Peter Kay defends decision to eject ‘disruptive’ hecklers

The comedian Peter Kay has defended ejecting two hecklers from his show at Manchester’s AO Arena.

Kay asked security staff to remove a man who repeatedly shouted his “garlic bread” catchphrase and a woman who called out his name and “We love you, Peter!”

Kay said the pair had been “disrupting from the very start” and he “did my best to address the situation and made light of it, as any comedian would, but unfortunately, their interruptions continued”.

He 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.

“They all shouted ‘yes,’ and when I asked for a show of hands, at least 40 people raised theirs. At that point, I had no choice but to take action.”

“As a comedian, you never want to eject anyone, but when repeated disruptions make it impossible to continue, it’s important to consider the experience of the rest of the audience, who’ve paid to see a show without interruption.”

The man told the Daily Mail he was “treated like a terrorist” by security staff, while the woman, who Kay called Lisa Riley because of her “striking resemblance” to the actress, told the Manchester Evening News that she was “annoyed and upset”.

Kay said that in the previous 114 shows of his three-year tour he had only kicked out one other person.

On social media, one audience member said they had “lost a lot of respect” for Kay due to the incident.