At her Madison Square Garden show Tuesday night, comedian Amy Schumer sardonically took note of the roughly 200 people who walked out of her Tampa, Florida, performance Sunday after she turned to political humor and lambasted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“Dearest Tampa,” she began reading from an open letter, according to a transcript at TheWrap.com, “I’m sorry you didn’t want me, a comedian who talks about what she believes in, to mention the biggest thing going on in our country right now. How could I think it was OK to spend five minutes having a peaceful conversation with someone with different views?”
The Rockville Centre-reared Schumer, 35, jocularly promised that, “After the show, I want you to know that I will go straight to a rehab facility that will teach me how to make all people happy. Both the rich, entitled, white people who are gonna vote for him and the very poor people who’ve been tricked into it.”
She concluded, “I look forward to putting this all behind us in a couple weeks when Hillary Clinton is our [expletive] president!”
As of Wednesday morning, Schumer had not commented on social media about the open letter. On her Instagram account, she posted a video of herself and her family at Madison Square Garden before the show, expressing her gratitude at having them with her.
During Schumer’s performance at Tampa’s Amalie Arena, an estimated 200 audience members had walked out when the comic riffed on the recently unearthed 2005 recording of Trump conversing with “Access Hollywood” correspondent Billy Bush about grabbing women inappropriately and nonconsensually, generally considered a form of sexual assault but which Trump downplayed as “locker-room talk.” She also invited an audience member onstage, with whom she discussed the issue.
When Schumer eventually referred to Trump as an “orange, sexual-assaulting, fake-college-starting monster,” wrote Tampa Bay Times Political Editor Adam C. Smith, an estimated 200 people left the show. A number of fans expressed their displeasure on social media, with one person posting a YouTube video showing Schumer being booed.
In a statement to TheWrap after that show, Schumer said, “I loved the crowd and my show in Tampa last night! I want to thank the 8,400 people who stayed. We had a great time! We have always depended on comedians to make us laugh and tell the truth. I am proud to continue that tradition.”
