Patton Oswalt Cancels Shows In Florida, Utah Over COVID-19 Vax Cards
Patton Oswalt cancels comedy shows at venues in Florida and Utah that refuse to ask guests to show their vaccine card
Patton Oswalt is an actor and a comedian who just canceled his upcoming stand-up shows in Florida and Utah because the venues refused to ask fans to show proof of full vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test to attend. Our guy Oswalt was having none of that, so he had to tell Florida and Utah fans that he’s sorry, but he can’t, in good conscience, perform for packed crowds where people can potentially spread covid to unvaccinated attendees.
Set to embark on his “Patton Oswalt Live: Who’s Ready To Laugh?” tour, the actor went on Instagram live to relay the news.
“The good news is we’re keeping everyone who comes to these shows safe and healthy because the numbers are going up. Now the bad news, of course, is there are five venues on the tour that are not complying with this,” Oswalt said about nixing the Florida and Utah venues. “Every other venue on the tour — even the Texas ones — were cool about requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. I’m really bummed about this.”
Although the “but my freedoms” crowd in Florida will probably get mad at the comic for pulling the shows over the venue’s vaccination and testing policies, Oswalt’s not implementing COVID-19 guidelines to be a dictator, he just wants to keep y’all safe!
“This difficult decision was made due to the rising numbers of Covid cases and also because I have an ego, but my ego is not big enough to think that people should die to hear my stupid comedy,” Oswalt said in the video. “So hopefully, hopefully, in the future we can rebook those when sanity holds sway again. But this sucks, I was really looking forward to Florida, to Salt Lake City.”
Because Oswalt and his fans are the best, it’s all water under the bridge for the majority of would-be attendees.
The comments in response to his video announcement are overwhelmingly positive, with many Floridian fans chiming in to tell Patton to stay away from Florida anyway for his own COVID-19 health and safety.
Despite the fact that both venues won’t agree with the comic on COVID-19 precautions, Oswalt still has love for both states, calling Salt Lake City an “eerily beautiful city where the sun refracts through the mountains and gives everything this otherworldly glow,” and said that he and Florida have “been best of frenemies since the mid-90s.”
Oswalt said he’s determined to return to both states, it’s just a matter of finding a venue that will actually take the health of its audience seriously.
