Controversial comedian Dapper Laughs' message to heckler forced to leave his show at Blackpool's Grand Theatre

A comedian who experienced severe heckling while starring in Blackpool last week has spoken out about the "mental" experience.

Daniel O'Reilly, who is known as Dapper Laughs, played at Blackpool's Grand Theatre on Friday, March 22, the 14th date of his new UK 'Out of Character' tour.

Since the show he say's he's been inundated with people messaging him and tagging him in comments, saying he tried to start a fight and that he's a bully for what happened during the show. On X (formerly Twitter), he addressed all of the rumours and showed footage of what really went on. He said if it had happened at the start of the tour, "it could have cracked me".

He wrote: "It truly was a MENTAL night. For those that were there, thank you for being such a strong support for me. Without the love and laughter for the show I would have crumbled a bit. Those demons of feeling like everyone hates me and I’m rubbish started creeping back. But the love I felt in that moment was really special to me."

So, what happened?

In an 11-minute X video, the 39-year-old from London he said he had been contacted on social media before his arrival, with people saying they were "determined to ruin the show". He said: "They said they were coming to the show (and) they were gonna make me wish I'd never gone to Blackpool, and they're going to ruin the show. So, I anticipated this and it kind of got my back up."

Daniel's video showed abusive heckling from one member of the audience, which was disrupting the show. When the heckler then moved onto shouting repeated expletives, Daniel said: "It stopped my show in its tracks", and he admitted that it "threw him".

What's the context?

In 2014, Daniel's career nosedived after making a joke about rape during one of his live stand-up shows. The tour was cancelled and he was dropped from his ITV show. It is only recently that he has got back on his feet and is sober.

Sign up for our free newsletters now

How did Blackpool affect Dapper Laughs?

In the video he said: "When I first got cancelled, I truly believed everyone hated me. My self-esteem was shot to pieces, I hated myself."

He said he was "nervous, scared" about restarting his comedy career, adding: "If someone had shouted that out in the first few gigs I'd done on this tour, I would have believed it. And I'm not sure I would have been there to carry on."

But on the back of 13 sell-out shows and standing ovations, and with the Blackpool audience on his side, Daniel fired back at the heckler, and eventually he left.

Daniel has now reached out to the man, saying: "Feel free to get in touch if you want to talk, you seem to be in a pretty dark place."