‘I felt I had no option,’ comedian told ‘Good Morning Britain’. Peter Kay has explained his decision to remove hecklers from his comedy show after a backlash from audience members. The comedian was criticised by fans attending his tour on Saturday (8 February) after he had two people ejected for disrupting the show. According to reports, Kay was left frustrated when a man repeatedly shouted his catchphrase “garlic bread” as he delivered jokes as part of his Better Late Than Never Again tour at the AO Arena.
An audience member claimed that, as security escorted the man out, a woman shouted, “We love you, Peter” – after which the comedian asked security to remove her also. Kay went on to refer to this woman as Lisa Riley, which audience members took to be a “derogatory” comment about her weight. Riley has since brushed off the comment, revealing that she “loves” Kay “to pieces”. Following backlash to his comment, Kay told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday (11 February): “I didn’t realise it was an insult. She did look remarkably like Lisa Riley. I didn’t realise that was an insult.”.
Car Share star Kay, who reportedly said he was “enjoying” the power of having people thrown out of the gig, said in a statement shared with the ITV show: “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.”. Hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls said that Kay “felt he had no option but to remove the hecklers as they were spoiling the show”.
The Independent has contacted Kay for additional comment. One attendee wrote of the moment on X/Twitter: “I’ve lost a lot of respect for Peter Kay after the way he treated the heckler at the end of his Manchester 8 Feb show, having him removed by force by his entourage, and cracking jokes bout it over the 3-4 mins it took. No manners. Huge waste of money.”. Elsewhere, one fan said that the comedian “killed the atmosphere in the arena”, and branded his actions “completely inappropriate and unacceptable”.
Kay’s tour is set to run for 12 months, a record-breaking 100 dates of which are set to take place at the A0 Arena. In a statement about the tour, the comedian previously said: “It’s been wonderful doing what I love most, stand-up comedy. “Laughter is more important than ever in these challenging times and with the cost of living still at an all-time high, ticket prices for the new dates will start from £35.”.
