Arj Barker asks mum with baby to leave his show
Popular comedian Arj Barker reportedly kicked a mother and baby out of his Melbourne International Comedy Festival show on Saturday night.
Late on Saturday night X user @daniellearbaci_ posted that “@arjbarker demanded my 7 month old cousin — who relies on her mum for milk (life), my mother, and my Aunty’s friend (also a mum) to leave his show, claiming the he/she was ‘ruining his train of thought’”
Comedian Arj BarkerCredit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images
In a follow-up post, the user thanked crowd members who left in solidarity.
The account was backed up by David, who said he was in attendance at the Athenaeum Theatre.
Speaking to this masthead he said that things started off amicably. The mother and child were sitting about four rows from the front and “the baby was making a bit of noise, as babies do”. Barker made a few jokes about it, and then moved on with the show. About five minutes later, however “as people were laughing, the baby started making baby noises and maybe a whinge I suppose.” At that point, Barker stopped the show and asked if she could take the baby outside. “It was really awkward.”
The response from the crowd was mixed. A group of about eight women sitting near the mother and child also left, as did several others throughout the evening. However, “there were a couple of ladies that yelled out ‘yeah, just get out of here’,” says David. “I just couldn’t believe it. The abuse this lady got from the crowd...I was like are we serious here as people”
Barker on Monday morning provided a statement to ABC Radio: “The show is strictly age 15-plus, as clearly stated on the ticket site. She had an infant with her, the baby was disrupting my performance. On behalf of the other 700 people who paid to see the gig, I politely told her the baby couldn’t stay. She thought I was kidding, which made the exchange a bit awkward. I felt bad about the whole situation and stated this on the night more than once. I offered her a refund. Theatre staff should not have seated a baby in my audience in the first place.”
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival told this masthead that Barker is independently produced in a festival-managed venue, but that they had received approximately 10 complaints on Sunday.
Barker has been performing his show, The Mind Field, at the Athenaeum for the past three weeks, in which he “sets out to answer some of life’s biggest questions” according to promotional material.
