Atheism on the Internet

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Atheism on the Internet Practicing Disbelief: Atheist Media in America from the Nineteenth Century to Today by Eric Russell Chalfant Graduate Program in Religious Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ David Morgan, Supervisor ___________________________ Randall Styers ___________________________ Joseph Winters ___________________________ Mark Chaves ___________________________ Leigh Eric Schmidt Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religious Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2016 ABSTRACT Practicing Disbelief: Atheist Media in America from the Nineteenth Century to Today by Eric Russell Chalfant Graduate Program in Religious Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ David Morgan, Supervisor ___________________________ Randall Styers ___________________________ Joseph Winters ___________________________ Mark Chaves ___________________________ Leigh Eric Schmidt An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religious Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2016 Copyright by Eric Russell Chalfant 2016 Abstract While the field of religious studies increasingly turns toward material culture as a counterbalance to understandings of religion that privilege questions of individual belief, theology, and text, influential histories of atheism in the West remain largely confined to the mode of intellectual history. This is understandable when atheism is commonly understood first-and-foremost as an idea about the nonexistence of God. But like religion, atheism is not a purely intellectual position; it is rooted in interpersonal emotional exchanges, material objects and media, and historically-contextual social communities. This dissertation uses tools from the materialist turns in both religious studies and media studies to explore the history of American atheism and its reliance on non-intellectual and non-rational forces. Drawing on theories of affect, visual culture, and aesthetics, it argues that atheism in America has always been more than an idea. In particular, it uses different media forms as lenses to examine the material bases of evolving forms of American disbelief from the 19th century to today. Using archival records of nineteenth-century print media and political cartoons, transcripts and audio- recordings of radio broadcasts during the mid-twentieth-century, and digital ethnography and discourse analysis on contemporary Internet platforms, this dissertation argues that American irreligion has often eschewed the rational in favor of emotional and material strategies for defining a collective identity. Each chapter iv highlights different metaphors that have been enabled by print, broadcast, and digital media – metaphors that American unbelievers have used to complicate the understanding of atheism as simply a set of beliefs about the nature of reality. v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ viii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... x 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 2. Infidelity in Ink: Print Media in the Nineteenth Century ................................................... 1 2.1 Infidels in their own Words ............................................................................................ 1 2.2 A Golden Age of Freethought ........................................................................................ 5 2.3 The Truth Seeker: Room to Identify ............................................................................. 10 2.4 Visibility in The Trial of DM Bennett .......................................................................... 29 2.5 Watson Heston and the Imprinting Pencil ................................................................. 36 2.6 Infidel Identity Incarnate ............................................................................................... 40 2.7 Imprinting the Textual Image ....................................................................................... 55 2.8 Impressionable Children: Acculturating New Infidels ............................................. 65 2.9 Missionary Work ............................................................................................................ 72 2.10 Conclusion: E. Haldeman-Julius and Personal Atheism ........................................ 79 3. Atheism on the Airways: Secularist Radio and the Material Voice ................................. 91 3.1 Robert Harold Scott: Radio Pioneer ............................................................................. 94 3.1.1 The Atheist and the FCC ........................................................................................ 102 3.2 Madalyn Murray O’Hair ............................................................................................. 111 3.2.1 O’Hair on the Radio ................................................................................................ 113 vi 3.3 Listening Subjects ......................................................................................................... 124 3.4 Visibility and the Material Voice ................................................................................ 130 3.5 Print Resistance ............................................................................................................. 147 4. Irreligious Interfaces: Atheism on the Internet ................................................................. 156 4.1 Understanding reddit .................................................................................................. 162 4.2 New Atheist Media: Accounting for the Digital ...................................................... 169 4.3 Imaged Community: Lessons from May May June ................................................. 177 4.4 Moderation and Ideology ............................................................................................ 179 4.5 Bounding Images .......................................................................................................... 182 4.6 Echochambers, Hive Minds, Circlejerks ................................................................... 187 4.7 Intimate Deconversions ............................................................................................... 204 4.8 Agency Confused ......................................................................................................... 211 4.9 The Invisible Hand of the Interface ........................................................................... 219 5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 224 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 241 References .................................................................................................................................. 243 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 271 vii List of Figures Figure 1: Watson Heston, “The Modern Balaam,” Illustration. The Truth Seeker, May 2, 1885. .............................................................................................................................................. 38 Figure 2: Watson Heston, "The Cry of Collared Christians - 'Don't Hurt Our Feelings.'" Illustration. The Truth Seeker, May 5, 1888. .............................................................................. 43 Figure 3: Watson Heston, "A Hint," Illustration, The Truth Seeker, September 22, 1888 .... 45 Figure 4: Watson Heston, "Two Ways of Dealing with the Tiger," Illustration, The Truth Seeker, January 11, 1890 .............................................................................................................. 48 Figure 5: Watson Heston, "The Contest Between Theology and Skepticism," Illustration, The Truth Seeker, October 27, 1888. ............................................................................................ 50 Figure 6: Watson Heston, "A Choice for the Children - An Old Allegory Remodeled," Illustration, The Truth Seeker, July 6, 1889. ............................................................................... 52 Figure 7: Watson Heston, "Bait for the Credulous - Children, Beware of the Trap," Illustration, The Truth Seeker, May 28, 1887 ............................................................................. 56 Figure 8: Watson Heston, "How to Convert Infidels," Illustration, The Truth Seeker, May 9, 1891 ........................................................................................................................................... 74 Figure 9: Harry Fowler, "The Plumed Knight of Journalism - The American Freeman," Illustration, A Book of Freeman Cartoons (Reprinted from the American
Recommended publications
  • A Short Course on Humanism
    A Short Course On Humanism © The British Humanist Association (BHA) CONTENTS About this course .......................................................................................................... 5 Introduction – What is Humanism? ............................................................................. 7 The course: 1. A good life without religion .................................................................................... 11 2. Making sense of the world ................................................................................... 15 3. Where do moral values come from? ........................................................................ 19 4. Applying humanist ethics ....................................................................................... 25 5. Humanism: its history and humanist organisations today ....................................... 35 6. Are you a humanist? ............................................................................................... 43 Further reading ........................................................................................................... 49 33588_Humanism60pp_MH.indd 1 03/05/2013 13:08 33588_Humanism60pp_MH.indd 2 03/05/2013 13:08 About this course This short course is intended as an introduction for adults who would like to find out more about Humanism, but especially for those who already consider themselves, or think they might be, humanists. Each section contains a concise account of humanist The unexamined life thinking and a section of questions
    [Show full text]
  • A Contextual Examination of Three Historical Stages of Atheism and the Legality of an American Freedom from Religion
    ABSTRACT Rejecting the Definitive: A Contextual Examination of Three Historical Stages of Atheism and the Legality of an American Freedom from Religion Ethan Gjerset Quillen, B.A., M.A., M.A. Mentor: T. Michael Parrish, Ph.D. The trouble with “definitions” is they leave no room for evolution. When a word is concretely defined, it is done so in a particular time and place. Contextual interpretations permit a better understanding of certain heavy words; Atheism as a prime example. In the post-modern world Atheism has become more accepted and popular, especially as a reaction to global terrorism. However, the current definition of Atheism is terribly inaccurate. It cannot be stated properly that pagan Atheism is the same as New Atheism. By interpreting the Atheisms from four stages in the term‟s history a clearer picture of its meaning will come out, hopefully alleviating the stereotypical biases weighed upon it. In the interpretation of the Atheisms from Pagan Antiquity, the Enlightenment, the New Atheist Movement, and the American Judicial and Civil Religious system, a defense of the theory of elastic contextual interpretations, rather than concrete definitions, shall be made. Rejecting the Definitive: A Contextual Examination of Three Historical Stages of Atheism and the Legality of an American Freedom from Religion by Ethan Gjerset Quillen, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Approved by the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies ___________________________________ Robyn L. Driskell, Ph.D., Interim Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee ___________________________________ T.
    [Show full text]
  • Ron Reagan Does Not Consider Himself an Activist
    Photoshop # White Escaping from my Top winners named ‘Nothing Fails father’s Westboro in People of Color Like Prayer’ contest Baptist Church student essay contest winners announced PAGES 10-11 PAGE 12-16 PAGE 18 Vol. 37 No. 9 Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. November 2020 Supreme Court now taken over by Christian Nationalists President Trump’s newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is going to be a disaster for the constitutional prin- ciple of separation between state and church and will complete the Christian Nationalist takeover of the high court for more than a generation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation asserts. Barrett’s biography and writings reveal a startling, life-long allegiance to religion over the law. The 48-year-old Roman Catholic at- tended a Catholic high school and a Presby- terian-affiliated college and then graduated from Notre Dame Law School, where she Photo by David Ryder taught for 15 years. She clerked for archcon- Amy Coney Barrett Despite his many public statements on atheism, Ron Reagan does not consider himself an activist. servative Justice Antonin Scalia, and signifi- cantly, like the late justice, is considered an “originalist” or “textual- ist” who insists on applying what is claimed to be the “original intent” of the framers. She and her parents have belonged to a fringe con- servative Christian group, People of Praise, which teaches that hus- Ron Reagan — A leading bands are the heads of household. Barrett’s nomination hearing for a judgeship on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she has served for less than three years, documented her many controversial figure of nonbelievers and disturbing positions on religion vis-à-vis the law.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 15: Resources This Is by No Means an Exhaustive List. It's Just
    Chapter 15: Resources This is by no means an exhaustive list. It's just meant to get you started. ORGANIZATIONS African Americans for Humanism Supports skeptics, doubters, humanists, and atheists in the African American community, provides forums for communication and education, and facilitates coordinated action to achieve shared objectives. <a href="http://aahumanism.net">aahumanism.net</a> American Atheists The premier organization laboring for the civil liberties of atheists and the total, absolute separation of government and religion. <a href="http://atheists.org">atheists.org</a> American Humanist Association Advocating progressive values and equality for humanists, atheists, and freethinkers. <a href="http://americanhumanist.org">americanhumanist.org</a> Americans United for Separation of Church and State A nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving church-state separation to ensure religious freedom for all Americans. <a href="http://au.org">au.org</a> Atheist Alliance International A global federation of atheist and freethought groups and individuals, committed to educating its members and the public about atheism, secularism and related issues. <a href="http://atheistalliance.org">atheistalliance.org</a> Atheist Alliance of America The umbrella organization of atheist groups and individuals around the world committed to promoting and defending reason and the atheist worldview. <a href="http://atheistallianceamerica.org">atheistallianceamerica.org< /a> Atheist Ireland Building a rational, ethical and secular society free from superstition and supernaturalism. <a href="http://atheist.ie">atheist.ie</a> Black Atheists of America Dedicated to bridging the gap between atheism and the black community. <a href="http://blackatheistsofamerica.org">blackatheistsofamerica.org </a> The Brights' Net A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview.
    [Show full text]
  • Portrait of Jesus Won't Resurrect in Jackson Schools
    Complimentary Copy Join FFRF Now! Vo1. 30 No. 5 Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. August 2013 Last Call to Photo: Andrew Seidel FFRF Convention Dan Savage Juan Mendez Hemant Mehta, math teacher, freethought activist and author of The Friendly Atheist blog, visited FFRF in July and treated the staff and summer interns to pizza. From left (back) are Andrew Seidel, Lisa Strand, Dan Barker, Josh Turn to back page for details. Glasgow, Ryan Dwyer, Katie Daniel, Dayna Long, (front) Scott Colson, Rebecca Markert, Hemant Mehta, Liz Cavell, Lauryn Seering, Sarah Eucalano, Annie Laurie Gaylor and Aaron Loudenslager. Not pictured: Bill Dunn, Patrick Elliott. FFRF, ACLU prevail, to settle with Ohio school Portrait of Jesus won’t resurrect in Jackson schools The Freedom From Religion Foun- lawsuit against the public school dis- district, which had previously removed dation, the American Civil Liberties trict in Jackson, Ohio, for displaying the portrait, has agreed to permanent Inside This Issue Union of Ohio and individual plain- a large portrait of Jesus above the en- removal. tiffs in mid-July agreed to settle their trance to Jackson Middle School. The Details of the global settlement of the issues will be released once they are approved by U.S. District Judge Al- genon Marbley and by a probate court. Two of the plaintiffs are minors. The parties must file their settlement agree- ment with the district court within 90 days. Defendants are the Jackson City Meet our interns Page 2 School District and Board of Educa- tion and Superintendent Phil Howard. Announcing FFRF and the Ohio ACLU first sued ‘Memorable on behalf of students and parents Moments in over a display in a middle school.
    [Show full text]
  • Legitimacy and the Celebrity Single-Issue Candidate
    Legitimacy and the celebrity single-issue candidate While news coverage of General Elections can be argued to ‘crowd out’ other topics of public interest in the public sphere, some saw the election as an opportunity to attract publicity to a cause. The artist Bob and Roberta Smith stood in Michael Gove’s Surrey Heath constituency in protest at the coalition’s changes to the education curriculum downgrading the importance of art, while the comedian Al Murray’s ‘Pub Landlord’ candidacy in South Thanet was presented, perhaps more ambiguously, as a satirical criticism of fellow candidate Nigel Farage (the initials of Murray’s ‘Free United Kingdom Party’ (FUKP) illustrating the blunt nature of any ironical intent). Murray’s manifesto pledged to brick up the channel tunnel using British bricks and Polish workers; Smith’s platform was built around placing art at the centre of the curriculum. Towards the end of the campaign, and notwithstanding the final outcome, legitimacy - in the sense of the various potential parliamentary combinations of the main parties - became a key media topic. To what extent was the legitimacy of candidates such as Murray and Smith questioned? Mainstream media coverage of Smith was limited, but some supportive niche media emphasised his artist-activist credentials. This is perhaps partly due to the ‘safe’ seat he was contesting, which was never likely to change hands; he could not be argued to be disrupting ‘legitimate’ electoral politics. The campaign was also constructed around a positive, niche single issue - the importance of art education both culturally and in economic terms - which could be treated by other candidates and the media as a legitimate (but marginal) topic.
    [Show full text]
  • Avalon Announce Edinburgh Festival Fringe Line-Up for 2014
    AVALON ANNOUNCE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE LINE-UP FOR 2014 Monday, 28th April 2014 Avalon announce the full line-up for their 26th year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with the chance to see: FRANK SKINNER performing stand-up at the Fringe for the first time in seven years, limited runs from established and award- winning comics AL MURRAY, CHRIS RAMSEY and RUSSELL KANE, a follow-up hour from 2013 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee CARL DONNELLY, a first solo UK appearance by US comic TOM SHILLUE and a host of other debut shows, musical, sketch, political comedy and theatrical productions for a fully-charged 26th anniversary at the Fringe. Tickets for all shows are available to buy from Tuesday 13th May on www.edinburghsbestcomedy.com. During the last 26 years, Avalon has promoted more Edinburgh Comedy Award winners and nominees than any other company including: CHRIS ADDISON, GREG DAVIES, DAVE GORMAN, HARRY HILL, RUSSELL HOWARD, RUSSELL KANE, THE MIGHTY BOOSH, CARL DONNELLY, AL MURRAY, KRISTEN SCHAAL & KURT BRAUNOHLER, ROISIN CONATY, GARTH MARENGHI and FRANK SKINNER and two of only four female winners of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award; JENNY ECLAIR and LAURA SOLON. Avalon’s line-up for 2014 includes: AL MURRAY THE PUB LANDLORD - One Man One Guvnor - Work in Progress AL MURRAY THE PUB LANDLORD - The Pub Landlord’s Summer Saloon ALEX HORNE - Monsieur Butterfly ALEX HORNE - The Percentage Game CARL DONNELLY - Now That’s What I Carl Donnelly! Volume VI CARL HUTCHINSON - Here’s Me Show THE COMEDY ZONE CHRIS RAMSEY - The Most Dangerous
    [Show full text]
  • U Ottawa L'universite Canadienne Canada's University FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES 1^=1 FACULTY of GRADUATE and ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES
    nm u Ottawa L'Universite canadienne Canada's university FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES 1^=1 FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universitc canadienne Canada's university Steven Tomlins M.A. (Religious Studies) _._„„__„„„._ Department of Religious Studies In Science we Trust: Dissecting the Chimera of New Atheism TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Lori Beaman Peter Beyer Anne Vallely Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies IN SCIENCE WE TRUST: DISSECTING THE CHIMERA OF NEW ATHEISM Steven Tomlins Student Number: 5345726 Degree sought: Master of Arts, Religious Studies University of Ottawa Thesis Director: Lori G. Beaman © Steven Tomlins, Ottawa, Canada, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-73876-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-73876-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciaies ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats.
    [Show full text]
  • Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution
    1 Overview of talk We are not doing a comedy sketch we are doing a talk about politics which revolves around comedians Why are comedians like Brand & Grillo (or Dieudonné) capturing a political mood, in a way that pop stars would have done years ago? 2 Dieudonné Anelka doing the quenelle 3 The context, the background to our talk, is crisis. Or rather crises (plural). We currently face a set of intersecting crises. These include: 4 Economic crisis. Starting with the fi nancial crisis of 2007/08, which has generalised into a more or less global economic crisis – so-called Great Recession. Widening inequality: the top 1% increasingly living like sun gods, whilst for a rising proportion of the rest of us what Ed Miliband has been calling “the cost of living crisis” and what others have described as a crisis of social reproduction. That is, a crisis in our abilities to meet our need, to survive, and, increasingly, a crisis in our ability to imagine a better future, to hope. 5 Climate crisis 6 Energy crisis – these are the Alberta tar sands 7 Finally, there exists a crisis of political legitimacy, even a crisis of democracy. Plebgate is actually a rather minor chapter in this story. (No duck ponds or subscriptions to porn channels paid for by the taxpayer. No deaths in police custody or undercover offi cers fathering children by the women they’re spying on. No hacking into the phones of murdered school girls.) But what’s interesting about it is that it involves three major institutions or sets of actors: politicians, police and the Fourth Estate, the media.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT on Science and Atheism: Whether Atheistic Belief Is
    ABSTRACT On Science and Atheism: Whether Atheistic Belief is Scientifically Motivated Charles L. Jester Director: Gerald Cleaver, Ph.D. The intent of this paper is to explore the motivation behind the rejection of theistic religious faiths by modern atheist scientists, and whether it is justified to claim that this rejection is scientifically motivated. First, a brief background of the development of the contemporary schism between faith and science is given, noting in particular changes in belief amongst the scientific community. Next, an exposition on the motivations for scientists’ convictions concerning God is laid out, followed by an address to the question of whether atheistic scientists reject all properties of God, or only certain of them. Based on analyses of personal statements, statistical data on beliefs, and developments in twentieth-century physics and mathematics, it is concluded that modern scientists who reject theism are not overwhelmingly motivated by science, and that they in fact do not reject all ideas of God. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: _____________________________________________________ Dr. Gerald B. Cleaver, Department of Physics APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: _____________________________________________________ Dr. Andrew Wisely, Director DATE: ___________________________ ON SCIENCE AND ATHEISM: WHETHER ATHEISTIC BELIEF IS SCIENTIFICALLY MOTIVATED A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Charles L. Jester Waco, Texas
    [Show full text]
  • Hydref Autumn 2012
    HAfREHYDREF AUTUMNN 2012 Y LLEOLIAD AR GYFER ADLONIANT THE ENTERTAINMENT VENUE S w y d d f a D o c y n n a u / B o x O f f i c e : 01686 614555 M E D I S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 - I O N AW R J A N UA R Y 2 0 1 3 Croeso i HAFREN dewch i gyfarfod â’r tîm Sara Clutton Gweinyddwraig Yn ystod 2012, rydym wedi bod yn dathlu ein hymrwymiad i Ffôn: 01686 614565 ddod ar safon a’r amrywiaeth orau o’r Celfyddydau ac E-bost: [email protected] Adloniant atoch yng Ngogledd Powys dros gyfnod o ddeg mlynedd ar hugain. Mae hyn yn parhau gyda chais Peter Whitehead Rheolwr Technegol llwyddiannus i Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru i ychwanegu Ffôn: 01686 614558 elfen addysgol i’n gwaith. Rydym wedi manteisio ar bob E-bost: [email protected] cyfle i weithio mewn ysgolion a cholegau, ond bydd yr arian ychwanegol yma’n sicrhau bod Hafren medru gwneud mwy Del Thomas Rheolwr Marchnata ac yn ogystal cynnal cefnogaeth gyson i bob ystod oed. Ffôn: 01686 614556 Rydym yn gobeithio ymuno â darparwyr profiadol o ansawdd uchel ar gyfer darparu clybiau ar ôl ysgol a E-bost: [email protected] chlybiau perfformio’r celfyddydau yn ystod y gwyliau a fydd yn sicrhau bod Hafren yn parhau i fod wrth galon y Anne Grieve Rheolwraig Swyddfa Docynnau gymuned. Cadwch olwg ar ein gwefan am newyddion Ffôn: 01686 614555 pellach am y dyblygiad cyffrous hwn.
    [Show full text]
  • Australian Tour 2018
    AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2018 “It’s a rare and joyous thing to see a stand up so vibrant and imperiously on top of his game” ★★★★★ Mail on Sunday MELBOURNE ATHENAEUM THEATRE 21 & 22 APRIL Book at Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au PERTH REGAL THEATRE 25 APRIL Book at Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au or www.perthcomedyfest.com.au SYDNEY FACTORY THEATRE 27 & 28 APRIL Book at Festival Box Office 9020 6966 www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au or Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 2 FEBRUARY 10am UK comedian Paul Chowdhry is bringing his highly acclaimed Live Innit show for his first Australian tour in April. Tickets go on sale Friday 2 February at 10am. Live Innit, sees Paul Chowdhry addressing love in the cyber age, trolling the trolls and an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Paul said “the Live Innit tour has sold out almost everywhere (apart from the racist towns). I had to add extra dates so people stop abusing me online. This extension will be better than the one at my Uncles’ house in Southall in 1980.” This show was sold out across the UK including shows at the Hammersmith Apollo and The SSE Wembley Arena. "It has seemed to happen without many people noticing, but Paul Chowdhry has become something of a big deal” The Guardian Paul has appeared on the multi-award nominated hit show Taskmaster, presented by Greg Davies and Alex Horne and featuring guests including Frank Skinner, Al Murray, Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding, and Mel Giedroyc. Paul appeared four times on Channel 4’s Comedy Gala, alongside comics including Lee Evans and Michael McIntyre and has also regularly appeared on shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Very British Problems and Celebrity Squares.
    [Show full text]