- the one in which he first called out Jimmy Savile's crimes

Jerry Sadowitz is to sell his rarely-seen 1987 Total Abuse show on DVD – after stumbling across a cache in ‘an old drawer’.

The show has become especially notable as the savagely offensive comic used it to call out Jimmy Savile for being a paedophile, decades before the broadcaster’s crimes became public knowledge. 

An audio recording of the show, taped at the Assembly Rooms at the  Edinburgh Fringe, was briefly released under the name Gobshite, but withdrawn from sale for fear of legal action from Savile.

A re-edited version was made available on  VHS the following year, under Virgin’s Comedy Club label, but it is almost impossible to get hold of and has never been officially released as a DVD. However,  Sadowitz did sell it at gigs for a while around a decade ago.

The comic is now selling an ‘extremely limited’ quantity of the discs directly to fans who send him £35 via PayPal, but urged: ‘Please don’t be a cunt and sell it on eBay.’ 

Details are on his website, in which he also asks ‘multimillionaire plagiarists, why not PayPal me a shitload of money so I can live in forced retirement in peace?’

The 65-year-old-comic was cancelled at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe after members of staff – and, reportedly, the audience – complained the material was offensive. Although he has long been linked to derogatory content, The Pleasance cited ‘racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny… that [is] not acceptable and does not align with our values’. It was also claimed that he had exposed his penis to the audience.

Sadowitz accused those criticising him of ‘cheapening and simplifying’  his act.

Published: 4 Nov 2026