Despite D'Elia swearing he's changed his ways, more allegations from victims and witnesses keep coming forward. (@RollingStone / Twitter)
Earlier this week, Rolling Stone published an investigation into the Los Angeles-based comedian Chris D’Elia’s alleged abuse of ten women — though the women say there are many more victims. Meanwhile, D’Elia is raking in money on a tour that’s bringing him to the Idaho Central Arena tomorrow night. Here’s comedian and City Cast Boise host Emma Arnold’s perspective, in the guest seat, on D’Elia coming to town.
Q: What was your reaction when you found out that D’Elia was booked at the Idaho Central Arena?
Emma Arnold: I had seen already that he was working in LA and I had been active in emailing those places and saying “Hey, this person is allegedly a sexual predator and a pedophile; you shouldn’t be booking him.” And honestly when I saw that the arena here had booked him, I was really shocked, and very crushed. So I reached out to the arena, and I maybe very naively expected to hear back very quickly, and in fact I haven’t heard a peep from them.
Q: Why is he still getting booked?
A: I can’t speak to Idaho Central Arena — I’d hoped that it was an oversight, but the more people I have seen tweet at them and express concern, and they haven’t responded, I’ve realized that this maybe wasn’t an accident. In a broader perspective, I used to think that, pre #MeToo, that predators were booked as an oversight and you just had to get the news out about these “bad apples.” In the last few months, I’ve started to change my opinion and what I feel now is that there’s a market for men like [D’Elia] to continue to work and on a certain level, there’s a kind of man who enjoys that kind of thing and wants women to know that we aren’t safe. It’s a way to keep women afraid.
Q: What have you heard from other comedians who live here?
A: I got messages from a couple of male comedians here who are wonderful who reached out to city officials and the arena to try to get this show canceled. And from the women comedians, I have heard a lot of the same gut punch that I felt. I received a message from a comedian who I love here and she said “when I saw that he was coming here, I started shaking, I got goosebumps, I felt like I was going to throw up.” She said “I’m so grateful that you’re talking about this, because I can’t.”
