Comedian Hannibal Buress repeatedly had his microphone cut after bringing up the Catholic church’s history of child abuse while performing at a Catholic university, a student newspaper has reported.
The Loyola Phoenix, the official student newspaper of Loyola University Chicago, reported that Buress started his set by showing the audience a screenshot of an email he received from the university telling him which topics he was not allowed to talk about. The list included such topics as “rape, sexual assault, race, sexual orientation/gender” and “illegal drugs“.
Loyola just cut Hannibal’s mic. This is ridiculous. We want Hannibal. @hannibalburess pic.twitter.com/uJqo2cSIpm
— Bung (@bungtweet) March 18, 2018
After having his microphone cut, Buress continued to perform, with the audience quietening down so that he was still audible without the mic. Undeterred, the university turned up the house music to drown out Buress, eventually leading to him leaving the stage.
Apparently having come to some sort of agreement, Buress returned to the stage and completed the show, making frequent references to having his microphone cut off.
An email from Loyola Department of Programming assistant director Leslie Watland to the Loyola Phoenix stated that the decisions on the night were made by university staff and not students:
DOP students did not make any day-of decisions for Hannibal Buress’ show. Student Development Administrators made the decisions.
In a since-deleted tweet, Buress joked that cutting him off was a “weird way to celebrate” Loyola’s March Madness win over the University of Tennessee.
The performance was part of an annual two-night show put on by the university that features a musical act one night, followed by a comedy act, with Buress following up a remarkably affordable solo show from Nick Jonas.
Imagine anything like that happening at an Australian uni.
