Cell phones aside, it’s always good to remind your customers how difficult it is to have to work. And how you’re too important to visit their jerkwad home. Yet there you are.
He was much more carefree in Dr Who.
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Pete can be funny, though anyone who got on an entertainment life track of mild celebrity at such a young age for a behemoth like nbc is going to have some arrested development/entitlement issues themselves (calling people fucking retarded is so stereotypical from him for people who dislike him for him to so blatantly stick to type is irksome).
But, people say coarse shit when they’re lashing out and i hate cell phone recordings.
Recording a minute, or taking a souvenir photo/selfie sure, thats normal, but having it going end to end for whole acts or songs…
Saw the misfits who did the phone pouches and even though people STILL snuck in one here or there, it was one of the most pleasant experiences.
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Watch enough interviews with comedians describing their experiences over the years and a theme emerges: more than any other genre, audiences for stand up feel incredibly free to give the performer total instantaneous meanly negative feedback. It’s not enough to just sit silently letting a bomb pass, it’s their duty to roast the performer in real time.
Though now that I think about it’s harsh but maybe better and more useful than in music, where you get polite applause and you move on never knowing what they really think.
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Including the use of “retarded” as an insult?
This reminds me of the fallout after Michael Richards exploded onstage and called some hecklers the N-word. His defenders later pointed out that he was understandably frustrated by some of the audience behavior. Bro, that’s not the point.
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the pouch is voluntary. the rule is you get thrown out if you use your phone. the pouch helps people with no self control. if you have self control, don’t bring the phone or don’t declare it. it is controlled by a simple magnet and rat trap design. also you should not fight the urge, give in to it. knock that rude person’s vice into the mosh pit and watch their pitiful face as they become very passive aggressive and go cry in the corner. another great tactic is to accidentally spill some water on or around the offender.
I’m with pete here. Performance art is afflicted and needs treatment. I doubt some neoprene touting startup is the cure but its a step in the right direction.
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You forgot to mention that he had said several times many of his issues stem from losing his father who was a firefighter at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
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Personally, I’ll snap a picture here and there while being careful not to block the view of the people behind me. But selfish jackasses who just hold up their phone the whole time belong in the same circle of hell as people who talk during movies.
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Similar–we went to see Bill Maher at the University of Texas back in 1998 or so. He hadn’t really planned any material; I guess it was supposed to be a question and answer thing? Or some kind of audience interaction. Anyway, all the folks in the room came to see standup, and we didn’t have much to say to him that might get his juices flowing. Aside from insulting us for being unsophisticated kids with empty heads at a major university, he didn’t have any prompts stored up that might get us engaged. People started walking out when he started insulting us, and he walked off after less than half an hour.
I really don’t get what his plan was. Debate 1000 college students on the topics of the day? Have us suggest things he might be able to riff on? We bused in from our apartment to see him, and bused right back again half an hour later. What a bust.
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Or you can demonstrate control and just remind the person it isn’t allowed.
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Yes, that’s correct. Thanks!
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Having attended many concerts, comedic performances, etc. in central Florida over a decade, I can affirm Davidson’s assessment of the general white university student crowd. Half of them truly don’t want to be there, and are suffering from “fear of missing out” syndrome.
I can’t tell you how many performances I’ve seen lessened or ruined because some affluent, white asshat had to make it all about themselves.
To the asshole who threw a shoe at Kim Deal’s head during the Cannonball tour in Jacksonville…I really wanted to see that show, dude. She would have played if you didn’t do that (not to mention reducing the value of our tickets by half…Nirvana headlined).
ETA: Davidson’s not off the hook, though. The r-word was about as awkward as hiring Ryan Lochte as a trainer for a sensitivity seminar.
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I admit, my first thought was “everybody wants to be the next Andy Kaufman”.
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Unfortunate outburst aside, I’d be lying if I said I don’t agree with the sentiment. Generally now I’m at the point where I’d support banning cell phones from events like this.
As a speaker (not performer but I assume it’s even worse for them): every now and then I have to speak in front of people, and the only thing worse than people recording me are the people who don’t even try to hide that they’re on their phones scrolling through social media feeds or chatting or playing or whatever. There I am, trying to share information and knowledge, trying to engage my audience, and some people are just blatantly ignoring me. And sure, nobody owes me to be interested, but if you’re not interested then sit in the back rows or something, or better yet, don’t come. People sitting in a front row and then playing with their phones are a nightmare.
As audience: people doing the above during concerts (even classical concerts where one would expect audience members to have more self-control), in the theater, in the movies, etc. You just know that ten minutes into the show assholes are going to start whipping out their phones and start recording or getting their social media fix. And most of the time they don’t even bother dimming their screens. At a classical concert a while ago they actually stopped the performance because some dick in the front row was staring at their phone with the screen on full brightness, which was distracting the pianist.
And let’s not even get into the people who not only don’t set their phones on silent, but even take calls, etc.
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The only thing worse than half the audience recording you on their phones, is NONE of the audience recording you on their phones.
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For me, the best standup comedians seem to be especially introspective (for good or ill), intelligent, and **sensitive to situations outside of themselves.
** That may explain why so many (perhaps the vast majority, at least on stage) appear to be liberals.
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I admit to doing this even before smartphones were a thing. With a Moleskine. Well, a notebook thingy. Doodling, drafting love letters, and so on whilst the presentation goes on. In ballpoint. I did it because I fall asleep all too often whilst sitting still in an audience.
I also will still do it, because it just seems like better camouflage than smartphones. And it isn’t illuminated like a screen, though my eyes are starting to go.
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See, I’m okay with that because at least when people do this I’ll never know - it looks like they’re taking notes, which is something that can reasonably happen at the talks/presentations I hold.
And sure, even before smartphones were a thing there were people not being interested, but at least they usually sat in the back rows, or just left, etc. I’ve had a couple of people sit in the front row only to ignore me and talk with their buddy (one instance was pretty funny because the buddy was trying to get him to shut up), but nowhere near as many as those who can’t put their damn phones down.
I remember like 8 years ago I went to NYC and we raced from the air port to this off Broadway one man show of Star Wars and this guy was either filming or taking pics during the performance. The actor had to stop the show twice to tell him to stop. Not sure WTF his problem was, but Christ, stop disrupting this guys show.
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I don’t think this compares well to the Michael Richards incident. First, I understand that „retarded“, while not a nice thing to say, used to be a pretty common insult with no special connotation about the political or societal views of the person saying it. Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m not a native English speaker.
The n-word on the other hand has always been used exclusively by racists with a clearly defined racist intention. So it tells something much more damning about the person saying it in the heat of the moment than a person saying „retarded“. That’s probably also why you and I don’t even type the word, but use the term „n-word“ instead.
Second, the thing he accuses the students of is them not having developed mentally to the point that one could reasonably expect them to, namely the point where you are able to follow clear and basic requests, even if they require you to suppress a momentary impulse. So by definition of the word, „retarded“ seems actually fitting in this context.
So even if I wouldn’t use the word myself (I try to refrain from using too many curse words in general these days) and don’t support its use, I think it’s a minor detail in the whole incident and doesn’t reveal much at all about this comedian‘s views on mentally disabled people.
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@tigerberry I have an attention deficit. Would you prefer if I fidgeted, or muttered to myself with a stream of consciousness dialogue through your entire speech, or if I quietly used my phone to distract myself just enough to have some clue what you are saying.
Sometimes people are doing it because they are interested. Sometimes it’s because they are and are engaging a compensation mechanism.
You admitted that you can’t tell which is which (or if it’s attentive notetaking) with a notebook. Yet you are certain you know that it’s rudeness or disinterest when it’s a phone.
That’s your ego that’s the problem. Recording a performance is something else entirely. Recording may cut into a performer or speaker’s ability to make money from their efforts: why would I go to your talk if someone’s put fifty versions of it on YouTube?
But this is getting into the weeds. As @Brainspore noted, the problem is the ableist language used by the person with power in this situation. It’s one thing to be frustrated. It’s another thing to use language that targets a marginalized group as your go-to insult.
ETA: sorry, @Brainspore, this wasn’t initially a direct reply to you.
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