The Mail Online and London Evening Standard have pulled stories claiming that comedian Ed Byrne performed a life-saving manoeuvre on an audience member, after the stories were refuted by the comedian and the theatre where it was purported to take place.
It was reported in Mail Online and on the London Evening Standard website that after seeing a member of the audience in anguish while choking on food, the comedian jumped from the stage and performed the Heimlich manoeuvre during his set.
A spokesman for the Alhambra theatre in Bradford, said it had “no record” that anything like this occurred at Byrne’s show on 9 December,2017.
Byrne also said the story was untrue. He tweeted: “This is a great story, only partially ruined by the fact that’s it’s completely untrue.”
The Evening standard story, published yesterday, was headlined: “Comedy fan tells how Ed Byrne saved her from choking to death on M&M.”
The source for the Evening Standard story appears to an audience member who looks to have spoken to the paper directly.
In a cached version of the story, the source told the paper: “I was laughing too much while I was eating my M&Ms and, looking back, it wasn’t the best idea for a comedy gig.”
The London Evening Standard and Mail Online were not available for comment.
Blogger Peter Heimlich exposed the two titles pulling the story.
On his blog – The Sidebar – he explains that his father is the doctor credited with inventing the famous life-saving technique.
Owen Conlon, assistant news editor of the Irish Sun, said on Twitter: “While both papers should have checked with Byrne, this was a deliberate attempt to get false information in. Irish Sun spoke to same woman. When told Byrne denied it, she replied: ‘He’s probably being modest.'”
Picture: BBC/Youtube
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