Comedian Arj Barker asked a breastfeeding mother and her baby to leave his comedy show at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday night, a decision that has sparked controversy online.
In a statement posted to his Instagram page, Barker, an American comedian, said a baby sitting a few rows away from the stage was "talking" at the start of his show, prompting him to make a few jokes about it. But when the baby "called out again," Barker became concerned.
"I then calmly informed the woman holding the baby that the baby couldn't stay," he said in the statement. "I felt bad doing so and stated this at the time as well as several times throughout the remainder of the show. As she was leaving, I offered for her to get a refund, as a gesture of good will."
Barker emphasized that he made the "very tough call" with about 50 minutes of the show left on behalf of "the other 700 or so audience members who deserved to see the show they had paid for, uninterrupted." He also pointed out that the show was for audiences 15 and older and said the theater should have flagged the baby's presence before it seated the mother.
In an interview with the Australian TV show "A Current Affair," the mother, Trish Faranda, said she left the show feeling humiliated, adding that she had gone to the show because it was something she did "pre-kids and always really enjoyed."
Faranda said that she attended the Melbourne International Comedy Festival show with a game plan to leave if her 7-month-old, Clara, became "disruptive."
"She started gurgling, babbling ... but not for very long, because then I just gave her a quick feed, and she was quiet," Faranda told the show. Then, the baby started making sounds again, which Faranda described as not "as loud as someone coughing."
"Then he was sort of like, 'Oh, no, it’s really disruptive, you’re interrupting my rhythm.' ... Then he threw back to the crowd and was basically trying to get their support to say 'get out,'" Faranda told "A Current Affair," saying she felt heckled.
Barker did not address possible heckling, but he mentioned in his statement that his decision to ask the woman to leave had nothing to do with whether she was breastfeeding or not.
"For the record, I support public breastfeeding, as it's perfectly natural," he said.
He did not apologize to Faranda for asking her to leave but said he feels bad "for any upset it has caused the parties involved, or my fans, or babies."
"I've nothing against babies, in fact I was one once, for almost 2 years," Barker said.
