Louis CK heckler explains why she yelled 'get your d**k out' at disgraced comedian during stand-up set

'I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I had this opportunity to publicly call out an abuser to his face and I just quietly sat there'

Louis CK has performed several surprise sets at the Comedy Cellar (Monica Schipper/Getty for New York Comedy Festival)

The woman who has received praise after heckling Louis CK when he performed a surprise comedy set has explained why she felt compelled to do it.

​Klaire Randall was attending a show at New York’s Comedy Cellar on Sunday (2 December) when CK made an appearance that had not been announced prior to the event.

Randall told Vice she thought “it had to be a joke". She said she didn’t know much about CK, though she was familiar with the allegations against the comedian and had read his non-apology.

“I just knew it generally all seemed skeezy, and that it’s wrong for anyone who uses their power to make women feel uncomfortable,” she said.

She went on to explain that she was in the front row, facing the stage and near the piano. As CK walked on to the stage, Randall says she proceeded to give him the finger, “but I don’t think he noticed.”

She and her boyfriend were seated in an area where it wasn’t easy to leave – a concern that has been raised repeatedly in stories about CK’s surprise sets.

His jokes started out like “my life is hard now, I had a bad year, feel bad for me”, she revealed to The Cut. There was nothing like “hey I ruined my own life by masturbating in front of women”.

"Ten minutes or so in there was a little bit of a break, and he walked over towards the piano where I was sitting to look at his notes. And in that moment I just yelled 'get your dick out'.

"He looked shell-shocked. He looked directly at me, full eye contact and said ‘WHAT!?’ I repeat myself like, 'get your f***ing dick out'. At that point, the crowd was jeering, there were a few boos coming from a few people. And before I knew it, a Cellar staff member came over at our table and put a hand on my boyfriend’s shoulder. He said 'you can’t heckle the comedians', and motioned towards the door. We already wanted to leave, so were happy to stand up and walk out on our own."

“All I could think at the time was that I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I had this opportunity to publicly call out an abuser to his face and I just quietly sat there,” Randall says. “I was just thinking about every woman I know who has been sexually assaulted, sexually harassed or bullied".

“The real heroes are all the women who are brave enough to come forward about allegations and take sexual abusers down.”

Randall recounted her actions the next day on Twitter, saying that she was “asked to leave” the venue after she heckled the comedian.

She has since been hailed as a "hero" on social media, and has continued to insist that people should not be subjected to “nonconsensual performances”.

“If Louis C.K. wants to keep performing, if he wants to give people notice, that’s his right as a human being. Be my guest,” she said.

“But I want him to know—and that’s why I said what I did—you might take this platform, but it is not going to be a platform that is unobstructed. People are going to say what they have to say to make it hard.”

Comedy Cellar representatives later clarified that Randall left the venue of her own volition, after an employee told her that she couldn’t shout at the comedian.