Who is Jerry Sadowitz? Edinburgh Fringe stand up controversy explained

Jerry Sadowitz is a 60-year-old American-born Scottish comedian whose second show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival was "canceled with immediate effect" due to complaints regarding the first show's content. On Friday night, the comedian performed the first show, Not For Anyone, at The Pleasance.

A warning about the comedian's set was released by the venue before the show began. It stated:

"This show contains strong language and themes some may find distressing."

It has been reported that staff and audience members complained about some of Sadowitz's jokes, which reportedly made people "uncomfortable and unsafe to remain in the venue."

According to Metro, a spokesperson from the Pleasance Theatre Trust stated:

"Due to numerous complaints, we became immediately aware of content that was considered, among other things, extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny."

They further commented on the issue, noting:

"We will not associate with content which attacks people’s dignity and the language used on stage was, in our view, completely unacceptable."

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All about Jerry Sadowitz and his Edinburgh Fringe controversy

Jerry Sadowitz is an American-born Scottish stand-up comedian who has often been in controversies due to the dark nature of his comedy. The comedian was voted as the 33rd greatest stand-up comedian in 2010, and as the 15th greatest stand-up comedian in 2007.

He is also known as a close-up comedian and an accomplished practitioner of sleight of hands, which is used by performing artists for entertainment purposes. Sadowitz is also known for writing several books on magic.

According to The Daily Mail, Sadowitz has been banned from performing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival because he "got his p***s out on stage" which was not taken well by the audience. He reportedly also used a racial slur to refer to the United Kingdom's Conservative leadership contender Rishi Sunak.

A female audience member who complained about the comedian claimed that he called Sunak 'a p***' and also mentioned that "the economy was awful because it is run by 'blacks and women.'"

This is not the first time that the comedian has been caught up in a controversy. In 1991, Jerry Sadowitz was knocked unconscious on stage due to an outraged Canadian audience member during one of his shows.

Taking to Twitter, Jerry Sadowitz shared his take on the controversy, stating that his comedy act has been "cheapened and simplified as unsafe, homophobic, misogynistic and racist." Sadowitz further noted:

"A lot of thought goes into my shows and while I don't always get it right, especially at the speed of which I speak... and I don't always agree with my own conclusions (!)... I am offended by those who, having never seen me before, HEAR words being shouted in the first five minutes before storming out without LISTENING to the material."

Jerry Sadowitz also tweeted:

"Additionally, there's a lot of silly, exaggerated irony and nonsense, real fake and exaggerated anger and bile, and even getting my d*** out is for the purpose of the funny line which follows it."

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The Pleasance Theatre Trust further added that "racism, homophobia, sexism or misogynistic language" have no place in their venue. They said to Metro that:

"There is a line that we will not cross at the Pleasance, and it was our view that this line was crossed on this occasion."

It has not been reported if Jerry Sadowitz will perform at the venue at a later date.