Comedian Lewis Schaffer says my blog misquoted him on comic Jerry Sadowitz

Yesterday’s blog

A member of the audience at one of comedian Lewis Schaffer’s shows once told me she thought he was rather sweet and she wanted to stuff him and mount him over the mantelpiece in her living room. I don’t think she meant sexually. I think she was thinking more along the lines of having found an elk who had been involved in some random roadkill incident. And, anyway, who has mantelpieces nowadays?

Lewis Schaffer was mentioned by Liam Lonergan in my blog yesterday as having said fellow comedian Jerry Sadowitz was good but he (Lewis Schaffer) thought Jerry “lacked humanity”. He thought he was “just pitbull teeth”.

Yesterday, I got a text message from Lewis Schaffer saying: “I never did say Jerry Sadowitz lacked humanity”.

Then an e-mail saying: “I think Jerry Sadowitz is fantastic.”

And then I got a phone call saying: “I never did say he lacked humanity.”

I told him: “If you want a comeback in my blog tomorrow saying you were misquoted, just send it to me overnight. I am going to bed early. I’m knackered.”

“What do you want to know?” Lewis Schaffer asked me.

“Just say what was quoted was wrong,” I told him, “and what you actually think of Jerry and explain any subtleties of being offensive to audiences or whatever you think you want to say.”

I woke up this morning to this Schafferian e-mail:

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Lewis Schaffer after his show last night (Photograph by Nick Awde)

Are you going to make it a habit to outsource your posts?

Just correct some misconceptions expressed in your blog.

Liam is a lovely guy with a bright future and most of it is right but I didn’t tell Liam that Jerry Sadowitz lacked humanity.

I told Liam Jerry wasn’t vulnerable, which I meant as a performer and not as a person. Jerry is bulletproof on stage, rapid fire. You can’t heckle him and get away with it.

My great strength is that I am vulnerable on stage or I think I am. I call it a strength because I have too much of it for it to be a weakness. You can heckle me and win, which is the way I want it. If you shoot me I will bleed, probably all over the audience. But I will be back doing my thing tomorrow night.

Jerry Sadowitz is a great comic. He makes me laugh. He interviewed Richard Dawkins at the Establishment Club last month and it was funny, relentless and probing. The whole event was surreal.

It is ridiculous to think that one comic can be funnier than another. Okay, Jerry is way funnier than I am – but luckily, all comedy is personal preference and I am sure some prefer me to him or to anyone else.

Back in 2008 Jerry came in to see me at the old Arts Theatre. Jerry, on the other hand, won’t let me watch his shows.  I’ll let anyone watch my show.

Finally, anyone who knows me senses that I need my fans more than my fans need me. I have following cult, rather than a cult following.