General Forum - Who was in the wrong here then? - Page 1

if you need the loo, you need the loo, but going to the bar is wrong IMHO. It amazes me that ppl do that, or get up for loo/bar just before interval to beat the queue.

We're seeing Billy C on his tour, and like when we saw jimmy Carr last couple of times, at £35 each a ticket, we won't miss any of it to beat a queue! that's why the interval is 15 mins!

Saying that though for Connoly to leave early is unfair on all the fans who paid for a full show, a pro he shouldn't necessarily have to, but should be able to put up with rudeness, hecklers etc.

Jimmy Carr likes hecklers, but doesn't get many these days, as ppl know they won't win Also, at the end of a show, he genuinely seems pleased that ppl have been to see him, thanks the audience and he invites ppl to come and meet him and get autographs at the front of the stage afterwards, rather than lurk around out side!

Anytime I have watched Billy Connoly on the funny videos of his stage shows, he always used anyone moving around in the audience, coming in or leaving, as as part of his act, and shouted things like 'dont worry I will wait till you get back, so you do not miss anything'.

Maybe he is just getting a bit too grumpy in his dotage, to think up witty lines like that anymore.

Agree, leaving early is not fair on the audience who paid to see the full show. 

I work in theatre. Audiences are very different from what they were years ago.
Todays audiences are used to watching 'entertainment' in their homes every night with TV / SKY / DVD etc - I think many when they go out for the evening think the 'theatre' and in some cases the cinema are an extension to their homes.
The main complaints we get now are "We can't hear the performance' - I swear that this is all down to home cinema systems etc - calls for us to 'turn up the volume' has happened many a time, how can you turn up a performance that isn't mic'ed up?
Usually if there is a sound desk in the stalls they congregate there. Back in my West End days one Sound tech used to tell them that he'd turn up the volume and let them see him turn a fader up on the desk that said DFA (which stands for Does **** All - no complaints after the interval!) 



IN MADNESS YOU DWELL

This item was edited on Friday, 3rd February 2012, 22:39

I don't know if it was any better in the 70s or 80s, but if you go to a gig now, you'll find that at least half the people are there just to get ****ed, and aren't interested in listening to the music. Coupled with high ticket prices, I generally just stay at home with the album now.

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Brian Elliott is a British journalist, covering soccer, MMA, and pro wrestling. He has written for the likes of the Associated Press, the Canadian Press, and Fighting Spirit Magazine, and has also appeared as a guest on Fight Network Radio.[url=

Well, it's why so many of us don't go to the pictures any more, isn't it? Ignorant sods who treat the cinema like their front room - chatting, texting, constantly staggering off to the loo, the bar or the food concession. At least they can't pause or rewind...

J Mark Oates
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The Home Of Lively Debate
And Misinformed Comment

sprockethole.myreviewer.com

Yes, I guess it is a sign of the times. Bars never used to be open during the performance! That's terrible!

I remember that when I used to go (almost weekly) to the Marlow Theatre in Canterbury in the 80's, you would book your drink for the interval, and when you got to the bar at half time, there was a reservation queue, and all the drinks were poured and named so you could just pay for yours and go quickly.

I know it rattles any performer to see people constantly walking out of the auditorium. They are trying their best to entertain you and the more bums that leave seats, the more their ego is dented and they begin to wonder if they are, indeed, entertaining. If people had an ounce of respect for the person on the stage, they would sit still, be quiet, and listen, with laughs and claps at the appropriate times. It will increase the performer's confidence and therefore produce a better performance from them.

Usual cack-handed BBC reporting, apparently. The constant-traffic-to-the-bar was an incident in Scarborough. The Opera House incident involved him telling a joke about strokes and some woman in the audience took exception and bawled him out. Seems like he was so thrown by it he lost his place in his script and walked off.

I'd hate for this to be one of those "thought police" moments. In the past I've always said comics need an internal moral compass to know what's acceptable, but interrupting a comic mid-stream, no matter what the provocation, is absolutely unacceptable. Walk out. Vent your spleen in an indignant letter to the Times. Demand your money back at the box office.

A young comic trying out untested material might be another thing, getting booed offstage would probably do him (or her) the world of good. You don't expect verbal abuse for a seasoned performer like Billy Connolly. What I find particularly disgusting is the way so many people online are calling the Big Yin a diva.

J Mark Oates
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The Home Of Lively Debate
And Misinformed Comment

sprockethole.myreviewer.com

It's just another case of the general public being 90% moronic. Barring kids obviously, who can't sit through a 90 min film without needing to go for a ****? It's crazy.

I go to a lot of gigs, purely for the music. I don't even drink but when I did I went to watch the music, never to get hammered. The best part is watching some tool walking into the front of the crowd 2 mins before the main act comes on, carrying 4 full to the brim pints that they've paid £3.50 - £4 for, only to watch them drop them all once everyone starts jumping around - makes me laugh every time.

I learnt while working in retail never to trust the general public to do anything. I left there in 2004 and things have gotten worse and worse. No respect or intelligence.

I've just turned 29 but sound like 92 eh

Quote:
I've just turned 29 but sound like 92 eh
I know the feeling...I'm 26, but I'm sure something fairly major has gone wrong since I was little, even in the 7 years between me and my younger brother and sister the world has changed massively IMO.

I paid nearly £60 for the theatre tickets for me, my mum and sister and it really ruined the show for us.  I don't understand why people can't sit for a couple of hours (or stand up and dance as was appropriate in the second half and positively encouraged by the cast), but the constant getting up and down to get drinks and pee is just ridiculous.  Especially when you stop and really think that if perhaps a few mre people visited the bar less often, they probably wouldn't need the loo as often.