For discussion of stand-up comedy and comedy TV shows/films in the UK.
Yes, some women do privately warn other women about their previous experiences with mutual acquaintances, it helps to keeps people safe. I understand reporting on Brand's long-rumoured behaviour is a big topic right now, but "colleagues talked online" is a strange angle to take for this title. It's almost like the author is surprised groups of people discuss shared experiences.
Perhaps the headline could be "entire industry didn't address constant rumours about Brand for 15 years"?
I think your last line is the intended subtext, but even during the metoo movement, getting anyone convicted of assault was nearly impossible. How many women did it take testifying against Weinstein? And their names were all dragged through the mud in the process.
The key takeaway ought to be "Sexual predators are still difficult to stop, and people need to look out for each other because the legal system is inadequate to deal with the problem."
Yes, but prevention is the better move, which is what these women are doing. It just needs the men who promote and run venues and share the stage etc. to collaborate. Which maybe would have been more effective and engaging headline writing too. We're not going to get far with "people talked online" as the lede.
Comedian Stevie Martin disclosed the WhatsApp group existed as long ago as 2020, telling the Telegraph: “A Whatsapp-based blacklist began circulating of predatory male comics and promoters. It’s growing every day.”
In 2018, I was invited to join a Whatsapp group that acted as a safe space for hundreds of female comedians to discuss and help each other. I left it a month later, at 5am.
It was excellent. Five stars. Members of the group launched the ‘Home Safe Collective’ to make sure comics - women, trans women and non-binary - could get cabs home safely during late night shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. But I left the group because the things these women had gone through terrified me. I started to feel panicky whenever I heard my phone ping.
There were stories of promoters harassing them, intimidation and bullying backstage, groping and snide comments by MCs, gigs to avoid and venues to steer clear of. The ‘Home Safe Collective’ itself was started after the murder of Australian comedian Eurydice Dixon as she walked home after a gig. It seemed like this was just part of the female comedy landscape, and rather than getting any help, it was up to women to solve it. To protect themselves. Because nobody else seemed to be. Our MeToo moment just didn’t seem to be happening.
The group was founded by Angela Barnes, Sameena Zehra and Pauline Eyre:
The Tube experience and the murder of young Australian comic Eurydice Dixon when she walked home from a gig in Melbourne last year sparked a need to do something positive. So Angela, together with fellow stand-ups Sameena Zehra and Pauline Eyre, set up the Home Safe Collective at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe. She explains how it came about.
“A WhatsApp group of female comics started talking about what practical thing we could do. We set up a taxi account with a company that uses police-checked drivers and we got about £5,000 from donations, so any female comic could use the service if she didn’t want to walk home from a gig late at night and couldn’t afford the fare.”
The initiative was recognised with the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Awards panel prize, which is worth £5,000. “It was such a wonderful surprise, and fantastic to receive it – and the prize means we can do Home Safe again this year without fund-raising,” the comic says.
I watched the Jimmy Saville documentary and one of the ways he managed to keep a lid on things is the threat of defamation suits. I'm guessing that nobody here is naming names because of these. I thought we might've learned something from the Saville stuff but apparently not.
I can only hope an MP names them in the House because otherwise we might not publically know (even if celebs/politicians/etc all seem to know it anyway). I'm very much for innocent until proven guilty but if women are literally warning other women about them then it's enough for me to put their careers on hold until they are fully investigated
I watched the Jimmy Saville documentary and one of the ways he managed to keep a lid on things is the threat of defamation suits. I’m guessing that nobody here is naming names because of these.
Yes, I've read that he had quite the fierce legal team that you didn't want to get on your case.
I thought we might’ve learned something from the Saville stuff but apparently not.
There has been some discussion about NDAs in such cases being a bad idea. Unfortunately, while they protect the rich and powerful, it'll be difficult to get rid of them.