The Regurgitator Offends Crowd With Rude Joke

Stevie Starr, “The Professional Regurgitator,” performed last Saturday in front of an audience of over 300 students, staff, faculty and their families. While showcasing his ability to regurgitate items such as light bulbs, pool balls, powdered sugar and live fish, he shocked some of the audience members with his insensitive comments and jokes. Starr’s actions prompted Assistant Director of Student Activities Kelly McGahie to contact Director of Student Activitie Joanne Lembo, as well as multiple deans, all of which decided to prohibit “The Regurgitator” from performing at the Academy again.

Starr first walked on stage and cracked a few harmless jokes to break the ice and then went on to baffle the audience with his unusual skill. Through his performance, he communicated with his interested gallery of viewers, explaining how he discovered his talent. He told a story about swallowing and regurtitating a piece of chalk as a child. However, as the show went on and the audience and Starr himself became more comfortable with each other, his humor transitioned into what was considered, as McGahie put it, “inappropriate for high school students.”

“It cost him his ability to come back here, but it’s not going to cost him his career, and it’s certainly not representative of who he is.”

Starr’s performance took a turn towards being inappropriate as he dropped the “F” word and made demeaning dumb blonde jokes. Then, Starr, who had just swallowed multiple metal coins, asked a female student to taste the soap that he was about to swallow. After she declined the first time, Starr asked her again, and she hesitantly tasted the soap on her finger. After she clarified that it was indeed soap with a bit of disgust, Starr said, “Oh, I bet you’ve swallowed worse things than that.” The suggestive comment appalled many of the audience members as well as McGahie and Starr’s manager. “I saw the entire audience, both boys and girls alike, sit forward on their seats and then there was this laughter, which I would characterize as somewhere in between ‘that’s supposed to be funny but it’s really uncomfortable’ and ‘that is really hilarious, but I know I shouldn’t find it to be funny.’ McGahie said. “And at that moment I knew that the only person in this room that doesn’t know that was a problem is the one who said it.”

According to McGahie, the uncomfortable response to Starr’s remark was only increased by the heightened awareness of sexual culture on campus that has followed the St. Paul’s incident, the exposure of sexual misconduct cases that have occurred at Exeter and the recent performance of “SLUT: The Play.” “In different years, the response would have been different,” she said. “I don’t think it would have been that nervous laughter.” However, given the current environment of the school, McGahie felt that significant misgivings followed Starr’s provocative comment. “In the past few months, there’s been so much that’s gone on,” she said. “There’s a tremendous amount of awareness about these things on campus, and in the context of that, he says this.”

Despite this, McGahie said that even if the campus were less tense with the subject of sexual culture, she still would have leaned towards not letting Starr came back. “I feel pretty confident that I would have made the same decision,” she said. For the girl whom Starr singled out, the remark was embarrassing but not damaging. “He made a comment towards me and yes, it did make my face turn red, and I awkwardly laughed, but I got over it and was able to enjoy the rest of the strange show,” she said.

Other students found the show entertaining as well. Upper Alex Rothstein said that she went into the night excited to see Starr showcase his unique talent again. “I remember the Regurgitator coming to Exeter before so I was really excited to see him again because what he does is insane,” she said. She agreed with the resounding sentiment that Starr crossed the boundaries of acceptable humor, saying “I do agree he was a bit more inappropriate with his language this year.” However, she defended him, saying that he was just trying to do his job. “We should not think that he’s doing anything wrong, but just that maybe Exeter is not the right audience if he makes some people feel uncomfortable,” she said.

Before the show, McGahie specifically conversed with Starr and his manager about what she believed was appropriate and funny humor for the show. She recalled specifically emphasizing a restriction on sexual jokes and the gratuitous use of profanity, while still keeping the performance entertaining and interesting for high school students.

The Professional Regurgitator has been coming to campus every two years since 2006, and often his shows are a hit. This time around, McGahie did not suspect that there would be anything different with this specific show.

In fact, McGahie described admiration for Starr and his past performances, expressing “nothing but the highest respect for his talent.” She acknowledged that Starr exceeded the boundaries of acceptable humor on Saturday evening, but stressed that his faux pas should not define him as a performer. “He had a bad night,” she said. “And it cost him his ability to come back here, but it’s not going to cost him his career, and it’s certainly not representative of who he is.”

Starr could not be reached for comment before the newspaper went to print.