‘Sold Out’ Show Cancelled After Comedian Mocks Murdered Mom

Six sold-out comedy shows vanished overnight for touring comic Ben Bankas after a video surfaced of him mocking Minnesota mom Renee Good — a woman fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in early January, during Donald Trump’s second term in office.

Laugh Camp Comedy Club in St. Paul confirmed it axed the entire Bankas run — originally scheduled for Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 — citing both public safety and rapidly growing public anger over the comedian’s comments.

“I had to make a choice between a paycheck and the safety of my staff and my city,” club owner Bill Collins told the outlet in an interview this week. “Under these circumstances, there was no real choice. Things are too volatile right now, and people are scared.”

The fallout began after Bankas posted footage from a set in Poughkeepsie, New York, joking about Good, a 33-year-old mother of three whose shooting by ICE agents has become a flashpoint in the Midwest. The clip went live on Jan. 13 and exploded online, surpassing eight million views within days.

In the recording, Bankas sneers, “Her last name was Good. That’s what I said after they shot her,” before also calling Good “retarded” and referring to her wife as a “dog.” The tone — mocking a woman killed by federal force — struck many as cruel at a moment when Minnesota residents are already protesting the Trump administration’s expanded ICE operations.

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“I watched the video once and couldn’t finish it again,” Collins said. “This community is grieving. People are marching in the streets. My club is not going to become the epicenter of more chaos.”

According to Collins, public officials quietly warned him that security risks were mounting. St. Paul residents had already begun planning protests outside the venue ahead of Bankas’s arrival. “We were getting calls from the city, calls from neighbors. It was becoming unmanageable,” he said.

Canceling the shows will cost the club roughly $17,000 — a major blow for a small business already strained by years of political turbulence and declining consumer confidence.

Creative Artists Agency, Bankas’s representation, has reportedly demanded the club fully compensate the comedian because he was still willing to perform. Collins said CAA has also indicated that no other agency clients will appear at Laugh Camp until the dispute is resolved. The agency declined to comment when contacted.

Bankas, speaking to fans in a new video on Jan. 29, brushed off the cancellation during a live set. “I just found out that my shows were canceled in Minnesota,” he told the crowd, who booed in response. “F*** ‘em,” he added, seemingly referring to the venue.

He later hinted he is “working on new venues and dates for the fine people of Minnesota,” though he did not acknowledge the controversy surrounding Good’s death or the protests currently sweeping the state.

Bankas, originally from Toronto and now living in Austin, hosts The Tanakas Show on YouTube — a program that he says reaches 10,000 listeners each month and has been promoted on far-right outlets including InfoWars and Fox News, platforms that have largely defended Trump’s 2026 ICE expansion.

Meanwhile, the fury over ICE activity in Minnesota continues to rise. Good’s death — ruled a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds — came just days before ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 28, was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. Together, the two high-profile killings have triggered a wave of civil unrest not seen in the state since 2020.

A nationwide “ICE Out of Everywhere National Day of Action” was held on Jan. 30, calling for work stoppages and boycotts to protest the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

“For many Minnesotans, these shootings are not isolated incidents,” said community organizer Lila Hartman. “People feel hunted in their own neighborhoods, and now they’re watching a comedian joke about a mother being killed. It’s dehumanizing. It’s infuriating. And it’s exactly the climate we’re living in under President Trump.”

As of now, Laugh Camp’s calendar remains empty for the canceled weekend — and Collins says he has no regrets.

“You can replace a comedy show,” he said. “You can’t replace a human life.”