What’s the opposite of word of mouth?
In an escalation of prevailing trends for a working comedian, Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson told ticket buyers to stay mum after attending his recent show at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco. Davidson wasn’t merely asking to keep the material fresh for the next audience, but to put a lid on any opinion whatsoever. Any urge a fan might have to scribble thoughts about the gig on their own Facebook page was vehemently discouraged, to the tune of $1 million, according to a social media post reported in Deadline.
Those wishing to see the show were required to sign an imposing-looking non-disclosure form. Any patron unwilling to do so would be given a full refund and turned away at the door. Ticket buyers were sent the NDA via email and asked to print it out, sign it and bring it the theater to “save time.” Theater employees were informed about the unusual move only the day before.
But nothing in there said anything about putting the contract up on social media beforehand with a big fat “what the hell??!” That’s just what a woman named Stacy Young did.
Cell phones getting tucked away in locked pouches is not unheard of at comedy shows, concerts, film premieres and even high profile press screenings, but a terrifying million dollar threat concerning any sort of post-event commentary is definitely a new one. Wait, sorry, a million plus “any actual out-of-pocket expense, as well as any attorney fees.”
The landscape for comedy has undoubtedly grown peculiar of late. “Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” Todd Phillips famously griped to V.F.’s Joe Hagen earlier this year. The fear of being taken out of context on social media no doubt keeps many performers up nights, but, if this is even Davidson’s motivation for the legal action, it does seem a tad extreme.
Live Nation, which produced this week’s show, did not respond to the San Francisco Chronicle’s request for comment.
Some poking around suggests that Davidson may have asked the same of his audience two nights later at the Royal Oak Music Hall outside of Detroit.
Next week Davidson is hitting the road with his chum John Mulaney for nights at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. It is unknown if binding agreements will be required to enter, or if the ACLU will launch a tweet-in during Davidson’s set.
As one who hasn’t ever seen Davidson live, but thought he was brilliant in the Sundance film Big Time Adolescence (coming soon to Hulu), I suppose I can still say that he’s a great performer, and can do so without worrying about going broke.