Would signing a non-disclosure agreement keep you from going to a show? ‘Saturday Night Live’ comedy star Pete Davidson and his team started issuing the NDA’s with a $1 million fine if broken to those attending shows on his current stand up comedy tour. The actual document made it’s way online this week for a show in San Francisco, but Consequence of Sound reports Davidson has employed the policy since his November 7th show in Minnesota. According to posts on social media, the agreement states “shall not give any interviews, offer any opinions or critiques, or otherwise participate by any means or in any form whatsoever (including but not limited to blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or any other social networking or other websites whether now existing or hereafter created) in the disclosure of any Confidential information…” .
This is an odd policy, but similar moves have been made by other popular comedians to protect their material from leaking online before they can bring their show to another city or film it for a special. A few year ago at Chicago’s Thalia Hall, Dave Chapelle utilized the growing tech of Yondr pouches to keep fans off their phones during show, preventing the show from being bootlegged.
As a comedian, I completely understand some comics feeling this is necessary to protect their material and keep it sacred in the digital age. Now I am not performing on the same scale as Davidson, but when your jokes are distributed out there without your permission, it can inhibit how you can continue to development that joke which may not be in it’s final form when you see in a shake cell phone filmed video.
