Arj Barker asks mum with baby to leave his show
Popular comedian Arj Barker kicked a mother and baby out of his Melbourne International Comedy Festival show on Saturday night.
The mother, Trish, said that after several comments about her daughter’s presence at the show, Barker stood in front of her while she was breastfeeding and asked them both to leave.
“She was just being a baby - she gurgled a little bit, she had a bit of whinge – nothing super loud,” Trish told 3aw. Her surname was not provided on air.
Comedian Arj BarkerCredit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images
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.”
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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?”
Trish praised the support of the women sitting nearby. “They were telling me not to leave, and I was not comfortable to stay. I didn’t want to impact other people – people were out to have a good night and that’s fine. If he wasn’t coping with it, I don’t want to impact other people.
“When I got outside there were actually about 10 or 12 people that got up and left, including one lovely gentleman. The others were all mothers or grandmothers that could relate to my situation.”
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.”
Responding to this masthead, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival said they had received approximately 10 complaints on Sunday and provided the following statement: “The Melbourne International Comedy Festival was advised of the situation that occurred in Arj Barker’s show on Saturday. Arj is independently produced and at a venue not managed by the festival, however, any interaction between performers and their audiences requires sensitivity and respect.
“In our festival-managed venues, babes in arms are generally allowed but we do ask people to sit up the back with their child so they can quickly and easily leave if the baby gets noisy so as not to disturb the artist and other patrons.”
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.
His was the second show Trish had attended at this year’s festival with her baby, the first being Fully Furnished by Dave Hughes. “Hughesy heard her, she gurgled in his show too, she was having a bit of a giggle and did a skit about her and his own kids and moved on with his show like a true professional.”
Prior to this, Trish had been a big fan of Barker’s. “The sad bit is that I’ve been to lots of his shows before children. You kind of lose yourself a little bit when you have kids and I was just trying to get back to enjoying something that I enjoyed before kids.”
Arj Barker and his representative have been approached for further comment.
The Age is a festival media partner.
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