Peter Kay ‘promised not to kick out’ any audience members from his Birmingham gig last night after his last performance was disrupted by three hecklers.
The comedian, 51, had come fire following his Manchester gig earlier this month after ordering one audience member to be removed for continually yelling ‘garlic bread’.
Warehouse driver Philip Peters, 54, and his son, 26, claimed they were treated ‘like terrorists’ by security staff after others claimed they had been ‘spoiling the show’.
Seconds later, Myar Curran, 25, was also removed from the audience after shouting, ‘We love you, Peter.’
As she was being escorted down the stairs Mr Kay made a jibe about the women’s weight and shouted ‘Go on, off you go Lisa Riley’, in reference to the Emmerdale actress.
Miss Curran subsequently branded Mr Kay a ‘bully’ while Mr Peters called for an apology from the comic after claiming he had been treated like a ‘rag doll’ when his only crime was saying ‘garlic bread’.
Responding to the hecklers, however, Mr Kay, who is making a jubilant return to stage after a five-year break said: ‘There comes a point when dealing with repeated hecklers simply isn’t enough. It’s not something you ever want to do but it becomes a point when it’s no longer fair to everyone around.’
Last night, however, Mr Kay promised to turn over a new leaf, making light of the situation and pledging not to remove anyone from the crowd.
Speaking at the Birmingham NEC, the comic told the crowd: ‘Good evening, how are you? Can I just say thank you very, very much for coming tonight? I really do appreciate it. Thank you.
‘Some of you have been waiting years for this and I hope you enjoy it, I really do.
‘So I promise I won’t throw anyone out. I hope you have a good time. Well unless you f***ing start – I’m only kidding.’
Later on, while a microphone was passed around the arena to those audience members who wanted to get involved, Peter made reference to the comparison he made in Manchester to one woman who looked like Lisa Riley.
Speaking to a woman who had been to his show four times already, Mr Kay quips: ‘You’re kidding? Thank god you don’t look like Lisa Riley.’
Despite Mr Kay’s good humour about his heckler-ridden Manchester show, there was an increased security presence at the Birmingham arena.
Security guards spent the show walking up and down the aisles looking for any indications of trouble – and were quick to flash their torches at audience members who dared to get their phones out.
And in a sure sign not to get booted out of the show, audience members remained compliant with no heckles being made, only speaking when Mr Kay asked for audience participation.
Numerous fans in the audience have been waiting for years to see the much-loved comic live after he abruptly vanished from public life in 2017.
He had intended to continue touring in 2020 but it was delayed due to the pandemic.
The mammoth Better Late Than Never tour has helped put Mr Kay at the top of the 2024 rich after his residency tour at the O2 in London helped bring in an outstanding revenue of £27 million.
Since kicking off the tour in December there had been no reported bumps in the road, until his Manchester gig on February 8 when he had to remove three hecklers from the crowd.
Mr Peters and his son were abruptly ousted from the arena and he has since claimed he was treated ‘like a terrorist’ by security staff when his only crime was ‘shouting garlic bread’.
While some other attendees slammed Mr Peters, claiming he was ruining it for others, he hit back telling MailOnline: ‘I just can’t understand it, all I said was garlic bread’.
His shout-out was first said to have been well received by Mr Kay, whose cameramen panned the driver’s face out to the audience after zooming in.
But by the second half of the show, Mr Kay had lost his patience, quickly ordering the lights to be turned on and for the heckler, as well as his son, to be led out of the building.
Mr Peters, whose tickets were bought for him by his 17-year-old daughter for Christmas, said he was left ‘disgusted’ by how he was treated and is now demanding an apology from the comic.
He told MailOnline: ‘It was me who shouted out ‘garlic bread’. I was there with my son and they dragged us out like rag dolls and I am now covered in bruises. A lot of people just stood up and walked out when they saw how we were dragged out.
‘In the first half of the show, I shouted out ‘garlic bread’ and they zoomed in on the camera on me. And I put my thumbs up and thought everything was okay. I got no warning or anything, people around us were laughing and joking.
‘Then in the second half of the show, I said it again, “garlic bread”, and that’s when the security guards came over to me and said, “You are going to have to leave – Peter Kay doesn’t like people shouting out”.
‘I said are you joking as I thought they were going to warn me off but they stood me up, brought me to the stairs, which were dead steep.
‘I have massive bruises in my leg. I haven’t been able to walk properly at work today. My arms are all covered in bruises.’
He also claims that the comedian shouted ‘You’re not laughing now’ as they were paraded down the stairs.
Meanwhile, Miss Curran said she was left ‘humiliated’ by Mr Kay when she was likened to the Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley.
‘I didn’t mean to cause any harm, I was just showing my love as he kicked someone out but he obviously didn’t like it,’ she told Good Morning Britain.
‘I feel like what I said was not abusive or aggressive – it wasn’t anti-social and I wasn’t drunk,’ she added.
‘I was just standing up chanting “we love you, Peter, we do”. It’s just been a bit over the top, his reaction.’
Miss Curran, a care worker, said she was left in tears by the crowd’s reaction at the 23,000-capacity venue and had a ‘cry about it’ when she got back to her hotel room.
‘I do feel he was on about my weight,’ the mother-of-one said.
‘I know Lisa Riley has lost a lot of weight and looks great but she used to be a bit bigger.
‘I didn’t used to be this big, I have put a bit of weight on, I’ve had a child.’
Despite the heckler’s calls for an apology from Manchester AO Arena staff and Mr Kay, the comic doubled down on his reason to evict the trio.
He said in a post on Instagram: ‘At the show on Saturday night, February 8th, in Manchester, I had two hecklers disrupting from the very start’ he said in the statement posted on Instagram.
‘I did my best to address the situation and made light of it, as any comedian would, but unfortunately, their interruptions continued.
‘I then tried to ignore them, hoping they’d settle down, but when the disruption persisted into the second half of the show, I asked the audience around them if they were being bothered by the noise.’
Tickets to the comic’s gig cost an average of £59.70 in comparison to Michael’s £43.35 tickets.
Mr Kay announced 21 new dates in November 2024, kicking off in February 2025 and will finish his performance in February 2026.
Pete Kay Live initially kicked off in December 2022 and the new dates will see him visit 16 cities over the course of a year.
The new tour which will run in 2025 and 2026 will include his first dates at Aberdeen P&J Live, Brighton Centre, Bournemouth International Centre and Isle of Man Villa Marina.
Mr Kay has already broken records during the tour after selling out 45 dates at London’s O2 Arena, the only artist to do so in the world.
The funnyman also performed a record 100 shows at the Manchester AO Arena – breaking all attendance and performance records.
I don’t believe that Peter Kay called the lady ‘Lisa Riley’ because of her weight – she really does look very much like Lisa Riley.
Something can be funny when said one, but when it’s said repeatedly it’s attention seeking and the object of the audience was to come and see Peter Kay, not listen to someone else. After all, comics are on stage, not the audience.
Well, it looks like it’s Peter Kay’s turn to be thrown under the bus by the gutter press – who’s next?
I’m happy the majority are in full support of Peter Kay. All those years out of the spotlight and then he makes a come back and people try to give him bad press.
If that jibe had been at me, I would have just said, ‘Was that a compliment?’ And perhaps he should do a performance where he interacts with his audience more!
The audience being berated by a comedian – now that something new, not. Or is it wokey’s not being able to take a joke these days?
The number of stories that will now circulate about a couple of loudmouths being removed from a live performance is just astounding. There are countless ways to repackage it, but none of them are particularly intriguing.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 