Jo Brand recalls incident from her early days as a stand-up comedian when a male audience member exposed himself to her

Jo Brand has reflected on the misogyny she has faced as a comedian over her 40-year career.The star, 69, recalled one early gig in the 1980s when a male audience member exposed himself to her during her set.Pointing out that she was one of just a handful of female comics booking gigs on the live circuit at the time, Jo explained: 'There's a club which I don't know if it exists anymore, that used to be city type lads and they've done some appalling things.''This guy at the front table stood on the table, unzipped his trousers and just flopped out his penis virtually at my chin level and said, "Suck my....".She remembered responding with her trademark dry wit, telling him '"Oh, I've had my dinner." Or something like that. I was kind of prepared.'Jo added though that she was not supported by the club manager at the time, recalling 'when I spoke to the guy afterwards who ran the place, he was kind of "oh well it happens" and I didn't go back there again ever.' Jo Brand has reflected on the misogyny she has faced as a comedian over her 40-year career including the incident when a member of the audience exposed himself to her She added that it was only some female audience members who showed any kind of support but she admitted 'there weren't particularly a lot of women in audiences in those clubs on a Friday night, very late.'Speaking to Jo Wiley and Zoe Ball on the Dig It podcast, Jo said she also had to contend with a male heckler during her first live TV appearance. She was offered a spot on the hit TV show Friday Night Live in 1986, admitting 'I couldn't believe my luck.' 'Obviously it was live and someone heckled me. I'd never performed live on TV before. And that nearly destroyed me.'She added that the heckler came to a Southampton gig 15 years later and 'proudly announced that it was him that had done it, which was weird'.Jo has previously explained how her pre-comedy career, working for a decade as a psychiatric nurse on locked wards helped prepare her for the hecklers.'I was used to getting some much better abuse, to be honest with you. Much more imaginative and much more cutting,' she explained. 'I had heard it before, better – accompanied by a side dish of how they were going to kill me, or they were going to rape me. And I've been hit as a nurse – I've never been hit as a comic.' The star, 69, recalled one early gig in the 1980s when a male audience member exposed himself to her during her set (pictured at a comedy festival in 1994)Last year Peter Kay sparked a debate when he kicked two hecklers out of his show at the Manchester Arena. The comedian sent security after AO Arena gig-goer Philip Peters and his son after Mr Peters yelled out 'garlic bread' several times, before ejecting Myar Curran for shouting 'we love you Peter Kay' afterwards.Peter said he had 'no choice' to take action after being repeatedly heckled, sparking ire from some comedy fans. But a number of comics soon came to his defence.Peter then defended his actions against the hecklers, writing: 'I did my best to address the situation and made light of it, as any comedian would, but unfortunately, their interruptions continued.'I then tried to ignore them, hoping they'd settle down, but when the disruption persisted into the second half of the show, I asked the audience around them if they were being bothered by the noise.'They all shouted 'yes,' and when I asked for a show of hands, at least forty people raised theirs. At that point, I had no choice but to take action.'This was only the second and third time I've had to ask someone to leave during my 114 shows over the past three years of this tour.''As a comedian, you never want to eject anyone, but when repeated disruptions make it impossible to continue, it's important to consider the experience of the rest of the audience, who've paid to see a show without interruption.'