In the early days, Sadowitz was managed by anarchic comedian and club proprietor Malcolm Hardee, whose provocative selling line for Sadowitz was that he was too shocking to appear on TV; this may have put off TV producers from booking him. As a bet with fellow comic Nick Revell, he produced one of his most famous lines of that era: "Nelson Mandela, what a cunt. Terry Waite, fucking bastard. I dunno, you lend some people a fiver, you never see them again." For a time Sadowitz was considered part of the alternative comedy movement, but his act proved too objectionable with "The Guardian" stating that Sadowitz "shook up the right-on values of the 80s alternative comedy circuit with his willingness to say the unsayable". Sadowitz has described Bernard Manning as "the good cop" to his bad.