Ray Badran has a degree in medical science but decided to follow his passion of comedy. Ray has performed two solo shows, Raised and Confused and Junior at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2015 and 2016. Previously he has been a regular at many comedy rooms across Sydney but he has performed all around the world and is currently based in London. Ray Badran performed on the NRL Footy Show in 2012 and premiered on The Comedy Channel's showcase of Sydney Comedy Festival Cracker night in 2014. Ray has also performed solo shows at Perth Comedy Festival and Fringe World, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival and Fringe World. In 2015, he also recorded his first live hour DVD titled Laughter Time at the Sydney Comedy Story. In 2017, Badran created a TV/web series with Comedy Central Australia & NZ called ‘No Experience Necessary’ starring Ray and New Zealand comedian Guy Montgomery. It received good critiques from audiences.
Controversy
interviewed Badran for his podcast Can You Take This Photo Please?. The interview shone a new light on a controversy misreported by 'The Age' and 'SMH' newspapers where it stated Ray had objected to a 'silent protest' at one of his gigs. Badran was largely silent after the story blew up although the story became the second highest trending story in the country after the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps. Although his management issued a statement, he declined to be interviewed by the broadcast media. His interview on Can You Take This Photo Please? was the first detailing his side of the story. A vocal female audience member had been heckling the acts all evening. The material Badran did that night, including the “rape joke”, had been well honed in both the United States and Australia throughout the previous year. He'd recently performed it in Sydney in front of Chris Rock and The Chaser. Badran estimates approximately 50,000 people had heard the gag before this gig, pointing out that its acceptability and comic value had been decided by consensus: “I’m not going to keep doing material that isn’t working”. The joke isn't actually about rape but about stereotypes in comedy, and the butt of the joke is him. It's as follows: “If you’re black you can do jokes about being black, if you’re gay you can do jokes about being gay…so I’m not sure if you can tell just by looking at me but…I can do rape jokes.” The female audience member who had been objecting throughout the night slid under her table and Badran wasn't sure what was happening as she'd done it without explanation and yelled “You think rape is funny?!”. Badran responded by apologising, however eventually walked off stage saying 'Fuck off and die'. The next day, Badran was being tweeted at by a small number of activists, who'd read an account of the gig posted on reddit. The Age republished a story about the incident. Apart from being subject to a lot of abuse and trolling on Twitter, both Badran and his mother received online threats. And while the controversy was ongoing reportedly someone sent a Facebook message to Badran's girlfriend claiming she was sleeping with him. Badran found the incident difficult to cope with and he's since seen a counsellor to deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-type symptoms. Badran has also come under fire, along with his brothers, for orchestrating an SMS competition entry racket several years in the early 2000s for significant financial gain, entering thousands of times for free- paying no SMS costs, when other honest entrants who were charged the advertised rate to enter had almost zero chance of winning.
Shows
The Cruckshank Ray Badran - Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Raised and Confused - Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Perth Comedy Festival & Sydney Comedy
