Thread: Inappropriate Audience Behaviour :(

So, I was just wondering what normal procedure is, if the audience interfere with an act or behave inappropriately during a burlesque performance? I have been quite lucky, up until now and have never had any problems but last night wasn't so good.
I had been booked to perform at a company's Christmas party, along with 4 other performers. I was on last, doing my balloon pop. And, less than a minute into my act, two drunken audience members had made their way into the performing area and kept grabbing my balloons and trying to burst them. I didn't want to just stop and walk off, so I tried to dance away from them, but they kept following me and coming back onstage. Eventually they stopped, by which time I was seriously running out of balloons and just had to kinda improvise the end of the act!
This has never happened to me before, so I'm wondering how to deal with it if it does again? Should I just leave and refuse to continue until proper etiquette is observed or should there really be someone to remove these kind of marauders from the stage?
Thoughts / similar experiences anyone?
Daiquiri x

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Not from a performers perspective but from a view point if I had booked you for an event.
This is not acceptable in anyway. If I had booked you to do this I would have made sure that this did not happen and as a male I would not dream of doing it.
I think the right approach would be to make it the responsabilty of who ever booked you aware that this type of behaviour would not be acceptable and they should be responsible for handling it on the night.

Shane

Ps I would have loved to jump on stage and pop the balloons, but hey I have a brain, well maybe thats stretching it a bit

argh i hate it when this happens!

personally hun, if i felt in any danger i would have walked to the nearest DJ booth/compere and asked them to intervene.

if it's just a matter of them fooling around and i could continue my act like you did, then i probably would have done the same as you.

BUT this is not your responsibility. The promoter should be aware of your safety at all times and it should never have come to this.

Once I got heckled by a girl in the audience, the promoter came onstage, grabbed the mike and shot her down perfectly. It was literally ace.

Last night, at voodoo burlesque , I did my aerial act and came offstage to find the promoters up in arms and my fella Edd quite narked too... apparently two guys in the audience had tried to grab me, I hadn't even noticed and everyone had been watching them like hawks instead!! so much so that poor edd pressed stop instead of record on the video cam! Security were going to throw them out but as soon as I started my act, they settled down to some drunken staring...

I always ensure my contracts state that the promoter holds responsibility for my safety alongside the venue and any security team they may employ. It's horrible stopping an act cos of some stinky drunk, but it's better that than getting hurt.

Alternativly, stitch a taser into your bra

xx

Originally Posted by frayedknot

argh i hate it when this happens!

Last night, at voodoo burlesque , I did my aerial act and came offstage to find the promoters up in arms and my fella Edd quite narked too... apparently two guys in the audience had tried to grab me, I hadn't even noticed and everyone had been watching them like hawks instead!! so much so that poor edd pressed stop instead of record on the video cam! Security were going to throw them out but as soon as I started my act, they settled down to some drunken staring...

I always ensure my contracts state that the promoter holds responsibility for my safety alongside the venue and any security team they may employ. It's horrible stopping an act cos of some stinky drunk, but it's better that than getting hurt.

Alternativly, stitch a taser into your bra

xx

Lol. a similar thing happened to myself at this venue too.

I think that Frayed knot holds a interesting point there.... Maybe some responsibilty lies in the promoters for keeping the acts safe, but as performers i feel there is only so much you can do, Whilst im all for showmanship and the show will go on yada yada.....
i think we also owe it to ourselves to be safe. Make limits... you know?

When you really need to start worrying is when the promoter gets up on stage and interferes with the act...mentioning no names.

Twinkle Starr xx

I used to compere a regular pub karaoke night which, in a way put me in the position of both the performer (while I was introducing the singers) and the promoter (while they were singing).

We would regularly get drunken punters coming up and grabbing a spare microphone and insisting on joining in with whichever singer was up at the time. My answer was to interrupt the music and ask the singer if he or she minded this. If they didn't, then the spare microphone would be enabled and the song would continue (funny how it never occurs to karaoke punters that the compere has ultimate control over the microphones). If they did object then the offenders would be asked to return to their seats. If they refused, then the show would be suspended until the rest of the audience (who were also keen to get their turn to sing) was able to persuade them to shut up and sit down. This often meant that the singer who was interrupted got to sing their song (or at least some of it) twice.

Obviously, it's easier to do this in a pub karaoke situation than in a properly managed show in a proper auditorium; in the latter case I would expect the venue or promoter to provide a modicum of crowd control if needed.

Of course, if the budget permits, you could employ a minder (SIA licenced, of course) and add the cost to your fee.

Not froma performers view but I have grabbed a guy off stage during a lovely lady's routine (no namesxxx) as he tried to grab her boobs. My fella helped turf him out. the minders at the place were too slow.

Ultimately if you feel threatened...get out of there sharpe.

xxx

Yuk, that sounds horrible! Did the rest of the audience just let them pester you? Were you not tempted to stick them with your pin if you were doing a baloon dance ? Not a good idea, perhaps, but tempting

A lot of the time, groups within audiences then to think that what amuses them will amuse the majority.

On 29th December Kittie was performing at Vegas! on the Renfrew Ferry and I was sitting at the side of the stage when I was approached by a rather heavily-set goth girl.

"Can I get up on stage?" she asked.
"Why do you want to do that?" I enquired.
"Because it'll be REALLY FUNNY!" she said.
"How will this be funny?" I replied.
"Because my friends will find it hilarious!" she said, pointing to three other goth girls.
"But what about the people who are actually supposed to be on stage?" I said.
"Well if they don't find it funny, they shouldn't be on stage!" was the rather puzzling reply.

When I told her politely that the stage was out of bounds to non-performers. She then decided that I obviously had a problem with her as she spent the rest of the night trying to give me evils from across the room!

people can be quite dumb eh? i had two girls standing at the front of the stage recently at a gig blatantly slagging me off as they decided to have a problem with me. it was very annoying and just because i could....i whacked them "accidentally" with my fans.
obviously feathers don't hurt but i wanted them to shut the fuck up!!