White comedian calls out racist who abused him while on stage

A white comedian has opened up about being racially abused while performing to a packed crowd.

The nature of the job means stand-ups are always opening themselves up to ridicule when they step on stage, and often invite a bit of lighthearted back and forth with their audiences.

Unfortunately, though, it doesn't always go to plan, and David Ward was recently attacked when an audience member targeted his traveller upbringing, hurling abuse at him int he middle of his set.

In the UK and Ireland, Romany Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers are classified as distinct ethnic minorities, meaning they are protected from discrimination, harassment, and abuse under the Equality Act 2010 and similar human rights legislation.

But with knowledge of their culture extremely limited in the general public and popular culture, they're often marginalised.

Speaking to LADbible, David has opened up about exactly what happened at the comedy club and how he dealt with it.

"I was doing material about my Traveller roots when a guy in the crowd started shouting 'f*****g p***y' at me," he tells us. "Not once, not as a poorly thought out 'banter', but repeatedly.

"I asked him to stop, he didn’t. He just switched to 'plastic p***y' like that somehow made it better.

"At that point I had to stop the show and have him removed. It stopped being a comedy gig and became something else."

David grew up in London to a settled mum and traveller dad, which has become a focus in his comedy routines over the years, as he reflects on the hybrid of cultures that he experienced.

Although the show manager at the comedy club was 'really supportive', the same cannot be said of the audience, whose reaction was 'almost weirder than the slur'.

David explains: "Another bloke shouted, 'Just get on with it, it's meant to be comedy ain't it, I'm fat and I get called a fat c**t all the time but it doesn't bother me' - like that’s the same thing.

"So suddenly I’m not even doing stand up anymore, I’m having to stop and explain to a room full of people why that isn’t the same thing, and why what was being said actually matters.

"It became less about the jokes and more about trying to get the room to understand the difference in real time, it felt like a fight for dignity."

Sadly, this isn't the only experience David has had with racial discrimination, as he also revealed that he was turned away from a pub for causing trouble previously, despite having never been to that pub before.

He is now calling on people to educate themselves more and bring an end to anti-traveller sentiments.

The comedian adds: "Anti-Traveller sentiment is still treated like it doesn’t really count.

"It’s been baked into everyday language in a way that just wouldn’t be tolerated for any other minority group. its so normalised people don’t even realise they’re using a slur, or they simply don’t care.

"And the reality behind that is serious. Traveller communities have some of the highest suicide rates in the UK, with research suggesting rates several times higher than the general population, and some studies indicating around 11 percent of deaths in the community are by suicide.

"When a whole community is treated like a punchline, it has consequences."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact Stop Hate UK by visiting their website www.stophateuk.org.