Iām not assuming I know better which is why Iāve asked for an explanation.
I think it is very plausible a company the makes the bags have come up with a bad idea that they have sold to comics who desperately need a solution. They feel better even though it does little or nothing to solve their problem.
Another data point. Iām going to a show at the exact same venue tonight to see two of the most famous drag comedians alive right now. This system wonāt be used. We asked.
I agree it makes marginal more sense if there is a special being recorded as this could incentivize people who otherwise wouldnāt record to try doing so.
When we were kids our parents didnāt have to worry that the people in the front office with the phone would be sheltering in place under their desks.
I get why they are protective. Their act is their currency. They tour it and then potentially end up releasing a special finally burning that content forever.
If it gets leaked online before that process is finished it can cost them a lot of time and money.
Musicians often play their hits. They are just replaying stuff you have likely already heard. Comedians, many of them at least, are trying to present a fresh hour to their audience. They tour on it for a year or more than release it as a special. They are protective over people hearing it besides in FHAs context they release it. When most comedians release a special that content is dead forever, they never tour it again.
I think the protecting material issue is real. Also, Iāve read some interviews with the founder as well as some artists that have used them at their shows where they talked about how they feel like the audience is better/more engaged without cellphones. In an ideal world, everyone would be able to control themselves and generally stay off their phones (or, put another way, every performance would be so compelling that weād never think to look at our phones), but so many people are addicted to their phones that maybe the extra will power is necessary.
And as far as the piracy thing, thereās obviously ways to circumvent the pouches if someone really wants to, but I bet most of the people recording shows arenāt recording for some intentional/commercial reason. Theyāre just regular folks who are used to documenting everything for the gram (or the tok) and arenāt really thinking about whether the comedian wants their A/B testing of new jokes to be potentially seen by millions of people.
Iām not sure that those are good enough reasons to annoy your fans/customers, but I can at least see why some artists and venues are trying it out.
Oh, and the company was founded in 2014 and itās still around, so I guess they have some happy customers (or it at least has a decent sales pitch to school boards).
They know they canāt stop people determined to record but most people arenāt rolling around with a backup phone to get around the pouches so they can at least stop people who would just randomly decide to record.
Maybe. Iāve only encountered them a few times, so I donāt recall how easy it would be to fake tap if someone was watching when the kids come in. Again, Iām sure there are ways around it if someone tries (and creative kids are almost always better at circumventing rules than adults are at enforcing them), but I imagine the schools are just happy if most kids follow the rules and it cuts down on the amount of texting/social media use in the classroom. And it gives the school more justification to punish kids that violate the no cellphone policy b/c the kid canātclaim to know cellphone use wasnāt allowed if theyāve had to stand in line to lock up their phone every day.
Sounds like itās working. I like Sarah Silverman enough Iāll watch some clips if thereās some reasonable quality audio+video on YouTube, probably even an hour long professionally recorded and edited special whenever it pops up on the Netflix home screen. I am never searching torrents for an audio only bootleg. So at least in my case their policy is effective, and I suspect Iām a fairly typical consumer of Sarah Silverman content.
If I was going to watch a live performance Iād also appreciate not having the distraction of 100 phone screens held in the air in the rows ahead of me. So mark that down as another win. The process for locking the phones sounds like a pain in the ass, sure. But do you have any ideas for a better method to accomplish these goals? Iām doubtful that simply telling everyone āno phones, pleaseā will work. Iāve seen that attempted at weddings and there are always a few assholes who insist on getting their own potato quality photos.
I was pretty careful to not say all comedians. Some comedians tour on the same material for decades. But many of the big touring comedians do try to protect their content for the special life cycle. I know other exceptions as well. Jay Leno has used the same act forever. Bobby Lee has never had a special until this year and has done a lot of the same material. But for those acts who have been in the forefront of using these bags, most of them do want to protect their content.