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Im genuinley undecided about this.

On the one hand, his act was terrible, dated, racist comedy told to an international audience. He told us how he was friends with more succesful comedians, his lovely villa in Tenerife, his 36 years of experience on the Queen Mary 2, and then repeated this information many times, without acutal jokes to go with it.

He made jokes equating sex with gardening, making innuendo about "flavoured gardening gloves" which, if they existed would have been a fun euphamism - but they don't so the act made no sense. I was surrounded by people from other countries in the crowd, and they were shocked by some of the anti-french jokes. When he asked a 75 year old woman how often she "trimmed her lawn", the audience started to slow hand clap, eventually causing the compere to announce he would not be doing any more jokes, telling us "I am a very good comedian", and he had 36 years experience of TV, Radio and cruise ships. He then left the stage to great cheers and applause, and (so I read) left the venue, leaving Tony Stevens to announce the acts from offstage, and the organist played music between acts.

Now, in my opinion, George was terrible. He did tired, sexist, racist material to a crowd that obviously were not interested. Then, after the interval, he did another 20 minutes or so, when he should have been filling time waiting for the next act to be ready. It was awful, awful stuff. But that's just my opinion and there were 3,499 other people in the audience, and I'm sure that there must have been some Daily Star reading, cheap cruise ship sailing people who liked what he was doing.

What sits badly with me is that the audience was supposed to be made up of magicians. These are performing people who should have an understanding of how awful George must have felt. He tried to carry on, but eventually had to give up and whilst I was personally happy to see him leave, I felt really uncomfortable in the crowd, and felt bad seeing a fellow human being put through that.

I did not join in the slow hand clap nor did I cheer when he left, even though I was happy to see him go. Afterwards, I felt uncomfortable having witnessed it, and wondered how the poor guy was doing. Remember, that this s*** comedy really does seem to go down very well with the cruise ship audience (google him, you will see people saying his gardening routine was excellent).

So what does everyone else who was there think?

This is quite fortunate, I was thinking of starting a thread on this subject. It would have been called 'Bad audience members are better for you than nice ones.

I've recently been working on a type of trick deck, (which I'm sure has already been invented) but the only way it would be of any value was if it could be handled by laymen without them thinking anything was dodgy.

To find out I played a couple of card games with a friend using the trick deck, I then did a a trick with it before returning to more card games. He didn't comment on the deck being weird so I assumed it was invisible.
I discussed it with him later and it turned out he did notice something was wrong with the deck, he just didn't want to be a prick and call me on it. The problem was I had reached a false conclusion based on his decency and if I hadn't checked I may have ended up creating something completely useless.

On the other hand I used to do a card trick that needed the cards to be set up in a certain way, then one time, when performing it, some absolute idiot demanded he shuffle them. So I then worked on a way to do it after it had been shuffled and improved the effect. I still hate the guy bit I'm glad he did what he did it stopped me from becoming complacent with my trick.

Harsh criticism is better for us than friendly support, it makes us rework effects, jokes, acts whatever and improve them. If everyone just politely tolerated bad acts then the performer might incorrectly assume they liked it and not work on it.

Now I wasn't at Blackpool so I can't comment on the performance in question, but I do know the answer to such claims as 'People enjoy my act on cruise ships' f*** off back to your cruise ship then. It's not an audiences job to be supportive, it's the performers job to be entertaining, by the sound of it he wasn't. The audience speaks with one simple demand 'We've paid you money to entertain us, you better be worth it'.

I didnt go. And i dont know the standard of his performance. But if it really is that bad then yes.

FISM will be even worse if the right compares are not booked. I have seen audiences boo, hiss, slow hand clap, and stamp their feet , shaking the room to the core, because they didnt like the compare.


OK, They were Italians, and they expected Aldo Colombini...


Comedy evolves, Sometimes it goes into the gutter, sometimes Its highbrow. If a profesional comedian can not adapt his material to suit a modern audience, and their tastes then they had better give it up. This is why the greats, Bob Monkhouse, and Barry Cryer for example, last... they adapt.

I felt really uncomfortable in the crowd, and felt bad seeing a fellow human being put through that.

I didn't and I will now argue the case for clapping him off.

1 Offensive jokes are not funny, and are completly unacceptable in today's world.
2 He was taking up too much time at the start of the second half, the stage had been set during the intermission, why was he wasting time. Someone behind me shouted out, 'who's the next act?'
3 He challenged the audience, 'You're not a tough crowd, I'll win' he said - as soon as he said that, I knew he wouldn't.
4 He complained that this wasn't the type of gig he usually does - well, he shouldn't have taken the booking then!
5 He was part of a team, alongside the magicians, and he couldn't even be bothered to learn their names. I have compered shows before, and I just ask the act before hand, what's your name mate, am I pronouncing it right, ok thanks, then I check my paper BEFORE I go on.
6 and perhaps most importantly - He wasn't funny!!

These are performing people who should have an understanding of how awful George must have felt.

This is what he said when he was really losing it, but it's not right that we just let him be bad, just because we feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for the people waiting back stage for having to work with someone so unprofessional.
I don't have any sympathy, because quite frankly, I'm not s***. If I thought I was rubbish, then I wouldn't stand up in front of 3,500 people.

This guy knows that there is a risk he will be heckled, he will have had it before and he should have been able to handle it, he couldn't - when he stepped onto the stage he put himself up for that risk.
In life you don't get rewards unless you are prepared to take the risk.

I've also done stand up comedy, I've never been kicked off, but I've been heckled and I've had a silent audience - yes, it's horrible, but it makes you a better performer, a comedian has to die on stage to progress. Hopefully Mr. King learnt something from the performance, even if only he learnt not to re-book for next year.

The sad thing is that we have seen bad comedians in previous years too. There is so much effort put into getting the best magicians in the world, but then the show is let down by a compere, who should be there to hold the whole show together.

At least they got the compare's right on Sunday night.

Thank you for reminding me how dreadful working class British audiences can be. I do not approve of his reception but I must confess the sadist in me would have loved to have seen it.

It would never have happened over here. Even the worst performers are put up with politely by an audience of magicians but of course afterwards the booker as well as the performer will get it in the neck.

Excellent answers chaps - thank you.

Looking back, I feel happy that I did not join in, but agree entirely that he deserved to go.

One thing I also did not enjoy was when Ken Dodd said George was a brilliant comedian, the following night.

Whatever you think of Doddy, he is 10 times better than George, and to defend him to an audience that disagreed only served to show that Ken Dodd was wrong as well.

The Beat The Wand guys did some lovely jokes at George's expense. But you know what offends me the most about Georges act?

He couldn't even be bothered to learn the names of the acts. He only needed to learn one at a time. Terrible.

If he was the warm up man and he made offensive remarks to the audience then it makes it a harder job for the folks coming on to perform afterwards as they aren't just working an audience from cold, they are working with an offended audience who have closed up and have their guards up.

Jing wrote:[1 Offensive jokes are not funny, and are completly unacceptable in today's world.
2 He was taking up too much time at the start of the second half, the stage had been set during the intermission, why was he wasting time. Someone behind me shouted out, 'who's the next act?'
3 He challenged the audience, 'You're not a tough crowd, I'll win' he said - as soon as he said that, I knew he wouldn't.
4 He complained that this wasn't the type of gig he usually does - well, he shouldn't have taken the booking then!
5 He was part of a team, alongside the magicians, and he couldn't even be bothered to learn their names. I have compered shows before, and I just ask the act before hand, what's your name mate, am I pronouncing it right, ok thanks, then I check my paper BEFORE I go on.
6 and perhaps most importantly - He wasn't funny!!.

Yes - he did deserve all he got.

I agree will all the valid points above and moreover, the Ethiopia "joke" was totally crass - There is no funny side to famine end of!!

The best joke of all is his website states him as unique and unoffensive WHAT????????????

Sheesh, most eventful Saturday at Blackpool in quite a while, the crushing lows of George King countered by the dizzying highs of watching an act like Yann Frisch. The entire slow clap incident made me extremely uncomfortable and from looking around the stalls, there was a tremendous amount of squirming going on. However on the other hand I'm rather pleased the slow clap happened, it sent out a clear message that his 1970's 'style' of comedy, with its racist and homophobic elements is totally unacceptable in this day and age, and that modern society won't stand for it.
Hopefully the events this year will show the organisers that these comics aren't suited for such an event, they're introducing world class acts, and yet they tell gags about "trimming the garden" and don't even have the decency to memorise one name before introducing each act.

I don't know what it was about him, but I got the impression that he might have performed on the Queen Mary at some point.

T

Out of curiousity how old a guy was he? And was a magician as well as a comedian?

One thing I also did not enjoy was when Ken Dodd said George was a brilliant comedian, the following night.

I may be wrong but I thought he qualified that when he added that everyone needs to be able to laugh at themselves and if they can't do that they're always going to lose. I took that to mean that George shouldn't have been so confrontational when he realised he was dying on his feet.

Hopefully the organisers will make darned sure that any future comperes are up to scratch, funny and skilled rather than offensive and do their homework in tailoring their act to the occasion. Interesting that Bob Monkhouse has been mentioned as an example of the consummate professional because, as we all know, he had huge tomes of gags all handwritten with most of them his original thinking as a gag writer. He also had volumes devoted to different trades, professions and so on. If he was booked for an Accountant’s event he’d arrive armed with dozens of gags specifically tailored to that profession, if the do was a Butcher’s convention you could guarantee that he’d have a bucket of gags on that trade all primed and ready to go. Bob put extensive time and effort into his job and deserved his fee.

Perhaps the George King saga will act a bit like the supposed intention of Valentino, the original Masked Magician, in exposing the lazy and tired aspect and encourage fresh, new thinking?

OK. Ignore my previous questions. I have found him now. He seems to be much more in his element here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KV_CwNcrms

He is obviously an experienced entertainer. Blackpool obviously wasn't the right venue for him. It is interesting that he was offensive at Blackpool but probably wouldn't be allowed to be on board ship. They are very strict there as to how far you can go. He should have just stuck to what he does on board and he would probably have done OK.

Magician audiences, including me, are very stuffy about offensive material. He should have done a bit of research or at least the booking committee should have warned him.

I wasn't there, as I won't go to Blackpool any more. However in the past I have seen some woeful MCs and comedians, some very bad dance acts, and have been subjected to the blunderbuss wit of Ken Dodd. Is there no beginning to his talent (or end to his act)?

I have no doubt that the MC chose poor material, and misjudged his audience badly. Some of the blame has to go to the organisers, who seem stuck in the seventies. I would have found his material offensive, and his delivery boring (I have seen the youtube clips).

However I am very uncomfortable with subjecting a fellow performer to a slow hand-clap. I couldn't do it.

My solution would probably have been to nip to the bar for his set, as I used to do for the Ken Dodd hour.

Slightly off topic but this reminds me of a story my dad told me of his time in Edinburgh. There was a truly awful comedian who asked everyone in the front row what they did for a living and then took the * out of them. He finally got to my dad and asked 'What do you do?'
My dad replied, 'I'm a comedian, what do you do?'