Comedian Arj Barker defends decision to remove breastfeeding mom from

Comedian Arj Barker has posted a social media statement defending his decision to remove a breastfeeding mother named Trish Faranda and her 7-month-old daughter, Clara, from his standup show in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday night (April 20th), saying it was purely based on the “audio disruption” of his set. He added that he supports “public breastfeeding, as it’s perfectly natural.”

In his account of the incident, Barker said he heard a baby “not crying but ‘talking’ as they do” shortly after his set at the Athenaeum Theatre for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival began. After the baby “called out again” a few minutes later, he became “quite concerned” about how the distraction would impact other attendees’ enjoyment of his performance.

“In my experience of doing comedy for nearly 35 years, an audience’s focus is a delicate thing,” Barker explained. “If a noise or movement distracts people mid joke, the payoff can be greatly diminished.”

At this point, he made “a difficult decision” with around 50 minutes of the show left. “I then calmly informed the woman holding the baby that the baby couldn’t stay,” Barker wrote. “I felt bad doing so and stated this at the time as well as several times throughout the remainder of the show. As she was leaving, I offered for her to get a refund, as a gesture of good will.”

Barker described his decision as a “very tough call” that he “made on behalf of the other 700 or so audience members who deserved to see the show they had paid for, uninterrupted.” He continued by pointing out that the show was billed as “Strictly for Audiences 15+” on the ticket purchase site, and said the theater “should have flagged this before seating her.”

The comedian also said it was “blatantly false” to suggest his actions had anything to do with her breastfeeding the baby because he “couldn’t see well enough to know if she was or wasn’t.” Barker added, “This was ALL to do with AUDIO disruption of my show, nothing more. For the record, I support public breastfeeding, as it’s perfectly natural.” Read the full statement below.

For her part, Faranda told the Melbourne newspaper The Age that she didn’t think her daughter was loud. “I get embarrassed easily and I would have left straight away if I thought she was loud and uncontrollable and or even starting to get that way,” she said. “But he didn’t give me the opportunity.”

The Age said Faranda described her baby as “gurgling and giggling from time to time,” and she started breastfeeding when her daughter started to “whinge.” At this point, according to Faranda, Barker turned to her on the microphone and “was basically saying that I was interrupting his rhythm and I should leave. Then he turned to the crowd to get support from them to say, ‘Get out.’”

Faranda said that while some women encouraged her to stay, she felt too uncomfortable to remain seated. Calling the experience “quite humiliating,” she added, “How awful is it that as a mum you become so isolated because you don’t think you are going to be tolerated with your child in public — because god forbid, they make a little bit of noise, as babies are inclined to do sometimes.”

One person in the audience told The Age that while Faranda’s child “was making a bit of noise, as babies do,” it was “really awkward” when Barker told the mother to leave. That person added that while a group of women and several other audience members left throughout the evening, “there were a couple of ladies that yelled out, ‘Yeah, just get out of here.’”

In a statement, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival said Barker’s show was “independently produced” and took place at a venue “not managed by the festival.” The statement continued, “However, any interaction between performers and their audiences requires sensitivity and respect.”

“In our festival-managed venues, babes in arms are generally allowed, but we do ask people to sit up the back with their child so they can quickly and easily leave if the baby gets noisy so as not to disturb the artist and other patrons.”

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