Festival crowd turn on Doug

Doug Stanhope has been jeered and booed at the Leeds festival, facing a volley of missiles from the crowd.

The controversial American stand-up lost his audience relatively early in his set, when he began advocating abortion as an environmentally friendly move, prompting hundreds of people in the festival’s alternative tent to chant: ‘Off! Off!’

As the chorus of disapproval rose, he ploughed through his material, saying he had to fulfil his contractual obligation to stay on stage. Once his time was done he said he would remain there just to ‘be annoying’.

At one point during Sunday night’s set, the crowd began throwing items at Stanhope, who joked: ‘What kind of generation's so lame they can only throw plastic water bottles that don't even hit me in the face?’

Another festival-goer threw a half-eaten apple, which did strike Stanhope, who promptly took a bite out of it.

However, the comic – who began a week-long run in London’s Leicester Square Theatre last night – did attract a few fans, who came to the front of the tent once the inevitable walkouts cleared some space.

One fan posted on a Stanhope forum: ‘Despite being shouted down mid-punchline a few times amid palpable hatred in the room, he never got particularly angry, just set about calmly saying things he knew would make them even more upset.’

Published: 2 Sep 2009