Comedian Jimmy Carr has been forced to eject a drunk heckler from his Birmingham Symphony Hall show after audience members nearly came to blows.
The 52-year-old star of 8 Out of 10 Cats took action on Sunday night when the disruptive audience member caused such a disturbance that fellow attendees threatened to walk out.
The incident escalated when one man reportedly attempted to punch the heckler and had to be restrained by his partner, leaving security to eventually remove the troublemaker after they refused to leave voluntarily.
According to an eyewitness who spoke to MailOnline, Carr intervened directly in the situation.
“Four people got up to leave, and one of them had to be held back from hitting the heckler,” the eyewitness said.
Carr addressed the disruptive individual with his signature no-nonsense approach, saying: “You’re blind drunk, you’re probably on cocaine, so I’ll give you three choices.”
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The comedian continued: “You can either get up and leave, go away and come back and see me again, or you can sit there, refuse to go, and I’ll get security.”
When the heckler refused to move, Carr instructed security to remove them, prompting cheers from the audience.
The comedian then made light of the situation by referencing Peter Kay’s recent similar experience and quipped: “There must be something in the water at these comedy gigs at the moment.”
The incident follows Kay’s headline-making decision to eject disruptive fans from his Manchester show last month.
Kay, 51, had ejected hecklers from his Better Late Than Never… Again! show after they repeatedly shouted his “garlic bread” catchphrase.
The Bolton-born comic also compared another fan who shouted “I love you” to actress Lisa Riley as she was removed.
Fans took to social media the following day to praise Carr’s handling of the situation.
“It was a great show! Thought you handled getting the idiot out of the audience very well,” one attendee commented.
Another fan noted: “There’s always one. We had the same in Wolverhampton.”
Someone else added: “What is with people getting stupidly drunk at comedy shows? That’s not the place.” (sic)
In a statement addressing his own incident, Kay had said: “It’s not something you ever want to do but it becomes a point when it’s no longer fair to everyone around.”
The comedian added he was now “too embarrassed” to buy garlic bread at supermarkets due to the joke’s notoriety.