After having his performances at two venues cancelled due to his gender-critical beliefs, Graham Linehan sobs and declares his intention to beat “evil trans activists” as he courageously performs on the street during the Edinburgh Festival.
After venues turned him down, author Graham Linehan performed outside Holyrood.
After two venues cancelled his Edinburgh Fringe performance due to his gender-critical ideas, Father Ted author Graham Linehan broke down in tears and declared victory against “evil trans activists” in a defiant street performance.
Following uproar over a first venue’s cancellation of the stand-up comedy concert, organizers Comedy Unleashed staged a performance outside Holyrood last night.
The comedian revealed he had to start taking anxiety medicine because of the ‘painful, nasty, and unpleasant’ retaliation against him and his family, telling MailOnline that trans rights advocates ‘ought to be beaten utterly’.
IT Linehan, the one who started the crowd, said: “I don’t feel broken, I’m so used to this weird life, that they can’t really hurt me anymore.”
They had the opportunity to harm me while I was still married.
When they started pursuing my family, that’s when it got uncomfortable, terrible, and awful.
I had to start taking anxiety medicine.
They could no longer harm my wife and children once they broke us up after enough of that had occurred.
“I think transgender rights activists are the most evil people in the world,” Linehan continued, “and I do love making them angry because they’re terrible people.”
To be clear, I’m not referring to transgender persons; rather, I’m referring to transgender rights campaigners.
Two groups that are incredibly distinct and frequently have nothing in common.
Simply put, I believe they must be totally vanquished.
In response, Spectator journalist Brendan O’Neill wrote: “The blacklisting of Linehan is a black mark on the Fringe.”
This occurred as criticism of the festival grew more vocal.
A once-disruptive event appears to be turning into a place of conformity where only those who submit to the new orthodoxies are accepted.
It’s not amusing.This week, the original location Leith Arches decided to cancel Linehan’s reservation because the Irishman’s opinions did not “align” with their core principles.
Linehan is a vocal opponent of the trans rights movement and also wrote the TV comedies The IT Crowd and Black Books.
Comedy Unleashed’s organizer, Andrew Doyle, tweeted this evening at 7:15 p.m. that their alternate venue had also backed out.
He wrote: “Our alternate venue for Comedy Unleashed at the Edinburgh fringe has now also cancelled on us.”
Therefore, at 7:30 pm, @Glinner [Graham Linehan] and the other acts will perform on a small stage in front of the Scottish parliament in Holyrood.
Whether these activists agree or not, this show will go on.Around 7.50 p.m. this evening, Comedy Unleashed co-founder Andy Shaw posted a video of a crowd waiting outside Holyrood.
People are assembling for the “oddest gig” at the #EdFringe, he tweeted.
I’ve never seen anything as insane as the last two days, Linehan said as he completed his act while breaking down in tears.
In this fight about women’s spaces, about infants being maimed in and sterilized in gender clinics, and about the women who are being harassed and threatened for speaking up, I keep asking people what I’ve said wrong and what I’m saying wrong.
The audience then erupted in cheers as Linehan continued, clearly overcome with emotion: “Comedy is my first love; it’s what I love to do, but I haven’t been able to do that for five years.”
They won’t even let me make a couple of dumb jokes, which is exactly what I decided I would do.
‘We’ve got your back Graham,’ a supporter said from the audience.
The audience then cheered and applauded.
I know you do, and it truly helps, Linehan retorted.
Linehan responded, “Well, I don’t know, it was weird, some of those jokes were sure fire wins but they didn’t land tonight, but it was a bit of a strange atmosphere,” when asked how he thought his show went.
I believe that actually doing it was crucial.
I’m happy to be able to say that I’ve performed on the fringe; in this case, I had to mail it, but I was somewhat reliant on the audience’s generosity.
I prefer to be humorous; I don’t want to do that.
I was anxious, although not so much about the audience as I was about the entire scenario.
What is going to happen is just ridiculous.
I’m done protesting now.
In the event of an emergency, I would have just gone to the bar.
(Andy Shaw advised going to the pub and having a good time if there was a demonstration).
Yes, I believe they accomplished a fantastic feat here. It was “obscene,” according to audience member Angela, that Linehan had been “cancelled for views the majority of the population has.”
If there are protests, I believe we will continue, she continued.
Such drivel from kids is nothing new to us.
In my opinion, the issue is actually about defending free speech in general because, if we ban humor, what comes next?We’re here for support, solidarity, and hopefully a little alcohol, remarked another IT Crowd creative backer.
It has the hashtag #EdinburghCringe.
It’s censorship, and it’s pitiful.Although Frankie Boyle was abhorrent, we didn’t want him to be canceled.
It’s really shameful that the Edinburgh Fringe has lost its edge and ability to push boundaries.
“I’ll no longer attend the Edinburgh Fringe.”
‘It was brought to our attention at the very last minute of the highly controversial line-up,’ Leith Arches stated on Wednesday.
We closely collaborate with the LGBT+ community, which contributes significantly to our income, and we feel that organizing this special event might hurt our chances of getting future bookings.
Comedy Unleashed had already announced finding a different location to hold Linehan’s scheduled performance, but it also made the decision to cancel the event.
Earlier, the club announced on X, then known as Twitter, “We’re still going ahead tonight at 7.30!” Our backup location has also canceled on us! The revised location has been communicated via email to ticket holders.
Linehan earlier this week told TalkTV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer that if Leith Arches declined to take him back, he could consider suing them for canceling his engagement.
It was a sell-out, he claimed. But after a while, you do start to become used to this sort of thing.
You never truly feel comfortable about it.
I won’t talk about it any more if they apologize and continue with the gig, but if not, I’ll be considering legal action.
People online have demanded a boycott of the Leith Arches for their first decision to axe the Linehan-starring performance.
‘It is outrageous that a comedy night at the largest arts festival in the world should be prohibited from going ahead, simply because activists are upset,’ said comedian Andrew Doyle, who will perform with Linehan at another upcoming Comedy Unleashed performance in London next month.
The comedy business is in terrible shape. It’s past time for promoters, venues, comedy critics, and comedians to work together to protect artistic freedom.
Leith Arches maintained earlier this week that campaigners had no influence on their choice to cancel Thursday’s reservation.
The statement read: “Our regular community, who use this space on a daily, weekly, and [monthly] basis, had more of an impact on the decision than pressure from online activists.”
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