Comedian Jamie Kilstein Leaves ‘Citizen Radio’ Amid Controversy

at
Share This Post

Jamie Kilstein pictured with Allison Kilkenny

The situation is still developing, but it appears that comedian Jamie Kilstein, one half of the political-comedy podcast Citizen Radio, has left the show amidst some “disturbing allegations.”

When the most recent episode of Citizen Radio dropped on Monday, it was business as usual, until the 36:40 mark, when the two hosts abruptly and awkwardly announced that Kilstein was leaving the show. Kilstein offered up a rambling explanation as to why that essentially boiled down to “we’re both busy with new projects and I need a mental health break.” The “mental health” bit, according to Kilstein, referred to the fact that he had been stumbling in his sobriety and had just generally been “being an asshole to people.”

After the episode was released, Kilstein’s Citizen Radio co-host Allison Kilkenny took to Facebook to elaborate (kind of) on Kilstein’s departure. Here is what she had to say:

“Recently, some disturbing allegations have been brought to my attention entailing several women who have accused Jamie of being manipulative, emotionally abusive, and predatory in his behavior. There had been murmurs of this in the past, but understandably, the women wished to remain anonymous, so I was never able to learn the full scope of what happened until very recently (a couple days ago).”

Kilkenny goes on to say that one of the people Kilstein was apparently inappropriate with, was an employee of Citizen Radio. Learning this, Kilkenny asked Kilstein to leave the show, to which he agreed; He also agreed to get therapy for his issues.

“I also wanted him to publicly post about what he’s done and apologize, but he declined to do that. I also wanted to be very clearly [sic] in the episode title and description why he was leaving the show. He declined,” she added.

As of the time of this writing, Kilstein has not publicly said anything about the accusations or his departure from Citizen Radio aside from his comments on his final episode. Kilkenny asserted on Facebook and Twitter that the show will continue on without Kilstein, with new episodes coming later in the week with a series of guest hosts.

Other comedians have weighed in or made jokes on social media.

https://twitter.com/luisjgomez/status/836661734437859328

https://twitter.com/sammorril/status/836395597691224065

 

Read more comedy news.

The following two tabs change content below.

Bill Tressler

Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.
Bill Tressler
Bill Tressler
Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.