When Trish Faranda was lining up to see Arj Barker on Saturday night she was already nervous. Her seven-month-old daughter was strapped to her chest in a carrier and “people were commenting, obviously, because it’s something you don’t see every day – sadly”, she said.
None of the comments were negative – those who spoke to her joked it was great that her child was getting into comedy early. A short time later, however, Faranda and her baby would be back outside. After making several comments about her daughter’s presence at the show, Barker stood in front of the mother while she was breastfeeding and asked them both to leave.
Comedian Arj Barker pictured in 2023.Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images
Faranda told this masthead she did not believe her daughter was loud. “I get embarrassed easily and I would have left straight away if I thought she was loud and uncontrollable and or even starting to get that way,” she said. “But he didn’t give me the opportunity.”
Faranda had felt anxious about bringing her baby to the performance but had a positive experience earlier in the festival at Dave Hughes’ show Fully Furnished. Hughes also noticed her daughter, but made a joke about his own children and moved on with his set. On Saturday, seated near the aisle with her sister and a friend, “we had a plan that if it was going to impact anybody else I was going to just get out of there”.
She described the baby as gurgling and giggling from time to time. When the baby started to “whinge”, Faranda started breastfeeding at which point Barker stopped in front of her and, while still speaking into the microphone, “was basically saying that I was interrupting his rhythm and I should leave. Then he turned to the crowd to get support from them to say, ‘Get out’.”
Faranda praised the women sitting nearby who told her she shouldn’t leave, though by then she was too uncomfortable to stay. As she left, she was heckled by a few crowd members. “It was just quite humiliating,” she said.
“How awful is it that as a mum, you become so isolated because you don’t think you are going to be tolerated with your child in public – because god forbid, they make a little bit of noise, as babies are inclined to do sometimes.”
David, who requested his surname not be published, said he was also at the show, where the mother and child were sitting about four rows from the front and “the baby was making a bit of noise, as babies do”. After Barker asked Faranda to take the baby outside, “it was really awkward”, he said.
A group of about eight women sitting near the mother and child also left, as did several others throughout the evening. However, “there were a couple of ladies that yelled out, ‘Yeah, just get out of here’,” David said. “I just couldn’t believe it. The abuse this lady got from the crowd ... I was like, ‘Are we serious here as people?’”