Audience members at a London show booed comedian Sarah Silverman this weekend after what they and many critics say was a rushed and under-prepared performance.
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3,600 English fans packed the Hammersmith Apollo, paying an average of $80 a ticket, for the Comedy Central star’s debut London performance. But fans turned on Ms. Silverman after a mere 40-minutes when she ended the show. “She is a guiltily enjoyable act, but just when she starts to hit her stride, she calls time on the gig – over when it had barely begun,” said Steve Bennett of the comedy website Chortle.
After audience members refused to leave the venue and demanded their money back, Ms. Silverman returned to the stage and she admitted she had no other material prepared but participated in what Dominic Cavendish of The Daily Telegraph described as an “excruciatingly embarrassing” Q&A session.
“I’ve never been to a more sad-sack performance in my life – if you can’t produce a single slice of new material, then don’t put on a show in the first place,” wrote an audience member, identified as Rob, in a forum on Time Out’s website. “When the lights went up, I thought it was a joke, and when she was cajoled into coming back onto the stage it was almost embarrassing – utterly pathetic.”
