Busker disgusts parents

Steve Jackson, 'The Half Naked Chef', disturbs parents at the Christchurch busking festival. Photo / Supplied

A busker has drawn complaints about risque remarks and actions during an all-ages show at a festival in Christchurch.

Parents said "the Half-Naked Chef" referred to popping cherries in front of children as young as 5 during the World Buskers Festival in late January.

The British comedian, real name Steve Jackson, also simulated removing a condom while unwrapping plastic from a cucumber, they said. And mother-of-two Kelly Leigh said he flashed the audience repeatedly by lifting his apron to reveal a G-string.

"I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination but it got to the point where I got my daughter out and we left," said the 30-year-old marketing manager.

"He had a bag of cherries and he said to one girl, who would have been 5 or 6, 'I have always had a problem popping cherries'. It wouldn't have been funny at an R18 show. The guy was a pervert."

She said the comments stunned parents and security guards and some of the 500-strong audience left the Victoria Square show.

"It just wasn't funny at all. It was really seedy. My daughter is 8 - thankfully she didn't really get it," Leigh said.

Jackson denied making the comments and said most of the audience enjoyed the show.

Another mother-of-two Kirsty Montgomery, who saw Jackson perform earlier in the week, said: "He was really crude. He did something with a cucumber that made it look like he was playing with himself."

Jackson was billed as a "spoof TV cook who gives a culinary demonstration that would make Richard Till's hair stand on end".

Festival director Jodi Wright said she apologised for any bad comments or behaviour from performers at the event.

"While I try to get them to behave and remind most of them daily to remember it's family on the streets, there are those few that just get too excited and forget to filter. I always pass on both the audiences and my own concerns to the performers."

She said she would ban performers found to have made lewd remarks at child friendly events but had had no complaints about Jackson.

"Most of the performers have shows that they do for families and other material that they do in R18 clubs," she said.

"When they go on to the street they have specific instructions about what's appropriate. If they screw up then I wouldn't invite them back."

Jackson denied making the comments about popping cherries and said he did not, and never would, wear a G-string. He said he did not notice a big walkout from his show.

He thanked the audiences of Christchurch for being great to perform to and said he had a wonderful time in the city.

"I had great feedback from adults and children alike. Some said I was the best show they had seen."

Wright said she received only a couple of complaints from an estimated 300,000 people who attended the 10-day festival, which gets funding from Christchurch City Council.

A council spokeswoman said attempts were made to keep a distinction between adult and child-friendly shows.

In a separate incident, a father told how an American duo called The Blackstreet Boys asked girls wearing short skirts to sit "right up the front".

Alfred Carr, one half of the duo, denied the invitation but not his interest in looking up dresses.

"I said that the women [in Christchurch] are relaxed and they wear dresses and will sit down with a dress on, and if they do that I will look, that is all I said."