Romesh Ranganathan has been applauded by fans for keeping his cool in the face of a vile racist attack he endured while performing live on stage.
The 43-year-old British comedian is currently on his long-awaited The Cynics Mixtape Tour – which had been delayed from 2020 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The star is taking to the stage of the Eventim Apollo theatre in Hammersmith, West London, to perform his stand-up over a string of nights this month.
And despite people paying to see the star in action, one attendee left the audience shocked on Thursday night when she launched into a vile, racist attack at the star.
The MailOnline reports that Romesh was forced to pause his show when a female audience member stood up near the front of the stage to hurl racist comments at him.
Footage shared by the outlet shows the comedian reacting in shock as the woman is bundled out of the theatre space by security – while the unimpressed audience are heard chanting: “cheerio, cheerio, cheerio,” while the woman is escorted out.
In the footage, a woman can be heard gasping: “She's being carried out! She's being dragged out!”
While Romesh himself unflaggingly manages to seize the opportunity to crack a self-detracting joke in the face of the fracas.
He can be heard saying: “Do you know something? Let me tell you honestly, I’ve got really mixed feelings about that, as I was finding that very distracting.
“So I apologise for that and so I'm glad that's been dealt with.
“But also I’m slightly sad that's the most excited you've sounded all evening!”
Fans have applauded Romesh for his calm response to the incident after footage circulated online – with one admirer tweeting: “good on @RomeshRanga the way he handled it.”
Unfortunately, Romesh is no stranger to receiving racist abuse – and last year hit back at an online troll who sent poisonous messages to him online following an appearance on Later With Jools Holland.
In a post via Instagram Stories last year, Romesh wrote: “This absolute p**** posted this about Jools Holland talking to me about Lady Leshurr.
“Also there were loads of posts by people saying me being on the show and choosing hip hop was a boxing ticking exercise or some s***.”
Romesh - who was born to Sri Lankan Tamil parents - shared one troll’s comment, which read: “It’s very British.’ Said the Jew to the Indian about the African. No. Heavy Metal is very British, which is why you never see it on Later with Jools Holland.”
Romesh went on to point out that he, Jools and Leshurr - whose parents are from the Caribbean - are all British, and he is “not of Indian origin”.
The Weakest Link host said he has “loads of posts” like this racist one and added: “It should actually read: ‘Said the Brit to the Brit about the Brit.
“Also I’m not of Indian origin and Leshurr originates from St Kitts, so not only is this man a c***, he’s an inaccurate one.”
