Thread by @PhilipsComedy

I know, "it's joke, it's just a joke", but the problem is, with something as serious as antisemitism, how do we know when it's not a joke?

A thread...

Today we had another pretty full room for Jew-O-Rama, which is the other show I'm doing alongside "Who's the Daddy Pig?"

You can find out more about it here:
tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/jew-o…

Jew-O-Rama is a Jewish compilation show I run with @levenecomedy featuring the best Jewish and Jew "ish" comedians at the Fringe. We started last Saturday and so far we've had some fantastic acts and have played to really decent audience numbers.

Mainly our audiences have been mixed, but generally I'd say we've always had more non-Jews than Jews. This has always been so gratifying for us, especially when we're constantly hearing that there's a problem with antisemitism in the UK.

Jew-O-Rama is part of the Free Fringe, so at the end of every show we do a bucket collection where the members of the audience are invited (but not obliged) to make donations of what they think the show is worth. Some do, some don't - it's entirely up to them.

Today there was an interesting encounter with an audience member who on reaching the front of the queue waved a £20 note saying he would take £5 from the bucket. Asking for change is very common, and he wasn't alone so donating £15 for his group seemed about right.

He was handed £5 change but it turns out we'd misunderstood. He'd meant us to take £5 from the £20 leaving him with £15. I don't know, the noise of the room & other people's money going in the bucket, an error was made. We immediately resolved it, happily giving him another £10.

On taking the money he then leant in to Aaron and said, "I guess you people are all the same" before leaving.

I was stunned into silence as I tried to get my head around what I'd just heard (don't forget there was a lot of background noise) and whether it needed any comeback

His tone didn't sound threatening and maybe he even felt he was being jovial, but I still genuinely can't tell if his words were antisemitic or just an attempt at humour. After all, he'd just seen a comedy show, & it's not like the Jewish comedians hadn't poked fun at ourselves.

Also, full disclosure, I don't know if he was Jewish or not.

Perhaps he was, so felt he had more of a right to say this.

Or maybe not, but seeing Jewish comedians joking at our own expense on stage had given his views some legitimacy and he felt comfortable speaking out.

For a while now I've listened as other comedians have told me they've witnessed or been the victim of antisemitism. I've always believed them, but never really experienced it directly myself. And the times I have, I've tried to brush it off as, "oh, they were just joking."

I once did a gig in Tamworth where I asked the audience if there were any other Jews in the room (I ask this question at gigs all over the UK), and a lone voice shouted back, "I hope not!"

It was clear from his friends' reactions that he wasn't a threat, just a dick.

Then there was the time at last year's Jew-O-Rama, in a different venue, when we arrived one day to find someone had carved a swastika into the table.

Definitely not something that can be classed as a joke, but again I didn't feel threatened by the action. Just an idiot at play.

And I'm not saying this experience today made me feel vulnerable. We'd just finished entertaining about 65 people. It hadn't been the easiest gig, but for a Sunday afternoon when the weather outside was miserable, pretty much everyone was leaving happy. So this was just a shock.

I'm so proud of what Aaron & I have created with Jew-O-Rama, and that so many non-Jews come to the shows, often returning to see new comedians on different days. It's just a shame that one tiny incident can leave such a dark cloud over what up until now has been a great Fringe.