Jerry Sadowitz is an American-born Scottish stand-up comedian and magician.
I saw him perform a couple of times in the late 1980s.
It's not something one ever forgets.
I enjoyed watching the audiences gradually thin out
as he explored every possible avenue to offend everyone.
Sadowitz was born in June 1961 in New Jersey, the son of a Scottish-Jewish mother
named Roslyn and a Jewish-American father who worked as a scrap metal merchant.
His parents split up when he was three, and he moved with his mother
back to her native Glasgow when he was seven.
Jerry has had very little TV exposure due to the uncompromising nature of his humour.
He shocked me too at times but I stuck it out because that's the fucking point.
There's little around online but, in a very old box, I found this very old DVD.
Non-Brits (and even some Brits) may find his accent difficult to understand.
In 1991, Sadowitz was knocked unconscious by an audience member
during a performance at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal,
where he mocked French Canadians,
starting with the greeting "Hello moosefuckers! I tell you why I hate Canada,
half of you speak French, and the other half let them."
The rarely quoted follow-up line,
which Sadowitz claims is what actually led to him being attacked,
was "Why don't you speak Indian? You might as well speak the language
of the people you stole the country off of in the first place."
Sadowitz's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe show was cancelled after one night
because staff members—and, reportedly, audience members
at the Pleasance theatre found the material offensive.
The venue later clarified that this was due to
"racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny",
that "the material presented at his first show is not acceptable
and does not align with our values",
and that he had exposed his penis to a member of the audience.
He is a fantastic magician particularly skilled in card tricks
including amazing close-up work.
A subject on which he seems to be something of an expert/historian.
So I hope anyone unfamiliar with Jerry will understand
this is not suitable for the easily offended
and even the difficultly offended amongst you may take the odd hit :)
regards
Titus
p.s. If you click on the Jerry Sadowitz label
you can read a older post I wrote about him and David Icke.
