Akmal rocks the boat

ROCKHAMPTON may be screaming for help but seems to be picky who they accept it from.

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ROCKHAMPTON may be screaming for help but seems to be picky who they accept it from.

And, after what Akmal Saleh said about the town and some of its people at his Gladstone performance on Tuesday night, you can hardly blame them.

Akmal has recently dropped out of his Rockhampton charity gig which was intended to raise money for flood victims and the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal.

When talking to The Observer earlier this week, his publicist put the reason for dropping the show down to poor ticket sales but those who attended Akmal’s show in Gladstone know that the reasons stem much further than that.

The Morning Bulletin was told that, under normal circumstances, the number of tickets sold would not warrant a cancellation.

Akmal told the ABC that he had received threats over the internet and Facebook.

“I’ve been getting some threatening messages on the internet, Facebook and other things I’ve seen saying ‘we can’t wait to see you’ – [they] didn’t actually say ‘we’re going to bash you’ but they might as well have,” he said.

“Kind of like a very threatening nature – I said well what’s the point – there’s clearly no point in doing that, just bypass it and move on.”

During his one hour performance in Gladstone Akmal commented on a previous incident in the beef capital which left him with a busted lip and a bloodied face.

He told the audience that a Rockhampton woman had punched him in the face at the annual Rockhampton Show and he would not be returning.

The incident arose after Akmal and two of his close friends decided to dress up as Arabs and interview people at the show.

He explained that it was all very funny, and was intended as a joke, but the woman was more concerned about Akmal and his friends filming the crowd.

After a yelling match broke out between Akmal and the woman he allegedly told her to “get f*****” which is when she punched him twice in the face.

Akmal’s jokes about our neighbours to the North left the packed out audience at the Gladstone Entertainment Centre in stitches as the joke seemed to resonate with them.

Akmal has had nothing but bad things to say about the town since his stint on Good News Week where he told host Paul McDermott that Rockhampton should be removed from Australia.

“Bloody Rockhampton I hate it,’ he told the show.

“We should remove Rockhampton from Australia and put it in Afghanistan.”

Akmal also likened the woman who punched him to an “Aussie hick” when he mimicked her on the popular television show.

“’How you going, do you want a kick in the teeth c**k’ (the woman said). Now I don’t want you to think that’s what I think about Aussies, that was just an incident in Rockhampton.”

When asked if he would be going back, Akmal said he didn’t think he would be welcome.

“I got punched by a chick in the face.”

Fellow comedian Joel Osbourne stated that Rockhampton was a “backwards town” and it was unlikely the either of the two would be returning any time soon.

Rockhampton has had nothing but trouble with celebrities after Jimmy Barnes also was criticised for singing too loudly upon visiting the town.

Originally published as Akmal rocks the boat