I think if he was engaged to do a performance under certain conditions, and promptly ignored those when on stage then it's clear cut case as far as I'm concerned ie. no fee. Having said that, if the PFA engaged a person with whom they felt they had to make such conditions -, when there where other options available, then more fool them. Humour is however a notoriously difficult subject to legislate about on grounds of racism, sexism etc. Naturally using the n word is highly offensive and I don't like hearing it used in any walk of life - I feel the same way when people of e.g. Pakistani origins are the subject of jokes. Why then can I accept it when a joke begins with 'Paddy and Mick walked into a bar one day and .....' , in fact I've told such jokes myself without really thinking that Irish people are in any way inferior to anyone else. Is there not a double standard here ? Why is the one joke considered o.k. and the other not ?
To my mind, all this points to is the fact that someone didn't do their homework - and should have done. Probably like most, I've never seen Reginald D live, only on TV programs such as HIGNFY, MTW, QI etc - where the exposure is in short bursts. Whilst admitting that I enjoy his style in those shows, I doubt that I would enjoy a full set from him anywhere near as much - his humour would be too over the top for me. Like Frankie Boyle and Russell Howard, he's best in small doses. If I can see that, I'd be very surprised that others can't, so quite what possessed the PFA to even contemplate booking him is beyond me - especially in view of the recent on-field 'racial tensions' within the game. Probably the only booking that would have been worse would be Frankie Boyle - and I'll bet they never contemplated him. The 'five figure fee' shows that they are lacking in brain power.....
