Russell Howard storms off stage at gig after spat with audience member

Russell Howard stormed off stage after declaring an audience member had done "the worst thing they could do" to him.

The comedian and star of Russell Howard's Good News and The Russell Howard Hour was on stage at Bristol bar Bambalan last night when he refused to carry on with his performance after just five minutes.

The 40-year-old was furious when he noticed an audience member filming him on her phone from the front row, Bristol Post reports.

It's said Russell told the woman: "That's literally the worst thing you can do."

He told the woman to "live in the moment" and asked her how she would like it if someone started filming her at her place of work, before mimicking doing so by taking out his phone and aiming the camera at her.

The stand-up, who was using the gig to test out new material ahead of his forthcoming tour, said comedians are a "dying breed" and a reason for that is because they are fearful of people filming potentially risqué or unseen content and uploading it to YouTube, which could ruin their act.

Clearly rattled by the incident, he then informed the crowd of around 45 people he would just do some "safe material from now on" before he launched into an old routine. But he soon lost his way and turned to the woman who had been filming and told her "you've ruined it now".

"I was really looking forward to this gig," he said, before apologising to the crowd, picking up his backpack from behind the stage area and heading for the exit, leaving behind a stunned audience.

The woman, clearly a little embarrassed, told her fellow audience members she was just taking pictures and a few videos as others had been, but a man sat at the other end of the terrace shouted "you were filming the whole f***ing thing".

Event organiser and compère Mark Olver, who had already had to overcome an interruption caused by a heavy downpour which in turn led to a power cut, was clearly taken aback and a little lost for words as he returned to the microphone sooner than he would have expected.

"I'm not really sure what to say," he said as the bemused audience looked on, but as any good compère would he recovered the awkward situation well to end the eventful night with a laugh.

Tickets to the event, which also included sets from Jarred Christmas, Abi Clarke and Louise Leigh, cost £5 and it was not communicated to the crowd they should refrain from taking photographs and video footage.

Speaking after the event Mr Olver said he should have been clearer in telling people not to do so, adding he understood why Russell cut his set short.

"It's important that when acts are trying out new material people should understand they don't want video of it out there," he said.

"Sets at this kind of event are a work in progress. Most people understand this but I should have been clearer at the start of the gig in explaining it to people.

"He’s gutted and didn’t want to disappoint anyone but comedy is something you have to write in front of people and having a recording of that process out there in the world makes being creative really difficult."

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