What happened at the Kill Tony O2 Arena show in London, according to Sam Tallent?

Sam Tallent, who sat on the panel, called the Kill Tony taping at London's O2 Arena the worst experience of his career. He said the crowd arrived drunk, fights broke out and people were removed for cocaine before the show began. The booked guest Piers Morgan dropped out, and many of the bucket-pull comics were doing stand-up for the first time in front of an arena that screamed at every mention of where they came from. When a comic opened by saying he was from Israel, Tallent said a man tried to climb the barricade and he hit the mute button for the only time.

• Tallent said the most experienced bucket-pull comic that night had performed about six times.
• Afterwards Tallent stared into a green-room mirror and asked himself whether he wanted to be an arena act.
• Tallent thinks Tony Hinchcliffe should release the footage as a self-mocking documentary, and Rogan suggested framing it like Andrew Dice Clay's The Day the Laughter Died.

▸In their words

“it was the worst thing that's ever happened to me as an artist. It was brutal.” Sam Tallent · at 33:01 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Joe Rogan Experience (2026-11-03). Read the whole episode summary →

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