Trans comic is selling discounted tickets to fill seats at London Palladium show amid backlash after exposing penis during Friday Night Live performance
- Jordan Gray sparked a furious backlash after exposing penis on Channel 4
- Gray was concluding expletive-filled song about experiences as a trans woman
- Gray is hosting their comedy show ‘Is it a Bird?’ at London Palladium tomorrow
- Remaining tickets cost between £29.20 and £34.70 on Palladium website
- But they are available to members of seat filling agency Central Tickets for £10
Tickets for a show by a transgender comic who sparked nearly 1,500 Ofcom complaints after exposing their penis life on Channel 4 are being sold for a third of the registered retail price.
Left-leaning C4 sparked a furious backlash after Jordan Gray’s shocking stunt last Friday night.
Gray was concluding an expletive-filled song about her experiences as a trans woman during the channel’s revival of Friday Night Live before stripping completely naked in front of a whooping crowd.
Critics branded the gimmick ‘disgraceful’ and ‘offensive’ as more than 1,400 viewers complained to the broadcast watchdog.
Amid the backlash, Gray is set to host the latest date in their comedy show ‘Is it a Bird?’ at the London Palladium tomorrow night, with remaining tickets costing between £29.20 and £34.70.
But emails shown to MailOnline reveal how tickets for the event are being advertised to members of seat-filling firm Central Tickets at just £10 a head.
Central Tickets say on their website that organisers of events ‘trust’ them to ‘provide a discreet, reliable audience for their events.’
Membership is free but those who sign up have to attend at least one discounted show per year and have to abide by ten ‘rules’, one of which says: ‘Do not make any reference to Central Tickets, or any of our events on social media, or fan-page groups.’
The 2,500-seat capacity London Palladium’s website shows how most of the places have sold out for the show, but it is not clear how many were allocated to Central Tickets.
Tickets for a show by transgender comic Jordan Gray, who sparked nearly 1,500 Ofcom complaints after exposing their penis life on Channel 4 (above) are being sold for a third of the registered retail price
Despite the backlash, Gray is set to host the latest date in her comedy show ‘Is it a Bird?’ at the London Palladium tomorrow, with remaining tickets costing between £29.20 and £34.70
MailOnline has contacted both the London Palladium and Central Tickets for comment.
The Palladium’s promotion for Gray’s show calls her ‘one of the most exciting and celebrated rising comics’.
Central Tickets’ invite to members said they had secured an ‘exclusive discount’ as they offered the dramatically reduced price – a 70 per cent discount compared to the price on the Palladium’s site.
Gray’s skit sparked fury among viewers, with some pointing out how comedian Jerry Sadowitz, who is not transgender, had his Edinburgh Fringe show cancelled when he allegedly exposed his penis on stage, but that Gray was praised in some quarters for her stunt.
One Twitter user said she received ‘praise all round’ because ‘being trans makes that apparently ok’.
Another wrote: ‘I see the Trans crowd loved Jordan Gray on Friday Night Live. His anthem ‘I’m better than you’ just about sums up the misogyny of trans activists towards women.
‘And what is so transgressive about waving your penis round on T.V. Are we senior infants?
A third said: ‘I think there’s a double standard going on. I mean it’s okay if Jordan Gray does it on Channel 4 but if JS [Sadowitz] does it on the Edinburgh Fringe suddenly it’s a thing worthy of cancelling.’
Others branded the comedian a ‘narcissist’ for his performance.
Friday Night Live included comedians who appeared in the original version of the show, such as Jo Brand and Harry Enfield, as well as new talent like Gray and Rosie Jones, and was hosted by Ben Elton.
Before the performance, Gray, the first transgender singer on talent show The Voice, told her Twitter followers: ‘Tonight we make history.’
‘I haven’t had a Yorkie bar in five years,’ she said at the start of her set, in a refence to the chocolate brand’s former slogan ‘it’s not for girls’.
Gray took to the keyboard in a bright pink suit, telling the audience: ‘This is the coolest night of my life, you’re watching me experience the coolest night of my life.’
She opened the song with the lyric: ‘I look out in the faces in this room, and wish that I could crawl back in the womb. And start again, against God’s plans, with different glands and smaller hands.’
Slamming the performance, feminist author Helen Joyce branded the moment ‘a sex crime committed on camera’
The dark curly-haired comedian added: ‘I wish the world could finally understand: I’m more than just a female Russell Brand.’
She then launched into the comedic song referencing the Chuckle Brothers’ ‘to me to you’ skit before saying ‘now back to me – this song’s about me’.
The song moved into her own version of Do-Re-Mi and increasingly intense keyboard playing.
As the song drew to a close, she told the audience: ‘You know the best thing about live TV? I can do stupid stuff like this!’.
She then jumped up from the piano before counting down ‘one, two, three’ and ripping off her suit and exposing herself entirely.
After dancing around stage the naked comedian returned to the keyboard, shouting ‘see you Friday at the London Palladium b*****s’ and briefly playing a few keys with their penis.
She jumped on top of the piano seat to a huge applause from the audience before leaving the stage.
After the sketch, Elton quipped ‘now that is what I call a kn*b gag’.
The 90-minute show, which aired at 9pm on Friday, also featured appearances from Julian Clary, Stephen Fry, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
Slamming the performance, feminist author Helen Joyce branded the moment ‘a sex crime committed on camera’.
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