychological aspect, I don't know; regardless, because there's no evidence of it being any more rife in comedy and stand up, at least that I know of, it's hard to even guess why it may or may not be more common. I think the important thing being brought to light is the fact that it does happen and doesn't really get dealt with, rather than it being a uniquely prevalent force within British comedy.



holyzombiejesus

#29
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