Comedian Jack Whitehall has told how a member of the audience once got on stage and attacked him during the middle of a set.
To make matters worse, security staff at the venue did not intervene as they believed that the headlock was a joke and part of the act.
Referring to Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Academy awards, the 33-year-old TV comedian said that when something controversial happens at a live event people can often think it is simply part of the show.
In an appearance on Good Morning Britain, the comic told of his own close encounters when his set didn't go down as well as he might have hoped, the Mirror reports.
During a performance in Bournemouth a member of the audience was definitely not amused by Whitehall's act, getting up onstage and putting him in a headlock.
He said: "I had a guy on stage once get me in a headlock, but everyone in the room was laughing because they thought it was a bit.
"I caught sight of the bouncers on the door, and they were laughing as well.
"The only time anyone has ever actually got up on stage with me was quite scary.
"I was doing a Christmas show in Bournemouth and there was a large party in of industrial gardeners and they were heckling me quite badly. So I picked on one of them and he got up on stage and put me into a headlock.
"And the problem is when something like that happens, and you sort of saw it happen at the Oscars, most people think that it’s part of the show, so they don’t do anything.
"So I had a guy who was up on stage with me in a headlock, I felt quite vulnerable, but everyone was laughing in the room because they thought it was a bit, and then I caught out the corner of my eye the bouncers on the door, and they were laughing as well because they thought it was a set-up."
Whitehall went on: "So they wouldn’t have come up to my aid and that is slightly the problem with comedians, is when stuff goes wrong on stage, you always just assume that it’s part of a bit because no-one takes comedians seriously."
He offered one final word of warning to anyone who was hosting an awards show, urging people to "be careful who you pick on".
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