Aaron Barschak, the publicity-seeking 37-year-old who created hype of international proportions in June when he slipped into Windsor Castle dressed as Osama Bin Laden in drag, received scathing reviews for his first performance on Thursday.
Despite the fact that he cancelled press tickets and asked journalists not to attend, undercover reviewers judged the show “tortuous” and a “fringe flop”. Even with the dozen journalists, the £4 preview show was half-empty and Barschak spent half of his set telling a straight account of the gatecrashing incident.
Yesterday, to the irritation of organisers at the Smirnoff Underbelly venue, the performer cancelled his first full-price show with only 2Å hours’ warning.
His sister Tamara said that Barschak was “just a little bit tired today” but there was a suspicion that he had heard of plans by other comedians on the fringe to gatecrash his show, Osama Likes It Hot, in search of publicity.
Yesterday afternoon the venue was offering a refund or exchange for the £7.50 tickets that had already been sold.
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Ed Bartlam, joint director of the Smirnoff Underbelly, said they would be having words with the performer. “We haven’t even spoken and I am concerned that he performs all of the shows that he is contracted to do,” he said just before the afternoon show was due to run. “But I almost feel sorry for him: there are plenty of newish performers without the best material but he has been hounded by the press and was very brave to perform on Thursday.”
Fred Barschak, the comedian’s father, admitted that the first show was not a success. “Let’s face it, there was a disaster on Thursday and he begged reporters not to come,” he said.
Yesterday thousands of tourists thronged the centre of the capital as the festival began.They were treated to a selection of more than 1,500 shows and street performances.
More than 207 venues across the city opened their doors, including the popular Gilded Balloon which has reopened after catching fire this year.
This afternoon about 3,000 participants will take to the streets in the cavalcade of 28 floats which is expected to attract 150,000 spectators.
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This year’s festival is likely to generate about £136m for the economy this year.