Reader Tom Wolper writes with an interesting question about the whole Michael Richards matter…
I understand the public interest about Richards's response to hecklers attracts attention because it touches nerves about race. But there is a secondary issue which I am curious about and nobody is discussing. Since you have friends in standup and I'm sure many of your blog readers appreciate standup comedy, I'd like to know what you think or newsfromme readers think about an audience member recording a live performance, editing it, and posting it publicly. i don't have any Improv stubs handy so I don't know if recording is explicitly prohibited in writing. On a pro sports ticket stub I see: "…and by use of this ticket agrees the holder will not transmit or aid in transmitting any description, account,
picture or reproduction of the Baseball Game to which this ticket admits him."Are comics, in general, worried about bootlegs of their performances and are they worried about edgy or blue material being edited by an audience member to remove context, then being posted on the Internet?
Yes, comics are worried about bootlegs of their performance…and for just about every possible reason. Theft of material is a biggie. Back when I was hanging around The Comedy Store a lot, you practically took your life in your hands if you pulled out a note pad to jot down a phone number. A bouncer-type might come over to you and demand to see what you'd written because they knew the comics would get ticked off if they weren't policing that kind of thing. I've seen performers on stage stop in the middle of a set because they thought someone had a tape recorder.
So they're worried about that, they're worried about plain, old-fashioned bootlegging…and now, in the era of YouTube, I'm sure they're worried about material being posted on the 'net to make them look bad. If they weren't before the Richards controversy, they are now. In the past, some clubs have been rather lax about posting rules or printing them on tickets but this may cause them to get somewhat more strict, not only in terms of proclaiming the policy but enforcing it, as well. We may even see public venues that make you check any cellphones that has a camera. The folks who recorded the Michael Richards clip and posted it were probably breaking some Laugh Factory rule — and possibly a larger issue of copyright — but I doubt anyone is going to go after them about it.
The managers of The Laugh Factory, by the way, have posted this statement on their website saying, among other things, that Richards is no longer welcome on their stage. I'm not quite sure what the point would have been of having Richards apologize to Saturday night's audience for offending Friday night's audience but, hey, there are a lot of things in this world I don't understand. I think I'd be more impressed if The Laugh Factory apologized for the parking situation up there on a Friday night. If you've ever tried it, you know why things could get volatile in that room.