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After a racist comedy act it hosted drew pamphleteering neo-Nazis to its front door, 12 West Brewing in Mesa has a few regrets.
In a statement posted on its Facebook account Tuesday evening, the brewery said it didn’t do its due diligence to “verify concerns” about one of the comedians it hosted for a series of shows in its private basement space. The comedian, Leonarda Jonie, has a history of nakedly racist and antisemitic tweets, including ones that promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and suggest that people of South Asian descent are “cockroaches and parasites.”
Calling someone racist doesn’t have the effect they think it will anymore. Now it just means they’re telling the truth. pic.twitter.com/KWIIJ4s3Xi
— Leonarda Jonie (@leonardaisfunE) January 19, 2025
According to the brewery’s statement, Jonie was brought along by headliner Quinn Dale, whose own act features plenty of racial material, although his jokes tend to be accompanied by actual punchlines.
“Quinn informed us he was providing his opening acts, as is very common in the industry,” the 12 West statement said. “A few days before the event, we received concerns about one of the performers who we weren’t aware of being on the show. We were assured by Quinn that this wouldn’t be an issue, and mistakenly didn’t do our due diligence to verify these concerns.”
Reached by direct message on X, Jonie said: "I did two shows that went off with no issues. I went back to the venue the following night and no one mentioned anything about neo nazis handing out flyers or them having to lock the gates. I had a diverse audience including Mexicans and Jewish people. If this was a 'Neo-Nazi' event, I’m pretty sure those people wouldn’t have been there nor would they have hung around after the show to talk to me, but my merch, and tell me how much they enjoyed the show. So seeing this post seems like a load of horse shit and honestly I’m disappointed in the venue.”
Dale did not return a message seeking comment.
It’s unclear if the comedy show was open to the public or if it was a private event. Jonie advertised the show on X a few days ahead of it, though she did not disclose its location. According to a 12 West employee who worked the event — and who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals — there were two shows on Friday night, three on Saturday and four on Sunday. The crowd for each was roughly 150 people.
“There were more shouts of agreement and cheering than there was laughter” and “it felt more like a rally than comedy (show),” the staffer said. Though they had trouble recalling specifics of Jonie’s act, they remembered a bit about Jonie “being highly attracted to ‘old school (Nazis)’ because they ‘actually have testosterone’ and will ‘smack you around every once in a while.’”
“Management was complaining right along with us,” the staffer added “We all shot each other painful looks from across the bar at specifically nasty lines. This has been a nightmare for them, and they are arguably even more frustrated and upset than hourly staff, simply because of the intense damage control they’re expected to do.”
For all the jokes about old-school Nazis, some new-school ones showed up at one of the shows. On Friday, members of neo-Nazi groups Arizona Action and White Lives Matter posted photos and videos of themselves on Telegram, masked and handing out fliers outside the show. The flyers promoted the idea that white people are being systematically replaced and eliminated in the United States by other ethnic groups — a favorite conspiracy theory among the far right.
12 West said it alerted Mesa police about the extremists, though Mesa police spokesperson Detective Sabrina Amyx said the department did not receive calls for service at the bar last week. The brewery also condemned both the neo-Nazi leaflet distributors and the acts of the comedians it hosted.
“The views of the performers do not reflect the views of 12 West Brewing, and in no way do we support the presence of any sort of neo-Nazi groups around our business,” 12 West said. “Once alerted that there were people outside handing out materials and harassing guests, we immediately closed the gates and denied any entrance into the building. We absolutely do not support neo-Nazis, hate speech, white supremacy, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ+, or racism of any kind.”
The employee disputes that to a certain extent, saying that 12 West co-founder Bryan McCormick seemed to be enjoying the show. “I am unaware of what conversations have been had between management and the owner,” the staffer said, “but the owner’s jovial countenance throughout the show and his failure to cancel it immediately, as well as his private relationship with Quinn Dale, are all very telling.”
New Times reached out to McCormick via an email thought to belong to him but has not received a response.
