Comedian Joe White racially abused during Perth Fringe Festival show

Comedian Joe White has described the horrendous moment an audience member racially abused him halfway through a show at Perth Fringe Festival organisers labelled as “deplorable”.

The Ethiopian-Australian funny man was forced to defuse a tense situation at his Friday night show, where he was heckled by a man in the crowd of 70 people.

About 30 minutes into the performance, White was interacting with audience members when he got talking to a man who was being disruptive.

“He kept putting his hands up and then I said, ‘What seems to be the problem, is there something you want to tell me?’. Then he dropped the N word at me,” he said.

White said the entire crowd gasped in disbelief, while he frantically thought of a way to best handle the situation.

“Do I end the show, walk away, verbally abuse him, get into an argument to teach him, but my number one concern was the safety of the audience and my staff, it could go either way and I would hate for there to be any altercation,” he said.

The racist slur caught the multi-award-winning performer by surprise as his “family-friendly” shows never attract that kind of behaviour.

“It’s never happened before, it’s not the type of crowd Fringe attracts and nothing about my act that attracts (that behaviour), I’m a family-friendly comedian, my stuff is not vulgar, it’s a safe show to bring your grandma to,” he said.

“I don’t use the word on stage, it really took me by surprise but I was able to deal with it in a calm and professional way but let him and others know it’s not okay.”

White said the heckler was waiting for him after the show and took his chance to have a heart-to-heart educational moment about the impact the man caused.

“I went straight up to him, but as soon as he saw me, he was clapping. He was telling me, ‘You’re amazing,’” he said.

“I said, ‘You killed the show, by using a word that was used to make black people feel inferior and sub-human, I’m just there trying to make you happy.’

“He was apologetic but so ignorant about the situation that took place.”

White believed the man wasn’t drunk but his behaviour was toxic.

“I always respect my audience, I’m there to make them laugh and to give them their money’s worth and I expect the same back,” he said.

“Under no circumstances should you yell out the N word to a black performer and not expect it to impact the room or person, it’s just not on.”

White returned to the Fringe stage on Saturday night but said he felt like a “zombie” with the incident still in the back of his mind.

Festival organiser Artrage chief executive Sharon Burgess said the isolated incident was “deplorable”.

“Racism has no place in the arts, and we are committed to promoting and supporting the creation of inclusive and safe spaces for artists to showcase their work,” she said.

“Patrons are recommended to use their words to advocate and support artists, instead of hateful speech that hurts and damages.

“The incident is deplorable but thankfully it is the only issue we are aware of as having occurred during the festival.”

Ms Burgess said the company had a zero-tolerance policy towards racism and provided support to White immediately after.

“FRINGE WORLD called Mr White right away after the incident to check on him. We are proud of our teams handling of the situation and we feel a great deal of respect and gratitude for the incredible humility and integrity shown by Joe in the face of such behaviour,” she said.

“We train our venue staff in audience management that includes direction on how to respond to and address incidents of heckling. The staff responded in keeping with this training; they monitored the instance and because the artist handled the room there was no need for them to step in and escalate.”