Photo: SoulJoel Facebook
The details are still not 100% clear but tonight at a comedy show at SoulJoel's Comedy Festival - a multi-week summer festival happening socially distant in Royersford, PA, comedian Big Jay Oakerson was attacked on stage during his set. Reports are coming in that Oakerson was on stage performing crowdwork when a drunken audience member started to be disruptive about the show. As things pressed on the guest's brother went up to the stage and pulled Oakerson, who was sitting on a stool, off the stage by the ankles. Oakerson didn't appear to get hurt, but immediately another comic on the bill (and Legion of Skanks co-host), Luis J Gomez ran from behind the stage to Oakerson's aide. Additionally there's also footage of many fans in the crowd rushing to Oakerson's defense by tackling, pepper spraying, and roughing up the assailant. Facebook groups for both Legion of Skanks and The Bonfire lit up with details about the situation, including many fans who were present at the show. They immediately started digging up social media information about the attacker with an allegedly business card of the assailant getting posted. Though the business card had a name, social handles, and phone number, we are not re-posting that information as it is not confirmed. Comedians Ari Shaffir and Zac Amico were also present and Shaffir captured the moment on his Instagram. Shaffir's video is blurry, but you can see the man at Oakerson's foot pulling him off stage. At first watch you might get the impression that Oakerson was attacked from behind, but that is actually Gomez rushing to help his friend.
Here is a tighter shot with things in slow motion where you can see the man in front of the stage better.
BIG JAY ATTACK in SlowMotion from r/LegionOfSkanks
Gomez took to his Twitter account stating that Oakerson is okay and re-tweeted accounts of those on the scene corroborating the details that the attacker was mad that Oakerson kept joking about his drunken and disorderly sister while doing crowdwork. Even as Oakerson attempted to de-escalate the situation. Gomez added that the attacker got "beat up, pepper sprayed, and is in jail." There's clearly a sense of humor about the situation as later Shaffir, Dan Soder, and Shane Gillis took to Instagram to take "credit" for the attack as part of the Soder SuperPac, which is part of the hype around the Legion of Skanks podcast Presidential race.
UPDATE: As expected, Oakerson took to Instagram to record a quick video about the situation. Stating that the story is nuts, the night was crazy. He assured fans was fine even as the attacker was not. Oakerson jokingly stated that he and Gomez would now have to get dressed up and go to court at some point. Oakerson asked his fans to not doxx the guy that attacked him and let it play out in court, "we don't need vigilante justice" he stated.
UPDATE #2: Comedian Kunal Arora was on the lineup for the show, he shared an account and lent some more details to the situation.
So I’m doing a guest set on the Legion of Skanks show. Shout out to Joel Richardson II for allowing me to do a guest set and to Big Jay and Luis for being cool with it. The show kicks off with James Mattern hosting the shit out of it. I do my little thing. Zac Amico is up next. Then Luis. It's going well. Then Big Jay is closing it out. It’s a solid lineup front to back. This is where it gets wild. Now this guy is drunk to the point where he thinks Big Jay is being shitty to his sister. This is far from the case. Jay is trying to calm her down while entertaining the crowd. The guy goes buck and comes at Jay from the crowd. He yanks Jay off from his ankles. Luis must have some wild intuition because while the rest of the comics were near the merch table (about a 100 feet away), he was behind the stage. Luis ran up to take the guy out. People are piling on to protect Jay and get this guy out of here. In fact, the guy’s dad is trying to end this scuffle without anyone getting hurt. It’s unfortunate when these incidents happen. The guy’s dad even came up to the producer and comics to apologize. It was surprising but it lets you know that it was something that was out of everyone’s hands. However, here is something that most people DO NOT KNOW. While this scuffle is being handled, James Mattern hops up on stage. A comic by the name of Dan Callahan gets the mic out of the sand and tosses it to Mattern. James plugs it in and like the true professional he is, calmly goes, “so my nephew turned 5…” The crowd. went. nuts.
UPDATE #3: Show producer Joel Richardson (SoulJoel) went on record with Page Six about the incident. Richardson revealed that the lady was being belligerent and heckling comics all evening long and Oakerson initially stated she was okay to stay for his set. It was only when the comedian was was unable to finish his act that he asked Richardson to escort the party out - including her brother (the assailant) and their father. It was as that point of being escorted out when the brother attacked Oakerson. Richardson called the police and stated that he banned the assailant from the club for life. UPDATE #4: Luis J. Gomez gave his recount of the story on his Real Ass Podcast. Which, funny enough shows this very story.