Silverman booed off at UK stand-up debut

Rex Features

US comic Sarah Silverman was heckled off stage after making her UK stand-up debut with a brief 40-minute set.

Silverman was forced to give a Q&A session as an encore after fans, who had paid £50 a ticket for the Hammersmith Apollo show, began to jeer after her short performance.

Members of the audience shouted "you're over-hyped" and "I've seen longer clips on YouTube" as the comedian admitted that she had run out of prepared material, according to the BBC.

"Minute for minute, there are sex phonelines that are cheaper than Sarah Silverman," wrote Steve Bennett of website Chortle in his review.

"With this shockingly brief performance she delivers a stinging insult to the fans who had been so ready to laud her. The quality of her work remains unimpeachable, but the contempt inherent in this shoddy gig will have done her no favours in winning over a British audience."

Newspaper reviews where equally as damning, with The Telegraph's Dominic Cavendish describing Silverman's encore as "excruciatingly embarrassing".