Comedian Menno Kuijper was halfway through his stage show last night when he recognised a face in the crowd.

The audience has joined Menno in a sing-song near the end of his one-man comedy show, BUTCH – A Queen’s Struggle to Become a King. The song involves the venue lights being turned on and off as the song is sung.

As the lights went up, Menno’s heart missed a beat as he recognised a man’s face in the audience to be that of an old date who had stood him up in Edinburgh last year.

Menno, who lives in London, met the man via the internet dating site Gaydar.com. They had arranged to meet on Menno’s only day off, during his Fringe run last year. The man never turned up and Menno later found out he had a boyfriend.

A shocked Menno stopped his show and said to the man: “Are you American?”

The man replied: “Yes.”

“Are you a rugby player?”

“Yes. We’ve never met have we?” asked the confused American.

“Oh my God!” screamed Menno, “I’ll tell you why we’ve never met, because you stood me up last year!”

The man, who was sitting beside his boyfriend at the time, looked decided uncomfortable for the remainder of the show as the audience stared and pointed on Menno’s command.

Menno said: “He looked like he regretted buying his ticket for my show. He just sat there in shock till the show ended and left without saying a word to me backstage. I could have been a lot more evil.”

BUTCH – A Queen’s Struggle to Become a King can be seen at 10Dome, The Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh now until 27 August. Starts at 11pm.

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