Arj Barker has defended his decision to remove a mother and her baby from his Melbourne show on the weekend, saying he had to take the enjoyment of the other audience members into account.
Trish Faranda and her seven-month-old daughter were in the crowd at the comedian's Athenaeum theatre gig on Saturday, which tickets specified was for people aged 15 and above.
The baby became restless, so Faranda started to breastfeed her - but the noise had already caught Barker's attention.
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He asked her to leave, a decision which has divided opinion in the days following.
Last night, Faranda told A Current Affair she could hear what seemed to be people booing her as she walked out, but there were also audience members who walked out in support of the embarrassed mum.
But Barker told Today he didn't even realise Faranda was breastfeeding and laughed off suggestions that's what he had an issue with.
"What happened is unfortunate, but I want to set the record straight on a couple of things," he told Karl Stefanovic.
"I have nothing against babies - number one, the breastfeeding thing is a non-issue, it should be inadmissible and I had no idea if she was breastfeeding or not because I was on a lit stage.
"All I could see was a woman likely holding a baby - the breastfeeding was never part of it - If it were the father, I would have acted the exact same way - it had to do with the baby making noise."
Barker said he has been performing for decades and can handle all types of noisy environments, but the theatre he was in, "you could hear a pin drop".
"It was purely an audio issue, it had nothing to do with her being a mum - I have nothing against mums," he said.
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Barker also wanted to clarify, the decision was not because he had "lost his train of thought", as some media had incorrectly reported and he did not yell at Faranda to leave.
"It's a theatrical show and it wasn't about me, it was about the audience being able to have the immersion to enjoy the show and enjoy the rhythm and the pauses and the timing," he said.
"If you're trying to watch something and there's a noise over here, or a phone rings over there, it takes you out of it, so that's the only reason I said the baby's going to disrupt the show, but it wasn't anything to do with me not being able to perform, it was on behalf of the audience.
"I have nothing against anyone and I feel bad for how much angst and upset this has caused because people know me, they know I'm not a bad guy, I'm a gentle person and I would never wish, harm on anyone."
But Faranda told Today she didn't believe Barker was gentle in how he asked her to leave and if he had told her the noise was disrupting the show, she would have "been mortified" and left immediately.
"That's not what he did, it's not what I felt and it's not what other people have witnessed either - he came over and he was using the mic and his position on the stage to intimidate me," she said.
"And he did that in front of all those people and then he called on the crowd to support him in it and as we left the crowd was yelling out abuse, he just stood there and all he said was, 'I'll give you a refund.'"
Do you agree with Arj's decision? Let us know and hear what else he had to say in the video above
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2024-04-24 08:01:38Z
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