2nd Hamilton venue cancels shows by controversial comics Danger Cats
Saira Peesker | CBC News | Posted: February 5, 2025 9:00 AM | Last Updated: February 5
Alberta-based Danger Cats, known for racist jokes, were to perform in Ontario city this week
A second Hamilton venue has cancelled hosting Alberta-based Danger Cats, a controversial comedy troupe that was set to perform in the Ontario city later this week.
The troupe was to play EndZone Bar and Grill on Friday, but the show will no longer proceed, EndZone owner Grant Koropatnicki told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday.
Levity Comedy Club earlier cancelled the two shows the group originally booked for Friday and Saturday, following a CBC Hamilton article that noted the troupe's history of racist jokes and appearances on white nationalist podcasts.
"We've decided it's going to negatively affect our business, so we're probably going to move forward and cancel the show," said Koropatnicki, adding he wasn't "100 per cent" familiar with the group's material before booking the troupe.
"We heard they were a little racy at times. Comedy is these days, but I guess this is a little more over the top."
Koropatnicki said that since booking the troupe, the bar had received both complaints and "positive stuff too," but "we don't want people thinking we're promoting this or anything like that."
"It's tough in our industry right now and we were looking to put butts in the seats. We were kind of told, 'Hey this is an opportunity to bring people in.' Last Friday, we're dead, this Friday we'll be dead again now."
How the troupe got the bar gig
Danger Cats member Brendan Blacquier, known as Uncle Hack, addressed the Levity cancellation in an online video posted last weekend.
"The good news is, our good friend Jason Rouse, the jester of Hell, has lined up a new venue for us," Blacquier said in the video, referring to the EndZone gig.
The troupe has performances booked in other Canadian cities in the coming weeks.
Rouse is a shock comic from Hamilton who now lives in Los Angeles, and has two of his own shows booked at Levity in August, according to his website.
Koropatnicki said Rouse didn't book the show at EndZone directly — the bar hosts a comedy night once a month and there was a connection through that.
"One of the promoters that runs that said there was an opportunity that this event came up and they had a bunch of tickets sold. That's the way it was kind of sold to us," Koropatnicki said.
In the video about the rescheduled show, Blacquier made jokes at the expense of trans people and individuals with HIV, saying, "We are very inclusive when it comes to standup comedy. We make fun of everybody. We include everybody." Danger Cats' other performers are Brett Forte and Sam Walker.
The group had not commented online about the EndZone cancellation as of Wednesday afternoon.
CBC Hamilton previously contacted Blacquier by email for comment on their troupe and the Levity cancellation, but didn't receive any written response.
Levity booker and manager Patrick Coppolino did not respond to CBC Hamilton's previous requests to explain why he booked and then cancelled the two shows.
Advocate says group heard concerns from residents
Late last week, social media users called on Levity to cancel the performances.
Caitlin Craven, executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, said several people concerned about the shows brought the comedy troupe to her attention.
"Any institution or venue right now really needs to be thinking about the way these harmful ideas are spread," she said in an interview last week. "Part of the bigger issue is that we definitely see a lot of alt-right and white supremacist ideas couched in the language of it just being a joke."
Several local comics posted in support of Coppolino and Levity.
"Pat Coppolino has always carried the torch for comedy as an art form and lifted all comics up as artists," wrote Andrew Duncan Cormack on Facebook. "If you aren't a fan of something, don't support it, but keep your opinions yours and don't ruin it for the world."
Other venues cancelled shows last year
Other comedy venues in Canada have dropped Danger Cats shows after a public outcry.
Last March, one in New Westminster, B.C., cancelled after the group promoted T-shirts depicting serial killer Robert Pickton holding a bacon strip, underneath the words "Pickton Farms." Pickton was known for targeting sex-trade workers and vulnerable women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Many of his victims were Indigenous.
The troupe's jokes have also targeted Jewish people and Indigenous children who died at residential schools. Danger Cats members have appeared on podcasts and in photos with members of Diagolon, a far-right group named in a 2022 House of Commons report as an example of "ideologically motivated violent extremism."
Blacquier's social media posts target numerous marginalized groups and refer to the Danger Cats' shows as "desensitivity training."
In an interview unrelated to Danger Cats, comedian Kliph Nesteroff spoke to CBC previously about the idea that people are too sensitive today.
Nesteroff is also the author of Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.
In an interview on CBC Radio's Commotion, he said his research found society today in fact allows much more freedom of expression than it did in the past.
"Compare the fact that I can walk around town and see side boob everywhere I go to the Janet Jackson nipple controversy of 2004," he gave as one example of evolving social norms. "Contrary to the idea that you can't say anything anymore, you can say more things today [except] in the realm of bigotry, or perceptions of bigotry, where there are some new taboos."
Nesteroff added that complaints about censorship and cancel culture often miss the fact that both sides — for instance, a comedian and members of the public who protest a comedian — are practising free speech.
He also noted the advent of social media makes it seem like more people are complaining about comics and their jokes.
People are more aware of other people's opinions than they have been in the past, he said: "It creates this feeling that people are oversensitive."