Comedy star Ignacio Lopez has revealed his distress after suffering a horrific racist attack while travelling to a gig.
Lopez is a Spanish and Welsh comedian based in Cardiff. His parents are Welsh/Irish & Moroccan/Spanish, and he has a German sister.
He’s best known for his stand-up shows and is currently on tour with his show named Señor Self Destruct, which he’s taking to venues up and down the country through to May 2025.
Lopez has also appeared on panel shows such as Have I Got News for You.
The funny man took to social media last night to detail a scary incident, beginning: ‘Had a horrible experience on way to a gig tonight; complete opposite to the usual experience I’ve had in Yorkshire and North of England previously.
‘I got the train from Leeds, almost all the seats taken (so far so normal). I was stood for a bit then noticed a free seat next to a guy, but his foot is on it, and he has a carrier bag on the seat.
‘He wasn’t an old guy, (I’d say in his 30s, but I am notoriously bad at guessing ages; I’ve caused upset with my estimations before).
‘I asked if it was cool if I sit there and aggressively he said “someone’s sitting there, mate”. I looked around and asked, “is the ‘person’ your bag?”’
In response, the man said, ‘yeah’ and stared at Lopez, who asked again if he could sit down.
Lopez was told ‘nah,’ to which he laughed and asked, ‘Why you being like that, man?’
He finally moved his leg and bag, and Lopez sat down.
After a couple of minutes, the man asked Lopez which stop he was getting off at, which was Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield
‘Yeah? Then you should go back to your own country,’ the man said to him.
‘I just laughed at him. Pointless to explain my background or get into anything. People around were visibly uncomfortable. Conversations hushed,’ Lopez wrote.
When he began scrolling on his phone, the man told him: ‘You can call the police if you want!’
‘No, not going to waste their time, they won’t educate you,’ Lopez retorted.
He was asked by a woman opposite if he wanted to swap seats, which he politely declined by lying that he felt comfortable, not wanting to put someone else in an awkward position.
Lopez sat in silence for a while as the guy ‘eyeballed’ him, before a female passenger asked where his leather jacket was from.
After he enthusiastically informed her it was from ‘Fes, in Morocco’, Lopez could hear the man beside him ‘bubbling with rage’.
‘Shortly afterwards he demanded “Let me out! Move!”, so I stood out of his way, and as he departed he said “come to our bloody country, should go back to where you came from!”,’ Lopez proceeded in his X thread.
As he left to move to the next carriage, the individual angrily branded Lopez a ‘d***head’.
On his reaction, he said: ‘The women all asked if I was ok, I was bemused more than anything. Completely unprovoked nastiness from this dweeb.
‘To top it all off, he’d been drinking Spanish beers, and had left four empty cans behind.’
‘Doesn’t want Spanish people in the country, but happy to drink the beer? What a plumb,’ laughed the performer.
Lopez concluded by praising the women in the carriage for being friendly and trying to defuse the situation.
He was quickly inundated with supportive messages from fans, as his tweets garnered over five million views.
‘That’s bloody awful. What an ignorant, rude p***k of a man. Hope you’re ok. Solidarity’, replied GaryAlessio, to which Lopez assured, ‘it was all better from that moment’.
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