Sadowitz, an American-born Scottish stand-up performer known for his edgy material, reportedly made controversial comments during his Friday night set at the Fringe, in addition to exposing his genitals onstage.
The venue hosting the festival—the well-known Pleasance at Edinburgh International Conference Centre—canceled Sadowitz’s Saturday show. In a statement, Pleasance said it had received “numerous complaints” about Sadowitz’s Friday performance for, “among other things,” being “extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny.”
Sadowitz said in his statement that he was “offended by those who, having never seen me before, HEAR words being shouted in the first five minutes before storming out without LISTENING to the material which I am stupid enough to believe is funny, sometimes important and worth saying.”
The comedian also confessed to exposing himself. He wrote that his act contained “a lot of silly, exaggerated irony and nonsense, real fake and exaggerated anger and bile, and even getting my d*** out is for the purpose of the funny line which follows it.”
The incident has resulted in a debate about censorship, with Sadowitz being publicly defended by prominent figures like Piers Morgan. One tweet that decried Sadowitz’s treatment was liked by author J.K. Rowling, who has had her own controversy in recent years for various comments deemed transphobic by many people.
“Imagine getting a comedian cancelled on the day Salman Rushdie was stabbed? Pathetic,” Morgan tweeted on Saturday. “Free speech is being destroyed.”
The tweet liked by Rowling was written by Adam Tomkins, a lawyer and a columnist for Scottish newspaper The Herald. His message also referenced the recent stabbing attack on Rushdie, which resulted in the author’s hospitalization.
Tomkins wrote, “The day after the attack on Rushdie, this is the action of leading venue at the Edin Fringe?!? To cancel an event because some people may find offensive?!? It’s beyond shameful.”
Other comedians and public figures also condemned the cancellation of Sadowitz’s second show, and some even threatened to boycott the Pleasance.
The venue had its defenders too, with social media users calling out both Sadowitz and those criticizing the decision to call off Saturday’s performance. One comment the comedian reportedly made on Friday that upset many people was an allegedly racist remark he made about Rishi Sunak, a British politician of Indian descent who is a candidate to become the U.K.’s prime minister.
American comedian Doug Stanhope, meanwhile, joked on Twitter that he’s “happy I’m not playing the same U.K. venue twice in September. ‘You Cant Cancel Me, I Left!’”
Newsweek reached out to the Pleasance and Sadowitz for comment.
