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Uncontroversial Play Interrupted by Christian Protesters

Mike Daisey learned an important lesson on Thursday night: Church groups hate jokes about fucking. Daisey, whose solo show 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @Amazon.com was a modest Fringe and Off-Broadway hit a few years back, was shocked when a performance of his new show Invincible Summer at American Rep in Cambridge was interrupted by a group of nearly 90 audience members standing up and leaving simultaneously. (The action starts about a minute into the above video.) One person stepped onto the stage and poured water over Daisey’s notes before leaving. Daisey shouted after them as they left, attempting to engage them in a dialogue, but no one would stay. On his blog, Daisey describes the objectors as a “Christian group,” though the show itself — a personal story about Daisey’s life in Brooklyn and 9/11, which ran at the Public this winter — doesn’t have anything to do with religion. Since the walkout happened just after Daisey told a joke about fucking Paris Hilton, he guesses in the video that the dissenters objected to his language. Because we are knee-jerk skeptics, we can’t quiet the little voice that says, “Is this real?” But Daisey politely responds to one doubter (who since deleted his own comment) on John Hodgman’s blog.

A Night to Remember [Mike Daisey]

Uncontroversial Play Interrupted by Christian Protesters