In a few hours’ time, comedy fans in Sheffield will take to the streets in protest. Their cause? Not Brexit, or climate change, but the decision to ban Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown from performing a gig in the city.
Chubby, who is not to everyone’s taste, is best described as the North’s answer to Bernard Manning or Jim Davidson. An earthy stand-up comic from Middlesbrough, he is perfectly prepared to talk, joke and trade raillery about race, religion and sexuality in a way few other performers are. This week, after 30 years of performing in Sheffield, he was told he is no longer welcome.
Sheffield City Trust, which runs various leisure sites on the local council’s behalf, summarily cancelled a planned performance by him in the city’s Oval Hall next year. The reason? The trust’s chief executive, Andrew Snelling, said:
‘We don’t believe this show reflects Sheffield City Trust values.’
Whatever the cause of the argument against Chubby Brown, he isn’t going away
For local Labour MP Gill Furniss this was welcome news. ‘This
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