My husband and I went to see a comedian we really like (John Mulaney) last night in Stockholm. It was a great show and he was hilarious, but that’s not what this post is about.
Before the show, we received this email from the venue:
“Important information about the show. This event will be a phone-free experience. The use of phones, smart watches and other similar accessories will not be permitted in the venue.
On arrival at Stockholm Waterfront, all phones, smart watches and similar accessories must be secured inside a Yondr pouch that will be sealed until the event is over.”
This is the new normal for comedy performances. I get it, they need to protect their material. However, not to brag, but in Sweden everyone is such a rule follower that it probably would have been enough to simply ask us not to use our phones.
Anyway, getting phones into the pouches caused really long lines to get in. After the show, I tried to open the pouch and discovered I couldn’t. That actually made sense, but I hadn’t bothered to check it out during the show. It was locked with the same “technology” as those theft-prevention tags they put on clothes in the U.S. (Side note: never seen these in Sweden. Again, rule followers.)
Anyway, we had to go to a person that had the special device to unlock the pouch. After exiting the venue, there were bins in which to throw the empty pouches. So technically, we could have kept them, which I wanted to do because that would be a great way to keep our teenagers off their phones. But the part of me that is now half Swedish just turned it in as we were asked.
Wow. Kind of the honor system but not really. I believe they have to protect themselves from recording, though. It’s a shame.
It’s an interesting security system, though.
Yes, I totally get protecting their material and why we shouldn’t have the phones. I think my main frustration was that it made the line go outside the building and it was freezing! 🙂 Maybe they could turn on some sort of force field or make a Faraday cage of the auditorium so no one’s phones would work at all.
That may be a prophetic comment.
I feel like John Mulaney could do a really funny bit about this.
There was a comment in there about how this was the way he was going to steal all our phones. 🙂
Did you ever see that magician who backs them up to the cloud?
No, link please! 🙂