Comic Will Franken's claims after falling out with Comedy Unleashed

It was a night set up to champion free speech – but today Comedy Unleashed has been accused of trying to censor comedians who do not agree with its agenda.

American stand-up Will Franken, once one of the stalwarts of the club, has criticised its promoters for attempting to influence what he should talk about on stage.

And he claims it failed to release videos of performances in which he criticised some of the controversial figures backing the project, essentially silencing him.

However, those behind the club deny censoring the comic, and accused him of making ‘fabrications and misrepresentations’ following a furious fall-out about the direction of the night.

The accusations come after stand-up Andrew Doyle, one of the founders of Comedy Unleashed, and creator of the spoof woke character Titania McGrath, threatened to take legal action against another comedian over a joke on Twitter.

While the details of Franken’s bust-up with Doyle and co-promoter Andy Shaw are fiercely disputed, what is not in any doubt is that the American had become increasingly disillusioned with the night’s political stance. He took advantage of its stated free speech ethos to openly ridicule the club and those linked to it when he performed on its stage.

He was once one of the most public faces of the night, booked more than any other comedian, with Comedy Unleashed even having agreed to produce a 30-minute online sketch show based on his ideas. 

However, tensions began to simmer over this project, with Franken feeling there was a ‘specific political agenda’ at play as Shaw pushed to base it around a sketch critical of climate change and activist Greta Thunberg – while Franken wanted to explore other ideas.

The comedian told Chortle: ’I was being used as a political weapon to feed into the whole "woke/anti-woke" divide that they seem intent on perpetuating… I didn’t want to be a pawn in political mischief.’

However, Comedy Unleashed insist they were only providing ‘guidance and suggestions [which] Will misinterpreted as an attempt to control him’. ‘We were not, and never were, interested in curtailing his material or his artistic freedom,’ said Doyle.

A flashpoint came after the club booked right-wing commentator Toby Young to make his stand-up debut at the February show. The journalist is an associate editor of The Spectator, for whom both Shaw and Doyle have written, and has a number of controversial views. He coined the phrase 'progressive eugenics' in proposing that poorer people should be allowed to select embryos likely to have greater intelligence, when the technology allows it, and has said of  coronavirus measures that  'spending £350 billion to prolong the lives of a few hundred thousand mostly elderly people is an irresponsible use of taxpayers’ money'.

During his set on the same night, Franken mocked Young and the ‘nepotism’ of the night, joking how easy it is to get a laugh just by saying ‘safe space’ or ‘trigger warning’ there.

Franken says that offstage Shaw shut down a conversation he was having with a punter about his concerns about the politics of the night, and afterwards the promoter texted him to say that three people were ‘concerned about his angry ranting’ on stage.

‘I reminded him that I didn't care, because it was a free speech night,’ Franken said. ‘The audience had laughed, so who those three people were are anyone's guess. He clearly chose to pass on that instead of any positive feedback.’ 

Franken claims Shaw was happy with him doing ‘anti-woke’ material, but that he was told ‘not to lecture’ when targeting the likes of the Brexit Party or Spiked Online, a website critical of right-on liberalism, which Shaw and Doyle also contribute to.

Despite his increasing disillusionment, Franken returned for the March edition of the show, which takes place in Lee Hurst’s Backyard Comedy Club in East London.

He said: ‘I decided to devote 20 minutes to characters Comedy Unleashed would consider "off-message"… mocking the eugenics and stupidity of Toby Young, who was in the audience, as well as Andrew Doyle's Titania nonsense, the Brexit Party, Ukip, and the night itself. The crowd responded very well, but Andy Shaw wasn't pleased.’

Franken’s set also took aim at fellow comedian Konstantin Kisin, another leading light in the Comedy Unleashed project who made international headlines in 2018 for refusing to sign a ‘safe-space’ agreement before performing at a university; and Douglas Murray, a right-wing journalist who had put together a political tour show with Doyle called Resisting Wokeness.  

A series of heated conversations ensued over the following days – with Franken admitting to having left ‘very angry’ messages on Doyle’s voicemail. After which, the American parted ways with Comedy Unleashed. But how exactly that happened is disputed. 

According to the club, Franken confronted other stand-ups in the green room and demanded that a number of named comics that he didn't like be blacklisted from the night. When the bookers refused, Franken severed all ties with the club – which was why all the videos of his performances were taken down. 

‘Our preference would have been to keep them up as we valued them very much, but we cannot host content on our channel without the performer's consent’ they told Chortle

However, according to Franken, during their row Doyle said something to the effect of, ‘well, this relationship is over’ hung up, and then took down all the videos.

The sides cannot even agree on what should be a matter of fact: whether videos mocking Young were posted online at all. The issue is crucial to Franken’s view that he was ‘censored’.

Doyle insists footage from Franken’s set from both gigs was posted on YouTube but only taken down after their row, which came five days after the March show.

But Franken says neither videos ever made it online, and said it was a ‘lie’ that he had tried to censor other performers. He admitted exchanging some words with Kisin offstage, but accused the club of ‘twisting the fact that I was questioning and criticising them', adding: 'My ridicule is satire and not censorship.’

He said: ‘I've gone after political correctness a lot in my career, but what I've learned from working at Comedy Unleashed is more disturbing than anything I've ever seen in my 20 years in comedy.’

However, Comedy Unleashed told Chortle: ‘At no point was Will ever told what he could and couldn't talk about on stage. He is angry that we related some of the audience feedback, many of whom had told us that they found his lectures about comedians they had never heard of to be "tedious". Again, he has misinterpreted this feedback as an attempt to censor or control him, but he was always free to speak his mind on our stage. 

‘We have done our utmost to assist Will and promote his work. If this is censorship, it's a very odd kind.  We don't have the power to censor Will even if we wanted to. As a comedy club, we can only provide platforms; we cannot take them away. 

‘We regret very much that Will has ended his relationship with the club, but it is out of our hands. The points that he has raised with Chortle are largely fabrications and misrepresentations intended to settle a personal score.’

Franken – who made headlines in 2015 when he announced he was transsexual, before going back to living as a man –  is not the only comedian who has taken advantage of Comedy Unleashed’s free-speech stance to criticise its politics and supporter base.

In November, Alasdair Beckett-King also had a run-in with promoters when he, too, criticised the concept of the night as well as Toby Young, Titania McGrath and, ironically, Will Franken, during his set. At the end of the night, he declined payment, feeling it would not be right for him to accept.

The club say he was free to mock them as ‘we had given him a platform to say whatever he liked’ but declined to pass on footage of the gig, as they had promised, because the ‘odd slight’ of Beckett-King refusing his fee. 

Beckett-King told Chortle it was ‘hypocritical’ of them not to release the footage, but added: ‘Of course, I haven't really been a victim of censorship because there's no free-speech crisis in comedy and the censorship panic is a load of reactionary, alt-right wank.’

Back in December, Doyle threatened comic Sam Whyte with legal action over a sarcastic Twitter comment she made about the Resisting Wokeness tour, suggesting:  ‘The whole show is Andrew Doyle perfectly enunciating the N-word repeatedly while Douglas Murray masturbates to climax.’

Doyle sent her a private message saying: ’I'll be speaking to my lawyer tomorrow about your utterly vile libel on Twitter. Perhaps you could elaborate for me in what way you think I'm a racist, and why you think it's acceptable to make that accusation on a public forum?’

Whyte explained to him: ‘It's because I think your like saying words that shock people. That was the joke. I'm willing to defend to your lawyer.’

No legal action was taken. But Doyle told Chortle he was justified in defending his livelihood.

 ’It was a very unpleasant and unprovoked attack from a fellow comic,’ he said. ‘She explained that she wasn't accusing me of racism but was attempting a joke based on her false perception that I say things for shock value.  I accepted that I had misread her intentions and that was the end of the matter.’

Here’s footage of Franken’s last appearance at Comedy Unleashed last month, as filmed by his girlfriend, in the absence of official footage:

Published: 10 Apr 2020