Paul Currie VS Soho Theatre

Aim

Soho Theatre and the CAA have falsely branded Paul Currie antisemitic and tried to destroy his career. We need your help to fight this.

Shtoom 

We are a group of artists, performers and friends of Paul Currie, a comedian, entertainer, artist, musician, and all-round good clown. Paul can be described as many things - but what he is not, is antisemitic.

In 2023 and 2024 he successfully performed his latest show, "Shtoom", in venues across Europe, the UK and Ireland - including a sell out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2023. However, following a performance of this show in Soho Theatre, London in February 2024 where at the end an audience member expressed disgust at the use of a Palestinian flag as part of this non verbal comedy show, Paul has been publicly branded as antisemitic and has had his reputation severely damaged as a result. This was primarily due to the immediate response from the theatre (following pressure from Campaign Against Antisemitism) who banned Paul and stated on their social media channels "we do not tolerate antisemitism of any kind" before any investigation or interviews had taken place. 

Soho Theatre

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E7sijmsLQb4?feature=share

(The link above is the moment where the flag was produced.)

On the night in question, at the end of the show when Paul had orchestrated a "standing ovation" ( which he often does as an end to the show), an audience member near the front row remained seated and then said aloud that they hated the use of the Palestinian flag. When asked if he did not like the show he said "It was fine until you used that flag - we hate that flag" (this has been corroborated by several eye witnesses on the night). The audience around them were upset by this and made their feelings clear. As a consequence, and after the atmosphere became more heated, Paul Currie had to tell that person to leave. This was due to their comments and perceived racist reaction to the use of a flag, and the fact that they had just upset a room full of people. It had no connection to their religion - which was not, and could not have been, known to Paul or to anyone else. Nevertheless the theatre were very quick to label the comedian's actions as "antisemitic". They said they were going to conduct a full investigation and speak to audience members, and yet months later, there are still several people who have tried to speak to the theatre with no response.  Seemingly the result of the "investigation" was predetermined from the start and they had no intention of conducting any form of enquiry. The subsequent media circus which followed has caused Paul Currie to be falsely branded as antisemitic, a label which has brought with it hate mail, death threats, verbal attacks on employers, friends and family, and significant loss of work as well as damage to his mental and physical health. 

Reputation

https://www.vaultartiststudios.com/paul-victor-currie

Paul Currie has been working as a performer for over 20 years and has carved out a strong fan base and reputation as an avant garde rule breaker. His back catalogue of shows is based on joy, silliness, art and nonsense. Often the audiences are families and kids. The point of the show is always to make people think about themselves whilst losing a few inhibitions - there is nothing offensive, racist or antisemitic in any of the content - never has been. In a world where comedians often hit very much below the belt, deliberately aiming to hurt, offend, and punch down, this cannot be said of a "Paul Currie" show. 

Thankfully a lot of organisations know this about Paul and his work and they have completely trusted their instincts that he is not what Soho and other press outlets have said he is. They have continued to support him since the events in February. Paul has performed twice in the Netherlands, at the Belfast International Childrens Festival and also brought Shtoom to the Stand in Glasgow as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Whilst all of this is very encouraging, this does not take away from the fact that he has faced devastating loss of work. Over and above almost all of the upcoming local gigs being pulled in the immediate aftermath of Soho's statement, he has had the cancellation of a large Australian tour which was to include the Melbourne Comedy Festival, has had his annual appearance at Glastonbury put under jeoprady (despite pulling some of the largest "outdoor stage" Theatre & Circus Field audiences in Glastonbury history during his 13 year run performing there), has very narrowly missed being completely cancelled from the Edinburgh Fringe for 2024 (thank you to The Stand in Edinburgh for your support!), and continues to face uncertainty about work due to the fallout from what has happened.

Sadly in recent months, this tactic is not in isolation. We are constantly reading about people in the media being cancelled, mislabelled, accused of antisemitism and worse, just for speaking out against the atrocities which are occurring on a daily basis in Gaza. Artists who use their voice and their platform to make some sort of statement about the world around them are repeatedly being taken down by organisations who disagree with this stance. People who are opposing the actions of the Israeli government and the IDF are being branded as anti-jew. But this is wrong - and we need to call it out for being wrong. 

So what are we trying to achieve? 

It is very simple. Paul would like an apology. An apology from Soho for reaching a conclusion before asking the right questions to include everyone who was there. Not just bowing to pressure from an organisation such as Campaign Against Antisemitism who are actively targeting people who either speak up FOR Palestine, or AGAINST Israel. 

• Paul is asking for the statement from Soho to be removed from their social media channels and website
• He would like an apology for the hurried statement and for using the words "racism" and "antisemitism" in the same sentence where they said they would not be allowing him back to their theatre, knowing full well the damage that would cause to his career 
• An acknowledgment that they issued a statement and conclusion BEFORE conducting any sort of investigation
• An acceptance of the loss of earnings which he has suffered as a result of their mishandling of the situation and at least an attempt to compensate for this 

How can you help? 

Paul has already been in touch with solicitors and they are ready to move forward with this. The first step is to send an already-drafted 13 page solicitor's letter outlining the defamation claim, providing supporting documentation and citing examples of previous cases. The cost of this is to start at £3000. This is a fee which Paul simply cannot afford. So we want to help - and if we can raise the initial fee of £3k he can get this letter sent and get the ball rolling.

Then, depending on the response from Soho, he will likely be facing significantly more legal costs at the beginning as well as travel expenses as he will have to appear in London. We have spoken with Paul about the current situation and have discussed the steps we need to take. His pledge is this;

• I would like to raise £3k so I can get the first letter issued and start the ball rolling
• Further funds raised will go towards other additional legal and associated costs
• Estimated total costs are in the region of £10k
• However, in the event that Soho Theatre respond favourably to my initial correspondence and that is the end of it, and I incur no further expenses, I pledge to donate any additional funds raised to Medical Aid for Palestine

I would be so incredibly grateful for your help by donating to this Crowdfunder so I can raise expenses of an estimated £10,000. 

Were you at the gig?? 

In addition, if you were at the gig in Soho Theatre on Saturday 10th February 2024, please send your witness statement and personal account of what happened to [email protected] 

Final word from Paul

"Thank you so much for putting together this campaign. I am forever grateful for the support I have received from people all around the world in the last few months, particulary to the 1700+ people who signed a petition demanding that Melbourne Comedy Festival reinstate me on their roster. The gesture and the support was immense and has not gone unnoticed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And thank you in advance for donating, sharing and talking about this. I just want to make it clear that we should be able to speak out for Palestine, and against injustice - me being banned by Soho and targeted by the CAA is just a drop in the ocean of the horror that is unfolding before our eyes. So I thank you sincerely for your help and for spreading the word."

This project successfully funded on 9th May 2024