Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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A radical leftist named Oliver Hutchings has just been found guilty of blackmailing 27 comedy venues into cancelling Katie Hopkins' shows.
Hutchings warned the venues due to host Ms Hopkins that, if they failed to cancel the event, he would personally ensure the show was disrupted. He told the venues he would arrange for people in the audience to shout, make noise and set off party poppers to disrupt the event.
He also made complaints alleging that venues watered down drinks and had failed to conduct proper staff checks. Which, to be fair, is pretty accurate for most comedy clubs.
The prosecutor said Hutchings had told the venues: “If you think I will give up, you are very, very wrong. I will not stop until the evening is cancelled or your business is shut down.”
Hutchings also warned: “I will flyer outside your business, I will continue to post about your business in online groups – I swear that on my family’s life.”
Hutchings tried to cast himself as the victim and moral guardian of every fashionable protected group. As a gay man, he claimed to represent the LGBT community; because his grandfather had dementia, he positioned himself as a defender of disabled and elderly people; and because he was raised by a single mother, he took offence on behalf of stay-at-home mothers. He assembled a sort of personal grievance Pokémon victimhood collection and used it to justify bullying small venues into cancelling Katie. "Be tolerant, or I will destroy you!"
Is this the end for cancel culture in comedy? As a comedian who occasionally says things that might upset you if you're a fat communist with blue hair and a nose ring, I hope so. Cancel culture is a genuine problem. I used to do a solo show every month at a comedy club in London, and they showed me a complaint email they'd received.
It said, "We came to see Leo Kearse's show in July, and he was horrific and offensive and we left in disgust. We came back to see him again in October, and he was still horrific and offensive. Can you please stop putting him on?" There's another option you're not looking at here! Other comedians are available. You could see Nish Kumar? Rosie Jones? (if you've got a spare 9 hours).
If comedy can only say what the most offendable people in society think then it's going to die because comedy depends on people being able to be irreverent and say an unsayable truth.
In spite of the lack of coverage in the media, this conviction is momentous. For too long there's been no cost attached to cancel culture. The people who partake in it, who destroy people's lives and livelihoods, drive people to suicide and their children to starvation, are applauded as heroes by the left. They're not heroes. They're bitter little communist scumbags and it's about time a cost was attached to their bullying.
For a long time I was wondering what the cost could be. Could it be social - could cancel culture go out of fashion? I thought that was unlikely. From the Maoist mobs to modern college campuses, there's never been a social negative to cancelling people. I thought: what if a right-wing government gets in and enforces freedom of speech, encourages meritocracy in comedy and allows people to earn if they're right-wing? But the blob is too entrenched. You'll never be able to shift the culture at the BBC.
But this conviction is finally attaching a cost to cancel culture. It's great to see.
There's no need to cancel comedy. Every time we set foot on stage, we're performing in front of a jury: the audience.
Get a hair transplant from the place that did mine! https://elit.mobi/sXDR
Check out my Patreon for livestreams and exclusive content: patreon.com/leokearse
Twitter: twitter.com/LeoKearse
Paypal: paypal.me/LeoKearse
Support my work on Patreon/Substack:
patreon.com/leokearse
substack.com/@leokearse
Get tickets for my standup: leokearse.com
A radical leftist named Oliver Hutchings has just been found guilty of blackmailing 27 comedy venues into cancelling Katie Hopkins' shows.
Hutchings warned the venues due to host Ms Hopkins that, if they failed to cancel the event, he would personally ensure the show was disrupted. He told the venues he would arrange for people in the audience to shout, make noise and set off party poppers to disrupt the event.
He also made complaints alleging that venues watered down drinks and had failed to conduct proper staff checks. Which, to be fair, is pretty accurate for most comedy clubs.
The prosecutor said Hutchings had told the venues: “If you think I will give up, you are very, very wrong. I will not stop until the evening is cancelled or your business is shut down.”
Hutchings also warned: “I will flyer outside your business, I will continue to post about your business in online groups – I swear that on my family’s life.”
Hutchings tried to cast himself as the victim and moral guardian of every fashionable protected group. As a gay man, he claimed to represent the LGBT community; because his grandfather had dementia, he positioned himself as a defender of disabled and elderly people; and because he was raised by a single mother, he took offence on behalf of stay-at-home mothers. He assembled a sort of personal grievance Pokémon victimhood collection and used it to justify bullying small venues into cancelling Katie. "Be tolerant, or I will destroy you!"
Is this the end for cancel culture in comedy? As a comedian who occasionally says things that might upset you if you're a fat communist with blue hair and a nose ring, I hope so. Cancel culture is a genuine problem. I used to do a solo show every month at a comedy club in London, and they showed me a complaint email they'd received.
It said, "We came to see Leo Kearse's show in July, and he was horrific and offensive and we left in disgust. We came back to see him again in October, and he was still horrific and offensive. Can you please stop putting him on?" There's another option you're not looking at here! Other comedians are available. You could see Nish Kumar? Rosie Jones? (if you've got a spare 9 hours).
If comedy can only say what the most offendable people in society think then it's going to die because comedy depends on people being able to be irreverent and say an unsayable truth.
In spite of the lack of coverage in the media, this conviction is momentous. For too long there's been no cost attached to cancel culture. The people who partake in it, who destroy people's lives and livelihoods, drive people to suicide and their children to starvation, are applauded as heroes by the left. They're not heroes. They're bitter little communist scumbags and it's about time a cost was attached to their bullying.
For a long time I was wondering what the cost could be. Could it be social - could cancel culture go out of fashion? I thought that was unlikely. From the Maoist mobs to modern college campuses, there's never been a social negative to cancelling people. I thought: what if a right-wing government gets in and enforces freedom of speech, encourages meritocracy in comedy and allows people to earn if they're right-wing? But the blob is too entrenched. You'll never be able to shift the culture at the BBC.
But this conviction is finally attaching a cost to cancel culture. It's great to see.
There's no need to cancel comedy. Every time we set foot on stage, we're performing in front of a jury: the audience.
Get a hair transplant from the place that did mine! https://elit.mobi/sXDR
Check out my Patreon for livestreams and exclusive content: patreon.com/leokearse
Twitter: twitter.com/LeoKearse
Paypal: paypal.me/LeoKearse
