- Comedian will be performing at Havana this month
- He denies writing rape joke that cost him his ITV show
- Who is Dapper Laughs? Find out more below?
- Will you be going to watch him? Take part in our poll
A CONTROVERSIAL comedian who had to put his career on hold after a remark he made about rape backfired is due to perform in Jersey.
Daniel O’Reilly, who uses the stage name Dapper Laughs, is to perform at Havana nightclub next month and is also scheduled to appear in Guernsey.
The 31-year-old lost his ITV show Dapper Laughs: On The Pull after a petition was launched calling for the programme to be axed following the emergence of video footage showing him saying that a woman was ‘gagging for a rape’ during a stand-up gig.
Today, Mr O’Reilly, who used to live in Guernsey, said that the joke was ‘taken out of context’ and added that he has ‘never written a joke about rape’.
Earlier this year a successful petition, which gathered more than 1,000 signatures, led to a Glasgow nightclub cancelling his gig.
Mr O’Reilly said that he hoped that his fans in Jersey would not be disappointed if a similar petition was launched in the Island.
‘I feel like I’m portrayed in the wrong light,’ he said.
‘It’s really upsetting.
‘There are thousands and thousands of fans.
‘It is upsetting for them when people try to cancel gigs.’
Speaking about the criticism he received about the comment, Mr O’Reilly said that he never made the rape joke, but simply repeated something he had heard shouted from the crowd.
Following the backlash, Mr O’Reilly appeared on Newsnight to apologise.
He told the JEP he appeared on the programme because journalists were knocking on the door of his father – who had just been diagnosed with cancer – asking for a comment.
Mr O’Reilly added that his Guernsey-based father had since asked him to resurrect the character.
The comedian, who previously worked in the advertising department of Guernsey radio station Island FM, said that his tour The Res-Erection Tour pokes fun at lad culture.
He said: ‘A lot of people assume that my show promotes sexual harassment.
‘I have never written a joke about rape.
‘I don’t degrade women.
‘If there are any feminists groups or crisis groups, I would invite them to come along and not to believe what they may have read about me in papers in the UK.’
Mr O’Reilly will play his over-18 show The Res-Erection Tour at Havana on Friday 23 October.
- Dapper Laughs became known on the social networking sites Facebook and Vine, where he has 1.8 million and 646,000 followers respectively.
- In September 2014, his show, entitled Dapper Laughs: On the Pull began on ITV2.
- Following the emergence of a video clip in which he said an audience member was gagging for a rape an online petition was set up, which gained 68,210 signatures calling for the show to be cancelled.
- On 10 November, ITV announced they were not renewing the series for a second season as a result of the negative publicity.
