'This sits entirely with me,' says comic after Chortle's exposé

Comedian Pete Gionis has admitted he harassed customers for posting a one-star review of the comedy club he runs.

Last week Chortle revealed how a couple were subject to threats and intimidation – including a text with racist overtones and the publication of their home address – after criticising London's Comedy Carnival on Google.

At the time, Gionis vehemently denied he was behind the aggressive messages, implying they must have been sent by a colleague. He raised the threat of ‘vigorous legal action to the full extent of the law and our [Comedy Carnival's] full financial resources’ if we did not remove his name from the story.

However he has now sent an email to numberous comedians saying he takes ‘full responsibility… this sits entirely with me’.

The 54-year said he was stepping back from running the club ‘for the foreseeable future’ and would be working to address his issue with alcohol, which he suggested was behind the incident. He is no longer listed as compere for any future Comedy Carnival shows.

The couple involved, Tanya and Rachit, had originally said Gionis's actions were ‘clear indications of hate crime’,  'racist', and ‘completely disproportionate behaviour’.  

It all started when the pair attended a Comedy Carnival show at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden which Gionis was also compering. After they got home, Rachit left a one-star Google review with no written comment.

Shortly afterwards, the club responded by publicly posting his personal information - including home address, email and mobile number - calling him a 'vindictive venomous prick' and inviting people to 'give feedback'.

‘This obviously felt extremely invasive and frightening,’ Tanya said, adding: ‘Rachit removed his review after the doxxing, because he felt genuinely intimidated by the fact that all of his personal details had been exposed.

‘I felt strongly that someone shouldn’t be bullied into removing even a simple one-star rating, so I then left a review myself.’

Tanya later left another review under the name ‘Neeraj’ calling the show ‘boring’ and calling the content ‘completely unimaginative. Predictable, flat, and at times awkwardly dragged out. The MC in particular was a huge disappointment.’

A couple of days later, the situation escalated when Rachit started receiving ‘hostile and intimidating’ messages from Gionis. The comedian initially denied being behind the texts, claiming the number which sent them could be accessed by number of people working for Comedy Carnival.

The first message said: ‘Tell your dumb brown friends to take those stupid reviews down or I will expose your personal information on a scale you can’t imagine and bombard your employer’s Google listing with bad reviews mentioning you by name.

It was followed by another threatening: 'You have an hour to get those reviews taken down or the party starts.'

However, Rachit does not work for Bloomberg –  the company mentioned by Gionis – which could have resulted in a vindictive campaign against a man who just happened to share Rachit’s name.

After another of their friends posted a negative review, Rachit receive another intimidating text saying: ‘You just made it 100 times worse. You won’t just be hearing from HR but also the Home Office and HMRC, you fucking cocksucker.’

‘Given he already had our full address, this felt quite threatening,’ Tanya added.

Later, the original Comedy Carnival response revealing Rachid’s details was removed, replaced by a new one insulting him as ‘Ratshit’. That was later changed to the correct spelling after Chortle contacted the club about the exchanges.

In his email to comedians last week, Gionis said: 'Today, I am coming forward to take full responsibility for what occurred last weekend, involving inappropriate and unacceptable messages sent in relation to customer reviews.

'My judgement was clearly compromised, but there is no excuse. What happened was wrong, and I take full responsibility for it. Some of you will know that I have had issues with alcohol over the past couple of years and have worked to address them, but I have not always managed that effectively, and this was a failure entirely on my part.'

He said he wanted to make clear that no one else involved in the club had any knowledge of this, adding: 'This sits entirely with me.'

Gionis  concluded: 'I will be stepping back from my duties for the foreseeable future to address these issues and to ensure this does not happen again.

'I fully understand the impact this has had on people's trust, and that is deeply regrettable. The remaining staff members would like to continue their work putting on the best comedy shows they can, and I hope that in time, we can begin to rebuild some trust.'

He did not respond to Chortle's request for further comment on the email.

When this website first contacted Gionis about the claims he issued a statement on behalf of his company saying Comedy Carnival 'cannot verify the authenticity or origin of the messages at this stage... A full internal review of account activity and staff access is under way, and any conduct found to be inconsistent with company policies will be addressed appropriately.'

Gionis formely performed as Pete Jonas and has forbidden Chortle from using his publicity image.

Published: 12 Apr 2026