Patton Oswalt Cancels Florida, Utah Shows After Venues Reject His Covid Safety Requests

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Patton Oswalt has canceled his upcoming tour dates in Florida and Salt Lake City after the venues refused to agree to his Covid-19 safety requests.

Oswalt announced the news in a video message posted to Instagram last week, in which he explained that every venue hosting the “Patton Oswalt Live: Who’s Ready To Laugh” tour — “even the Texas ones” — were willing to comply with his requests, except for one in Salt Lake City, Utah and four in Florida.

According to the comedian, he asked the venues to require the audience members show proof of a Covid-19 vaccination or proof of a negative test within either 48 hours or 72 hours, depending on the local venue’s own regulations.

“Ugh. I did EVERYTHING I could to prevent this. But my 2022 show in SLC and my 4 shows in Florida in December have been canceled,” he wrote in the caption. “Hopefully I will rebook them in the future. Every other venue on the tour — even the Texas ones — were cool about requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. I’m really bummed about this.”

 

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“SLC is an eerily beautiful city where the sun refracts through the mountains and gives everything this otherworldly glow. And Florida — well, I love Florida. We’ve been best of frenemies since the mid-90s,” he continued. “We were probably gonna add shows in Orlando and Clearwater. Oh well. Someday I’ll get my pic taken beside the Travis McGee plaque at slip F-18 in Ft. Lauderdale. Stay safe everyone.”

For his Florida tour, the comedian was set to perform in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 27, Orlando on Dec. 29. and Clearwater on Dec. 30. Oswalt was also set to perform in Salt Lake City in February 2022.

“This difficult decision was made due to the rising numbers of Covid cases. I have an ego but my ego is not big enough to think that people should die to hear my stupid comedy,” the comedian said in the video message. “So hopefully, hopefully, in the future we can rebook those when sanity holds sway again. But this sucks, I was really looking forward to Florida, to Salt Lake City.”