Noisy audiences - quote
 

speaking of folks calling out in another thread I then came across this quote by Leopold Stokowski, conductor. He was reprimanding a talkative audience.. in May 1967.

"A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence.."

love it!

Re: Noisy audiences - quote
 

Amen

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Reminds me of a Mose Allison song to keep an audience in line-"Your Mind Is On Vacation But Your Mouth Is Workin Overtime":biggrin:

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I think that Stokowski would have a cow if he could see, as well as hear, how rude people are these days. i'm reminded of a news piece that I had read about how Laurence Fishburne had been performing on stage one evening, when he finally got good & fed up with the bean heads who were fooling around with their cell phones while he was on stage. From what I can remember, he wasn't very happy about the situation & didn't hesitate to let the offending parties know just what he thought either.

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Pity the poor actors, deep in character, trying to maintain an illusion, when some idiot's cellphone goes off - and they ANSWER it!

During a Broadway performance one day (of The Lion in Winter, of all things), Laurence Fishburne was interrupted by a ringing cell phone. Fishburne's response? He turned to the offending member of the audience and yelled: "Turn your f---ing phone off!"

I suspect the rest of the audience cheered, but it must have been a struggle to revert to medieval England after that.

Hugh Jackman, who was onstage with Daniel Craig, also had a few words for a disruptive audience member. I think the only place you might find it now is on TMZ (they hold the copyright and had it removed from YouTube and everywhere else when it went viral last fall.) Here's a description of what happened:

Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig were trying to perform their play “A Steady Rain” Wednesday night in NYC — but some nitwit forgot to turn off his mobile phone. Jackman set the dude straight — staying in character all the while. Minutes later, the ring tone echoed through the theater again and Craig’s response was Tony-worthy.

He did it recently when a cell phone call interrupted a preview performance of “A Steady Rain,” the Broadway play that stars Jackman and Daniel Craig.

The crude video shown by the TMZ.com Web site appears to have been shot from the audience.

It shows Jackman breaking character to tell the owner of the ringing cell phone, “You want to get that?” as the audience erupts in cheers. As the ringing persists, Jackman pleads: “Come on, just turn it off.” He then paces the stage of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, waits about a minute for the ringing to stop and the play resumes.

My favorite "bad audience member" story came from Michael Crawford, as told on a "Making of Phantom" special that runs once in a while on either BBC America or Ovation. It seems that when they first brought The Phantom of the Opera to Broadway, during one performance at a crucial moment of the play (probably "The Music of the Night") some quintessential Noo Yawk woman in the front row answered her ringing cell phone, and could be heard (over the orchestra, actors, etc) exclaiming to her friend at the other end, "yes! I'm here! He's wonderful, listen!" and held out the cell phone for friend to hear Michael Crawford TRY to continue singing the show's signature song. Can you imagine??

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Here is my "bad audience" story...

Worst Gordon Lightfoot concert....

Was June of 2008 at Mountaineer Park Casino. A lady directly behind me had a Maraca and was trying to play along with every Lightfoot song. TALK ABOUT DISTURBING... Plus she STUNK at it also... We had third row seats and this idiot was playing a Maraca trying to "fit in" with the songs? She didn't seem drunk, but I guess you don't have to be drunk to act stupid.

Arguements ensued (I can usually get along with anyone) and she finally stopped midway through the concert. What a JERK.

That is why I so enjoyed the Nashville audience this past Saturday night. Very classy group.

For those of you who do not know what a maraca is, below is the defintion....
They are simple percussion instruments (idiophones), usually played in pairs, consisting of a dried calabash or gourd shell (cuia "cue-ya") or coconut shell filled with seeds or dried beans. They may also be made of leather, wood, or plastic.

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Hi Wes,

Wasn't that me sitting behind you? LOL

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Hi Wes,

Wasn't that me sitting behind you? LOL

DSR

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hahahahahahaha

DSR, I WISH you would have STAYED sitting behind me... you moved over to the next row I think.

DSR, the big positive that night was that I had a chance to speak with Gordon, get some pics... and also meeting you and your husband... Was a special night after a real bad start.

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In the mid-90s, Springsteen was doing a solo acoustic tour in support of his Tom Joad album. I had hitched an airplane ride to Cleveland just to attend. After his first song, Bruce addressed the audience and said that the songs he would be performing this evening are more about the silences between the words than the lyrics themselves (or something profound like that). Bruce suggested that if the person next to you was talking or singing along, please do not hesitate to tell them to shut the f*** up. It got a good laugh and set the mood for a great show.

I was seated near an end row and two ushers were standing in the shadows nearby chatting away during a couple of early songs. I finally turned to them and explained that I had flown to Cleveland to hear Bruce, not them. Not one of my more tactful moments, but it served the purpose.

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here's Jeff Tweedy from Wilco explaining to the audience why you should shut up during the show, to the audience. (as honestly as possible!)

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In this one Stompin Tom Connors does it... politely as he can, he's Canadian eh !

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Jesse Joe,

I liked that video... Never heard of that guy before (I am not Canadien) but I got on you tube and saw some of his other stuff... Pretty Neat...

Thanks for posting,

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fun thread....so true, too

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That Stompin Tom Connors is one of a kind Wes. :biggrin:

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I know what you mean there. I had a similar experiance when Gordon was here in October of '08. There were four people setting behind me, grousing & complaining the whole time about the way the show was going, and the whole time I'm thinking to myself "please! Would you dirty birds just go home & let the rest of us enjoy ourselves?" Well, when intermission was over, it seems my unspoken prayer was answered, as the twerps hadn't come back, and the rest of the evening was FANTASTIC!:)

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Timetraveler,

I guess its the "nature of the beast"....

Can't remember the last time I went to a movie. I hear it is horrible now a days. Someone is always talking or predicting the next thing thats going to happen. People have NO respect for their fellow man.

GL said somwhere that he goes to the movies often. I can't picture him sitting thru a movie with some Jerk yapping next to him or behind him.

Maybe thats one of the reasons I enjoyed the Nashville concert so well. People respected Lightfoot.

I guess that should be the name of the game... we have to respect one another.

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i think his sched allows him to catch those deserted matinees...even mediocre films are wonderful on the big screen when you have solitude:)

i will never ever go on a Tues eve again

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I only go to movies well after their opening so there's about 12 people in a 300 seat theatre..
I don't want to sit near anyone who is eating a three course meal, has extra large drinks and goes to the bathroom 4 times.

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good tip also for solitude...but often i wait too long and they end up telling me it's already on dvd, lol

i may be the only one still without a home theatre setup

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I watch a JVC TV that must be 15 years old and weighs a ton...altho I have a 37 inch flat screen downstairs..
lol

i don't have PVR/Tivo and still use VCR's to record tv shows.

I do have a flat screen computer monitor tho. and a wirelss optical mouse.
;)

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I'll have to say, on that point, that I am VERY guilty of doing such a thing at theatres, which is one of the advantages behind waiting for a film to come out on disc. That way I can indulge myself in talking to the screen as much as I like & as loud as I like. It drives my family 'round the twist, but at least they're the only ones that I'm disturbing. I will say this, though, and that is that I've often wondered how such a bad habit like that got started, because I used to not be like that as a kid.