Gary Williams

Williams Unwelcome ‘Pizza’ The Action (from The Stage)

During my run of Christmas shows in London this last December, some idiot took offence at a harmless comedy song, and lobbed two salt-cellars at me! Amazing. The story turned up the The Stage this week. Here it is complete with the song from the show.

Published in The Stage Newspaper 7th January 2010. This followed a story about a pantomime performer who has incurred the wrath of Lowestoft when he slagged it off on his Twitter account…

On the bright side though at least no physical violence was meted out to the unfortunate chap.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said of Gary Williams – the poor performer who found himself under fire during a recent gig at London’s Pizza on the Park. Williams, who is probably best known for his appearances in the West End in The Rat Pack Live from Las Vegas, was in the middle of singing the Silly Slang Song when he was struck in the shin by a salt mill which had seemingly been flung by an audience member.

Assuming the a-salt (apologies) was some kind of bizarre incident (perhaps someone throwing salt over their shoulder for good luck?), Williams persisted, before being struck again – this time in the stomach – during his encore. House lights were raised and the offender made himself known, claiming he had been insulted by the song because it was homophobic. Williams – openly gay himself – proceeded to introduce his partner on stage, provoking an apology of sorts from the man, who soon scarpered.

“The guy must have been out of his mind,” said Williams, “If one of the mills had hit someone I the head it could have caused serious injury or even worse. In all my years of performing, I’ve never seen anything like it – even at the rowdiest corporate events.”

Click below to hear the song and see pictures from the show.