Jesuit University Cuts Off Hannibal Buress Mid-Set

Loyola didn't like jokes about priest abuse
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 20, 2018 3:54 AM CDT
Jesuit University Cuts Off Hannibal Buress Mid-Set
Hannibal Buress arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising."   (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Somebody at Chicago's Loyola University wasn't laughing when Hannibal Buress started cracking jokes about Catholic Church sex scandals during a performance Saturday night. The funnyman, who'd been booked to appear at the Jesuit college's two-night "Colossus" show, had his microphone cut soon after his set began, when he displayed an email he'd received about content restrictions—including a ban on discussing race or sexual assault—and joked about priests molesting children. Audience members were angered when his sound was cut and the background music was turned up when he tried to continue. "I literally thought like I was about to witness a riot and I was ready to participate," one student tells the Loyola Phoenix.

Buress, who's credited with bringing the Bill Cosby allegations to wider attention, "is known for his uncompromising style of comedy and for calling out sexual assault," the Root notes. He left the stage and returned to a standing ovation around 15 minutes later. The rest of his set featured many jokes about having his mic cut, but apparently no violations of his contract. Loyola "cut the mic on Hannibal Buress' performance ... because he violated the mutually agreed upon content restriction clause in his contract," the university said in a statement to the Chicago Tribune Monday. "It is standard for the University to include a content restriction clause in entertainment contracts; Buress is the only entertainer to disregard the clause to the degree that his mic was cut." (More Loyola University stories.)

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