Tag: Kate Smurthwaite

  • Progressive politics in action, Goldsmiths division

    Kate Smurthwaite’s show at Goldsmiths was rescheduled and then canceled at the last minute and rescheduled and canceled at the last minute again – and rescheduled again, for this evening. She was bracing for another last minute cancellation but it didn’t come so she did the show

    – and this is how they did it this time:

    Ok I really didn’t think people were actually such arseholes as this but: after being banned from performing at Goldsmith’s College, then after much discussion invited back, having the show cancelled twice due to rather suspicious problems identified by the SU, a LOT of hard work from Asher and Shaz and the organising group, tonight we finally did the show. We wanted to do it as a benefit for Refugee Action. We made the tickets free and asked people to donate at the door so the charity would get 100% of the money and no-one on a tight budget would miss out. We fully booked out overnight and I spent a lot of the last couple of days telling people I was sorry there was no more room but we couldn’t risk breaking the room’s fire capacity and giving the SU another excuse to chuck us out. Well it turned out that the tickets had been reserved in bulk by people using spurious email addresses to make a point by then not showing up. So a load of people who wanted to see my show were not able to and a vital charity doing life-saving work missed out on at least several hundred quid, maybe more. I hope you’re really proud you fucking shitbags.

    How disgusting is that?

    Updating to add: Kate has a fundraising page in case you want to help make up what the fucking shitbags blocked.

    Raising money for

    Refugee Action

    Refugee Action

    Charity Registration No. 283660

    We believe in human rights. We believe in fairness and equality. We believe that no one seeking asylum in the UK should be left destitute. Together, we can create a society where people escaping armed conflict, torture and persecution are welcomed, supported and are able to build their own future

    The donations are tumbling in.

  • This time we don’t like the paperwork

    Back at the beginning of February I posted about Kate Smurthwaite’s scheduled triumphant return to Goldsmiths (after the SU canceled her show last year for no good reason).

    The Goldsmiths Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society will be holding a stand-up show featuring the triumphant return of Kate Smurthwaite to perform along with comedian James Ross. Tickets are free but limited so please confirm on Eventbrite, alcohol will be provided and we will be collecting money for Refugee action at the event, so bring your coins!

    Left-wing, highbrow, feminist, atheist comedy from Kate Smurthwaite  – ThreeWeeks award winner and writer for Have I Got News For You? and BBC3’s BAFTA-winning The Revolution Will Be Televised.  Kate has appeared on Question Time and is a regular on The Big Questions, The Moral Maze and This Morning but was recently deemed “too controversial” for Goldsmith’s College.

    Her new comedy solo show is called “The wrong sort of Feminist” and is about her barring from Goldsmiths last year, choice and freedom, the feminist movement, the treatment of asylum seekers in Britain, Couples Come Dine with Me and edible pants.

    Her show has had great reviews with Three weeks saying its “comedy that cuts through the crap”, Broadway baby saying “The verve with which she articulates her views on our land is monumental”, the Spectator saying ““Hilarious… A powerhouse of observational wit” and Scotsgay noting “An important and inclusive narrative… a brilliant comedian”.

    It was canceled at the last minute – because of a broken water main, she was told. That was crappy, because people had made plans. But a broken water main is a broken water main, so okay – it was rescheduled.

    Until today.

    Fucking Goldsmith’s have cancelled my show again. Last week when there was a burst water main I took it on the chin. This time they are saying “paperwork wasn’t done correctly” (not by me, by the student atheist society that had arranged it). I find this more than unlikely. I smell yet more bullshit. Really sorry everyone who had a ticket and then got told it had moved dates and all that crap. We are going to keep fighting this until it does happen. When it does I will be bringing free nibbles for those who’ve put up with all the dickery.

    I second the bullshit call. It’s the Student Union doing this, and I say it’s outrageous. They dislike her views on prostitution, so they schedule events and then cancel them at the last minute, so as to punish anyone who had made plans to go as well as Kate herself. This goes beyond even no-platforming into outright disruption.

    They need to be embarrassed.

  • Not designer luxury treats

    Oh how nice – the Guardian seizes the opportunity of International Zero Tolerance for FGM day to tell women that their trivial little issues like equal pay don’t matter as much as FGM. How very dawkins of them.

    The title misrepresents what the article says, so that’s a start.

    FGM a more urgent women’s rights issue than equal pay, research finds

    What Hajra Rahim actually says in the lede:

    A majority of the British public believe female genital mutilation is a more pressing women’s rights concern than equal pay, research by ActionAid UK has found.

    See, those two are not the same thing. The headline says FGM is more urgent as a fact. The lede says that the public thinks FGM is more urgent. The fact that a newspaper editor can’t see the difference, or chose to occlude it on purpose, is disturbing.

    The article itself is good. The way the Guardian chose to misrepresent it in the headline stinks.

    Kate Smurthwaite had a gentle word with the Guardian on Facebook:

    Dear The Guardian, Why exactly the fuck should there be a discussion about which basic human rights women should get in what order. The whole point about rights is that they’re rights, not designer luxury treats so the correct amount to have is FUCKING ALL OF THEM and the correct order is RIGHT FUCKING NOW YOU WANKERS. With love and best wishes Kate Smurthwaite

    So beautifully put.

  • Triumphant return

    Ha! At last, Kate Smurthwaite gets to do a gig at Goldsmiths after all.

    The Goldsmiths Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society will be holding a stand-up show featuring the triumphant return of Kate Smurthwaite to perform along with comedian James Ross. Tickets are free but limited so please confirm on Eventbrite, alcohol will be provided and we will be collecting money for Refugee action at the event, so bring your coins!

    Left-wing, highbrow, feminist, atheist comedy from Kate Smurthwaite  – ThreeWeeks award winner and writer for Have I Got News For You? and BBC3’s BAFTA-winning The Revolution Will Be Televised.  Kate has appeared on Question Time and is a regular on The Big Questions, The Moral Maze and This Morning but was recently deemed “too controversial” for Goldsmith’s College.

    About a year ago, I think.

    Her new comedy solo show is called “The wrong sort of Feminist” and is about her barring from Goldsmiths last year, choice and freedom, the feminist movement, the treatment of asylum seekers in Britain, Couples Come Dine with Me and edible pants.

    Her show has had great reviews with Three weeks saying its “comedy that cuts through the crap”, Broadway baby saying “The verve with which she articulates her views on our land is monumental”, the Spectator saying ““Hilarious… A powerhouse of observational wit” and Scotsgay noting “An important and inclusive narrative… a brilliant comedian”.

    I’ve seen her perform, and thought she was brilliant.

    James Ross will be performing “Leopardoptera” and describes his style of comedy as “High-energy, left field stand-up for people who’ve read a book, without pictures, and enjoyed it.” He has performed at the edinburgh fringe with his hour long show which has been described as “freaking genius” by Threeweeks and “one to watch” by the daily mirror and Chortle describing him as “the sort of person children stare at on buses”.

    Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm onwards.

    WHEN
    WHERE
    Natura Cafe – Goldsmiths Students’ Union. Dixon Road. London SE14 6NW GB – View Map

    Dixon Road is off Lewisham Way.

  • The woman’s right to a platform

    Nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty. People are having themselves a high old time putting that mouthy Kate Smurthwaite in her place. Rupert Myers at the Telegraph is in there with a shiv – pretending her show was canceled because no one wanted to go, which is not the case.

    When political activist Kate Smurthwaite had her comedy gig cancelled at Goldsmith’s College yesterday she was quick out of the blocks to tweet and blog about the removal of her show.

    As an apparent martyr to free speech her plight quickly attracted reports by the BBC, the Huffington Post and others.

    At least the New Statesman’s write-up asked the question “Is this newsworthy? On its own, no, not really”, before going on to outline the internet’s fomenting outrage at the decision to kill the event.

    Numbers of students in Universities around the country have become intolerant of free speech, but this incident looks more like a claim for publicity than a good example of that problem.

    Despite having tickets on sale for weeks, Smurthwaite’s show had sold eight.

    There’s the shiv. The show was for the comedy and feminist societies, whose members got in free. He left that part out. Nasty.

    Smurthwaite successfully pivoted this cancellation into a media and internet event which I am now helping to further publicise. Kate’s show will be at the Leicester Comedy Festival. I’m taking a punt here but I expect there are still some tickets left.

    What was she supposed to do? Say nothing? Take it like a lamb? Nod and smile and thank the president for deciding to cancel her show? Why shouldn’t she tweet and blog about it? Her gig was canceled at the last minute for the flimsiest (and least coherent) of reasons – why would she do anything other than object?

    The publicity we can all cheer – it’s impressively enterprising. My concern is that by portraying what happened as a genuine example of the imperilling of free speech, the media and the internet once again confuse a significant issue.

    No picketers have been found. No vote was taken to oppose the woman’s right to a platform.

    Says the man, from a very great height.

     

  • Despite many complaints

    Yesterday evening London time (early afternoon my time) –

    golds

    Good evening all!

    The act booked to play tomorrow, Kate Smurthwaite, has been cancelled by the Comedy Society and will no longer be appearing at Goldsmiths.
    Since announcing the line up a couple of weeks ago I have had many complaints about Kate’s past material, particularly in relation to her position on sex work, religion and Trans issues.

    Without again going into the details or accuracy of these claims, there is a likeliness that the Safe Space policy we abide by could be breached, leading to more complaints. This is as well as rumours that there is a picket planned outside the venue.

    All of these factors are not conducive to the type of environment what we, as a volunteer led group in a small Students’ Union, want to create so, with regret, we have cancelled the gig.

    Anyone who has already bought tickets is entitled to a refund that we shall be issuing tomorrow morning. Just email goldsmithscomedy@gmail.com if there’s any problems. We apologise for cancelling last minute and hope we haven’t ruined your plans.

    But just a few days before that, on January 27th –

    HELLO! We have the wonderful Kate Smurthwaite (great feminist comedian) doing a solo show next week and it’s FREE for you! The poster is pretty good too, right?
    https://www.facebook.com/events/1532043057063716/?fref=ts

    So that was quite a radical change, for no real (satisfactory) reason.

    Not liking her stuff or her politics would be a reason for not inviting her in the first place, other things being equal. (It might not be a reason if other people loved her stuff and her politics, and you alone had bad taste and shitty politics.) You don’t really need reasons for not inviting people in the first place (unless you’re part of a group and everyone else wants to invite the people in question). You damn well do need reasons for telling people – especially at the last minute – “Sorry, we’ve decided we don’t like you!”

    This one, posted after the “Good evening all!” one, is even more insulting and rude.

    golds2

    Despite many complaints from students about the content of Kate’s act in the past we were planning to go ahead with the gig until Kate told me 24 hours before that there was likely to be a picket with lots of students and non students outside the venue. I couldn’t verify this. Up to this point we had sold only 8 tickets so I decided to pull the plug.

    Comedy Society President

    I don’t know why the president decided to do that. I can’t tell what the reasons were. Maybe it was just some kind of erring on the side of caution thing, given that omigod there had been “many complaints from students about the content of Kate’s act.” I don’t know, but I think it was extremely bad manners at best to cancel the gig, and just plain disgusting to trash Kate in the process.

    That’s my 2.7 cents.

  • Goldsmiths students, she was told, have only correct beliefs

    The Guardian reports on the Goldsmiths-Smurthwaite collision.

    One item strikes me as very odd…

    The first she heard about the gig at Goldsmiths being pulled was an email exchange with the college on Sunday evening. She was told of “complaints” about a range of past subjects in her shows, including her views on prostitution and on Muslim women being forced to cover up, but was not given details or any right of response.

    Smurthwaite favours decriminalising those selling sex, while criminalising those who purchase it. Goldsmiths students, she was told, support legalisation of the sex industry.

    What? How can anyone even know that? What does it mean to say that? How can anyone possibly know that all Goldsmiths students support anything? Let alone something as specific as what attitude to have to “the sex industry”? The answer is that there is no way. Nobody can know that. The claim is ridiculous.

    Maybe what they mean is “Goldsmiths students are expected to support legalisation of the sex industry”? Maybe they’re foolishly admitting to imposing an orthodoxy on their students? But if so – why the fuck would it be that, in particular? I could see something large and generic like “Goldsmiths students are expected to treat all people as equals,” but I can’t see getting more detailed than that, especially not about what the students think and approve and support as opposed to how they treat people.

    At any rate…as Kate said in her post, somebody at Goldsmiths seems to be determined to shit on Kate by way of explaining the idiotic decision to cancel her gig at the last minute.

    The president of the comedy society said: “Despite many complaints from students about the content of Kate’s act in the past we were planning to go ahead with the gig until Kate told me 24 hours before that there was likely to be a picket with lots of students and non-students outside the venue. I couldn’t verify this. Up to this point we had only sold eight tickets so I decided to pull the plug.”

    Nice. Really nice. That’s throwing someone under the bus with a vengeance.

    Ungrateful creeps.

  • Kate’s version

    So now there’s a lot of bullshit and ass-covering about the cancellation of Kate Smurthwaite’s comedy show at Goldsmiths. So Kate has presented the documentation.

    The media have written a lot about my show at Goldsmith College being cancelled tonight and of course social media is now abuzz with people calling me a liar and claiming I’ve made the whole thing up. So here’s my version. With screenshots to prove it. My apologies for releasing shots of what was obviously intended to be a private conversation, I wanted very much to avoid this but I’m not going to put up with being called a liar repeatedly. I have blurred out identifying details of the representative from Goldsmiths Comedy Society because I know from personal experience how the internet can over-react otherwise.

    I was booked to do a show at Goldsmiths College, in south London. I’ve performed there many times before. The show was a joint event for the Comedy Society and the Feminist Society – members of which could come for free – and we then agreed that they would put up a ticket page for anyone else – such as local residents who fancied coming. As a way to cover costs or raise a few extra quid.

    The day before the show (Sunday) I was getting a lot of hassle on Twitter because I had dared to suggest that cutting the opening hours of Spearmint Rhino strip club was a good thing.

    So she thought it only right to inform the organisers that there might be some protesty disruption at the show.

    But they already knew…

    …needless to say I was more bothered by the apparent low ticket sales – I hadn’t realised (this would be clarified later) that this referred to tickets bought online, not to members of the Comedy Society and Feminist Society who would be just showing up on the night as they didn’t have to pay. So I queried this…

    She wanted to do the show. People are saying she was trying to get out of doing the show. Nope.

    Also, it wasn’t about the ticket sales.

    Also note that after the media got hold of the story Goldsmiths Comedy Society responded suggesting the show had been cut due to poor sales. A few points on that:

    1. The show was never set up for tickets to be sold – it was a free event for students from the relevant societies. The tickets sold were extras on top of the expected crowd.
    2. They were still expecting 50 people when hey pulled the event.
    3. The show has been very popular elsewhere. In Edinburgh we had to cut the show slightly short to allow extra time to get the crowds in and out on weekends. It had all 4 and 5 star reviews. For example: http://one4review.co.uk/2014/08/news-kate-leftie-cock-womble-5/
    4. If you’re going to pull a show over sales, you could save a lot of effort by just doing that rather than trying to call me a bad person!
    5. Wow – isn’t it petty and mean to refuse to accept that you screwed up and try instead to damage my professional reputation by undermining me with misleading data like that?

    Yes, it fucking is.

    I’ve seen one of her shows. I’m that lucky. I sat two or three yards from her when she did a show at a Dublin pub in July 2013. It was brilliant. Ab-muscle hurtingly funny and brilliant. Ask PZ, ask Sili – they were there.

    Then the organizer says some nonsense about supporting the sex industry. Kate says she supports the women in the industry, but “can hardly perform at a pro-pimp event.”

    So then bam, it was canceled, just like that, for no real reason.

    She doesn’t, and neither do I.

    And then, somehow, it became about Kate’s offenses against the burqa.

    I’ve already seen some of my feminist Muslim friends commenting on Kate’s Facebook post about this, disgusted on her behalf. Tehmina Kazi is one.

    …I wasn’t shown the other complaints – I have asked for them.  I do feel bad that one individual has beens stuck in the middle of clearly a lot of conflicting angry voices (including mine). But on the other hand (philosophy mode now, strap in!) that’s the responsibility that free speech gives us. People can say things, others can complain, someone needs to assess those complaints and see if they’re worth acting on. Obviously I think I should have been allowed to perform. Especially as my show – which is not in any way about the sex industry or the burqa – is about free speech. Actually there is no better time to heckle than halfway through a show about free speech!

    And yes – we probably will put it on somewhere else in London soon. It will be part of the Leicester Comedy Festival and hopefully the Brighton Fringe. I won’t post links or I’ll be accused of shamelessly using the incident to promote my work. But anyone who had a ticket for Goldsmiths – yes all eight of you!! – can drop me a line and be guest-listed and served free drinks by me personally at an upcoming performance.

    I’ve quoted very extensively because Kate wants this to get out there, but read the whole thing to get every detail. And don’t be deceived by the bullshitters.