Jerry Sadowitz Sadowitz with cards Jerry Sadowitz ( alternative spelling Gerry Sadowitz ) , ( born 4 November 1961 ) is a Scottish card magician and stand-up comic known for his extremely offensive humour . Born in New Jersey to a Jewish family , Sadowitz was brought up in Glasgow , Scotland . Following the breakdown of his parents ' marriage , his mother returned to her native Scotland . A sickly child , Sadowitz took an interest in magic while still at school . He is today widely acclaimed as one of the best close-up magicians in the business . An accomplished practitioner of sleight of hand , he has written several books on magic and invented many conjuring innovations . His comedy act is based around extreme offensiveness , breaking all taboos , using obscene language , and insulting the audience . He famously opened the Montreal Comedy Festival with the line : `` Hello , moose-fuckers '' and followed this up with : `` I tell you why I hate Canada , half of you speak French , and the other half let them '' He was promptly knocked unconscious by an outraged audience member . His refusal to moderate his comedy act has led to difficulties in his career : his debut BBC television show The Pall Bearer 's Revue attracted a record number of complaints ( ) and has never been repeated . Outbursts of his savage comedy during his conjuring shows have sometimes alienated him from the more conservative magic community . In his early days he was managed by anarchic comedian and club proprietor Malcolm Hardee , whose provocative selling line was that Sadowitz was too shocking to appear on TV ; this may have actively put off TV producers from booking him . Some of his earliest performances as a magician , with comic asides , were at a Glasgow pub ( the Weavers Inn ) run by future comedienne Janey Godley . He first came to prominence as a comedian in the 1980s , reacting against the politically correct Alternative Comedy movement . An early influence were the Derek & Clive sketches by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore , which much of his comedy emulates in its provocativeness and sheer offensiveness ( he once described the Derek & Clive monologues as `` comic poetry '' ) . As a bet with fellow comic Nick Revell , he produced one of his most famous lines of that era : `` Nelson Mandela , what a cunt . Terry Waite , fucking bastard . I dunno , you lend some people a fiver , you never see them again '' . His hit 1987 Edinburgh Fringe show Total Abuse was later turned into the album Gobshite , but was soon withdrawn due to fears it may have libelled Jimmy Savile . After a brief run as a columnist for Time Out magazine , he returned to Edinburgh in 1989 with Lose Your Comic Virginity , continuing to shock with attacks on sacred cows like Lenny Henry and the Lockerbie air crash . In the 1990s he was part of a short-lived double act with Logan Murray , in the show Bib & Bob . In 1999 he performed for a month at the Penny Theatre in Camden , London , performing close-up magic to 30 people at a time and the following year he performed a stand-up show in Covent Garden with Logan Murray titled Late Night Filth . The show was nearly two hours of sketches aimed at alienating almost everyone , including stamping on a blow-up doll of the recently deceased Linda McCartney , and tipping Logan Murray , dressed as Superman , out of a wheelchair into the audience ( a reference to the paralysis of Christopher Reeve ) . At one point he spat in the face of a drunken heckler who was constantly interrupting the show . His final act was to strip naked and run for a few minutes from side to side , prompting a mixture of disgust and hilarity from the audience . He performed two separate shows at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe , a stand up comedy show ( Not For The Easily Offended ) at The Queens Hall and Jerry Sadowitz - Card Tricks & Close Up Magic at The Assembly Rooms . The comedy show included a character named `` Rabbi Burns '' , a cross between a Jew and the famous Scottish poet , and contained many shocking jokes , for instance : `` If I 'd known Jill Dando was to be shot on the Saturday , I 'd have raped her on the Friday , as it happened I had to make do with the Sunday '' ; `` I have a lot of admiration for rapists as they have to work in the dark '' ; `` I know what it 's like for victims of the tsunami as I drank a glass of water really quick once '' . Sadowitz also appeared in the music video of The Shamen 's UK number 1 hit from 1992 `` Ebenezer Goode '' , and helped get now-famous mentalist Derren Brown his first shows on Channel 4 . Television credits The Last Laugh with Jerry Sadowitz , British Satellite Broadcasting , 1990 The Other Side of Gerry Sadowitz , Channel 4 , 1990 The Pall Bearer 's Revue , BBC Two , 1992 Without Walls : The Greatest F****** Show On Earth , Channel 4 , 1994 Stuff the White Rabbit , Channel 4 , 1997 The People vs . Jerry Sadowitz , Channel 5 , 1998 - 1999 The People of New York vs Jerry Sadowitz , Channel 5 , 2001 The Jerry Atrick Show , Channel 5 , 2000 - 2002 Bibliography Alternative Card Magic : Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie ( 1982 ) Contemporary Card Magic : Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie ( 1984 ) Card Shit ( 1984 ) Inspirations : Jerry Sadowitz & Peter Duffie ( 1987 ) Cards on the Table ( 1988 ) Out of Sight ( 1993 ) The Marenzal Reverse ( undated ) Thanks to Zarrow ( 1997 ) Cut Controls ( 2004 ) Dr. Norman Nutjobs 50 Close-Up Problems ( 2005 ) The Crimp magazine ( 1992- ) Discography Gobshite , ( 1987 ) - Withdrawn ( Copy may be consulted at the National Sound Archive ( British Library ) ) External links Home page ; Jerry Sadowitz - Comedy , Magic , and More ... Times Online ; Magi-comic takes pleasure from pain Scotsman article , Smoke and mirrors Negative Brig review of live show BBC article on The Pall Bearer 's Revue Categories : 1961 births | Living people | People from Glasgow | People from New Jersey | Scottish comedians | Scottish-Americans | Scottish Jews | Scottish magicians 