A Bay Area comedian, Arj Barker, has faced backlash after reportedly asking a breastfeeding mother and her baby to leave his show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival on Saturday night. According to a report in The Guardian, Barker was in the midst of performing his “The Mind Field” show when he was interrupted by the 7-month-old baby.
Barker, who is originally from the Bay Area and began his comedy career in San Francisco, reportedly joked the first time he heard the baby, saying “I speak baby and she said ‘take me outside.’” However, later in the show when the baby made more noise, Barker reportedly addressed the mother and baby, telling them to leave.
Speaking to Australian radio station, 3AW, the mother, Trish Faranda, said her baby “gurgled a bit” and later made a “little noise,” prompting Barker to ask her to leave. “I was actually breastfeeding while he came and stood in front of me, and then he was basically telling me to leave,” Faranda told the radio station. “People were laughing, so I was like, ‘I don’t think he’s joking, but everyone else seems to think he’s joking.’ So I said to him, ‘Do you actually want me to leave?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I do.’”
Accounts of the incident reported in The Guardian differ, with one audience member saying the baby was “crying” and disrupted the performance several times before Barker “politely” asked them to leave. Another audience member who spoke to The Guardian said the noises the baby made were more disruptive than Faranda suggested.
“It wasn’t just a bit of gurgling, it was crying. I was on the second level up and I could hear it,” Melbourne-based doctor, Steven Adlard said.
Barker, who is very popular in Australia and appeared on the sitcom “Flight of the Conchords,” posted a statement on Instagram Monday, explaining his side of the story. The baby, Barker said, was “not crying but ‘talking’ as they do — a few rows from the stage.” The comedian said he made a “difficult decision” and “calmly informed the woman holding the baby that the baby couldn’t stay.”
“I want to be very clear that this was a very tough call which I made on behalf of the other 700 or so audience members who deserved to see the show they had paid for, uninterrupted,” Barker said.
Barker added that he offered to get Faranda a refund as she left and that the ticket purchase site stated the show was “Strictly for Audiences 15+.” He also denied that Faranda’s breastfeeding had anything to do with him asking her to leave, saying he “couldn’t see well enough to know if she was or wasn’t.”
“I’ve nothing against babies, in fact I was one once, for almost 2 years,” Barker added.
