Author: Ella Fornari
L.A.-based professional comedian K-von offended some Occidental students with a joke told at last Thursday’s Comedy Night organized by Programming Board according to members of the Occidental community who attended and organized the event. K-von stated that one in five women have been abused and turned the statistic into a joke by referencing that five in five men have been beaten up. The joke was not met with laughs.
“It wasn’t because Oxy is sensitive, it was because [K-von] wasn’t funny,” co-president of Occidental’s improv comedy troupe Fantastiprov and performer at the event Kristina Gustovich (senior) said.
Comedy Night featured Fantastiprov, who opened and closed the show, Occidental stand-up comics Bradly Calder (sophomore) and Danny Scharar (first-year) and professional comics Shelby Fero and K-von.
Programming Board released a statement Friday morning on its Facebook page about the event.
“We’d like to apologize for the offensive comments made by one of the comedians. His words were out-of-line and highly inappropriate. Although we repeatedly told him to only include respectful material, Programming Board takes full responsibility for his actions. We brought him to campus, gave him a microphone, and are embarrassed by his lack of respect. To the woman who was brave enough to call him out on the offensive nature of his comments, we stand by you, we support you, and we thank you,” the statement said.
Politics major Lisa Heile (junior) responded to K-von’s joke with disapproval.
“I booed the joke because I thought it was out of line. [K-von] then proceeded to call me out and kind of made me defend myself. I then talked about the fact that I’ve been raped, and I don’t remember his response, but it was far from any sort of apology,” Heile said in a public comment made on the “Oxy Confessions” Facebook page later Thursday night.
In an email statement to The Occidental Weekly, K-von claimed that students took his joke out of context.
“My observational reference to the lack of support groups for male victims of beatings and bullying was responded with ‘boos’ and was taken out of context and implied to be referring to ‘rape’ by a young woman in the audience,” K-von said in an email.
K-von explained he meant to bring light to the issue of men against men and had no intention of joking about rape.
“This came as a surprise since the topic was clearly about men being bullied, without any reference, mention or implication to rape unlike the previous comedian’s set which made several rape references/jokes without incident,” K-von said. “Unfortunately, by misconstruing bullying as to be talking about rape, some members of the audience were offended. My comedy in general is not meant to cause any pain. In fact, it has always promoted the opposite. During that performance, it is obvious that my statements were construed as painful and hurtful. This was never my intention, and my sincerest apologies to those affected.”
After the event when Heile and other students confronted K-von, along with members of Programming Board, he would not apologize directly about the comments he made during his set.
“The comedian did not apologize to me in a sufficient manner. When we talked to him after the show he ignored me (while I was visibly upset) and wouldn’t directly talk to me … He finally addressed the situation we were all trying to get him to talk about by apologizing that I was offended, not taking any responsibility and blaming me for my reaction to what he said,” Heile said via email.
K-von was supposed to return after his set to play an improv game with members of Fantastiprov and Shelby Fero. After watching K-von’s set, members of Fantastiprov decided they would not invite K-von back as planned and instead closed the show with Fero only.
Programming Board referred students to Occidental’s Survivor Advocate Naddia Palacios and Project S.A.F.E. if they required consoling after the comments made at Thursday’s comedy night.
“I think that Programming Board handled the situation really well. They helped mediate the conversation my friends and I had with the comedian after the show, told him he needed to leave, followed up with me via email and released a statement taking responsibility for and apologizing for the situation,” Heile said via email.
Fero, who performed the set just before K-von’s, tweeted after the event asking the Occidental community if anyone knew if Heile was alright. She explained her interpretation of K-von’s set.
“A lot of the top of his [K-von’s] set included borderline sexist, homophobic, or racist elements, but they were subtle enough that the set moved along,” Fero said in an email to The Weekly. “Then he began The Joke and I immediately clenched up when he said the word ‘battered women’ because that’s like holding up a loaded gun and pointing at the audience, and when he pulled the trigger and delivered the punchline, instead of a little flag saying ‘BANG!’ and delighting us all, he sprayed a volley of bullets.”
Fero encouraged campus comedy clubs to move forward from last Thursday’s event by using this incident to have a discussion about offensive material and to vet future guests.
Fantastiprov plans to have another show this semester during reading days and stands by Heile and those who were offended at Programming Board’s Comedy Night.
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