{"id":94297,"date":"2025-10-05T22:19:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T05:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=94297"},"modified":"2025-10-05T22:19:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T05:19:53","slug":"kirson-kills-the-saudis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/10\/05\/kirson-kills-the-saudis\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirson Kills the Saudis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some things are universal.&nbsp; Like comedy \u2013 everyone likes to laugh (well, maybe not <em>El Presidente<\/em>).&nbsp; Last week, there was a huge comedy festival in Saudi Arabia where they paid comics \u201ca shitload of money\u201d (at least, that\u2019s what it said in my contract).&nbsp; Some comedians went, others stayed home out of protest.&nbsp; On <strong><em>Real Time<\/em><\/strong>, <strong>Louis C.K. <\/strong>told <strong>Bill Maher<\/strong>, \u201cThere is a woman who is a lesbian and Jewish who did a show there and she got a standing ovation.\u201d&nbsp; He was referring to our own <strong>Jessica Kirson<\/strong>, who I don\u2019t know personally but I\u2019m a huge fan.&nbsp; She did indeed perform there and, as LCK said, was a big hit.&nbsp; But she also took a hit from her fans here in the US, who felt as a woman, as a lesbian, and as a Jew, she shouldn\u2019t have gone.&nbsp; People certainly have the right to criticize, but they should know that Jessica did her research.&nbsp; Here\u2019s what she said after the event: \u201cAs an artist, my mission has always been to help people feel less alone.&nbsp; As an openly gay person, when I was asked to perform in Riyadh, I was surprised.&nbsp; I requested a guarantee that I could be openly out as a lesbian on stage and perform gay material.&nbsp; I hoped that this could help LGBTQ+ people in Saudi Arabia feel seen and valued.&nbsp; I am grateful that I was able to do precisely that \u2013 to my knowledge, I am the first openly gay comic to talk about it on stage in Saudi Arabia.&nbsp; I received messages from attendees sharing how much it meant to them to participate in a gay-affirming event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, win\/win, right?&nbsp; Wrong.&nbsp; Fans were outraged that she performed at an event supported by the Saudi government.&nbsp; \u201cTo my fans: I see you.&nbsp; I hear you.&nbsp; Your voice matters to me.&nbsp; I love you all, and I am genuinely sorry for making a poor decision that had repercussions I didn\u2019t fully consider.&nbsp; I will take full responsibility for my actions and dedicate myself to making amends, so that my words and choices reflect the respect and care you deserve.\u201d&nbsp; What about the gay people in Saudi Arabia who finally got to see themselves represented onstage?&nbsp; What about giving a voice to a different side of a repressed society?&nbsp; Then again, how repressed can they be if they booked Jessica in the first place?&nbsp; Should <strong>Pete Buttigieg <\/strong>not appear on <em>FOX<\/em><em> News <\/em>because they are conservative?&nbsp; Or aren\u2019t those the very people he should reach out to?&nbsp; While I recognize this is a tricky situation, I agree with Jessica\u2019s first instinct to go, and feel she indeed made a big impact.&nbsp; However, she\u2019s now vowed to donate whatever she was paid to \u201cto a human rights organization.&nbsp; I made this decision because I want that money to go to an organization that can help combat these severe issues.\u201d&nbsp; While I think she can do whatever she wants, she certainly shouldn\u2019t feel obligated to do anything other than keep the money she made for performing.&nbsp; Just my two cents \u2013 which I\u2019m giving out for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some things are universal.&nbsp; Like comedy \u2013 everyone likes to laugh (well, maybe not El Presidente).&nbsp; Last week, there was a huge comedy festival in Saudi Arabia where they paid comics \u201ca shitload of money\u201d (at least, that\u2019s what it said in my contract).&nbsp; Some comedians went, others stayed home out of protest.&nbsp; On Real<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94298,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94297\/revisions\/94298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}