Grammy-winning musician Ricky Kej took to social media on 4 October to criticise comedian Trevor Noah for cancelling his Bengaluru shows over "technical issues". Kej wrote a long post on X (formerly Twitter) and referred to the comedian as a "complacent and irresponsible artist."
Noah, who recently concluded the Indian leg of his Off the Record Tour, spoke about the incident that took place in Bengaluru in his later performances in Mumbai.
However, Kej opined on Wednesday, "While I do agree that there were many Event Management related problems in the Bengaluru show for @Trevornoah.. there is something known as a 'Soundcheck' and 'Venue recce' that every responsible and caring artist caries out before a show."
"If Trevor Noah really bothered about his ticket purchasing fans, then he would have made it a point to arrive earlier in the day (or previous night) and personally carried out a reconnaissance of the venue, tested out his microphone and ensured that the sound was optimum. I am sure he does that at other prestigious venues all over the world, and I am shocked to realize he did not bother to do this in Bengaluru. This is the artists responsibility. Every artist/comedian/band has personal sound requirements and preferences.. and to just show up for the event, without even checking your sound is hugely irresponsible. It was the audience that got punished in the process.. audiences that paid money and travelled to experience him," the musician added.
Kej further said, "If Trevor wanted screens as he mentioned in his Mumbai rant, then he should have asked for them, given specifications. If he wanted a specific venue, he should have asked for it. When Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, Metallica, Symphony Orchestras, Russel Peters, etc. have had super successful events in Bengaluru, why is Bengaluru being trashed now?"
"YANNI had performed in the EXACT SAME VENUE in 2014.. and the sound and experience was fantastic, because Yanni worked with everyone involved to deliver a spectacular concert. Yanni cared about his fans. Trevor also attributed this incident to "India" as a whole, which is in very bad taste. This is definitely a case of terrible event management, but more importantly a very complacent and irresponsible artist with a complete disregard for his paying fans (and India).. who blames everyone and everything but himself," he added.
As per reports, the show that was going to take place at Bengaluru's Manpho Convention Centre in Nagavara was preceded by a massive traffic jam on the Outer Ring Road. Several attendees who were unable to make it to the show took to social media to sell their tickets.
The show reportedly began nearly 30 minutes early and ended on an abrupt note when many attendees complained of bad acoustics.
Before leaving the stage shortly after his entry, Trevor reportedly said that he had expected the technical and sound issues to have been sorted out.
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