James Acaster pelted with Maltesers in copycat heckle incident
James Acaster appears to have been the victim of a copycat heckle and confectionery assault, nine years after the original incident.
The five times Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated comic was performing his Hecklers Welcome show at the Brighton Dome on Monday night, in which he admits to having been bad-tempered with audience members puncturing his flow in the past, when he was interrupted by an audience member throwing Maltesers at him and calling him "a bitch".
Security reportedly removed the man but several fans took to social media to recall the experience.
"Just witnessed someone absolutely storm their way to the stage and hurl maltesers at James Acaster and I can't tell whether it was funny or horrifying ??" one tweeted.
Another wrote: "Watching James Acaster at Brighton Dome and some geezer runs down the middle of the stalls, lobs about five handfuls of Maltesers at The Mash King himself, says he ruined his comedy career and then saunters away into the night??"
British Comedy Guide has reached out to Acaster's management in the hope of shedding light on the motive of the chocolate throwing, "bearded rucksack wearer". But it seems likely that the incident may have been a reference to an earlier nightmare show for the comic.
Speaking to this website in 2016, Acaster revealed that his worst ever gig had been "a tour show in Crawley two years ago.
"The power cut out in the room I was meant to be in so we were moved to a function room usually used for team building exercises, the audience were fully lit, there was about 70 of them there, a man started throwing Maltesers at me and called me a bitch."
Another Brighton audience member tweeted: "I've now seen James Acaster three times, and two of them have involved a man throwing Maltesers at him and calling him a bitch."
Once advertised with the slogan: "the lighter way to enjoy chocolate", this Maltesers incident isn't even the first time Acaster has been hit by food as part of a copycat heckle.
Nish Kumar has previously shared that when he delivered the best man's speech at fellow comic Tom Neenan's wedding in 2019, Ahir Shah aimed a bread roll at him, in reference to the infamous incident a fortnight earlier when he was pelted with a roll at the Lord Tavener's Christmas lunch.
"But unfortunately," Kumar told the Dish podcast, "Ahir Shah is not particularly one of our more physically capable specimen specimens. He missed and hit James Acaster in the face."