A conversation about what the Pete Davidson NDA means — and doesn’t mean — for the future of stand-up
Pete Davidson Photo: Will Heath/NBC It was recently revealed that Pete Davidson, SNL cast member/celebrity ex-boyfriend/enthusiastic tattoo canvas, made audience members at his San Francisco Sydney Goldstein Theater show sign a $1 million NDA before being granted admittance. The NDA included the following language:
Stand-up comedy is a form created in public. A comedian builds an act by trying and failing in front of a live audience. Before it is filmed for a special or a late-night set, the comedian will try it in increasingly larger venues. Traditionally, this is done with an implicit social contract that the audience isn’t going to interrupt the performance or, say, film it and put it online before it’s done.
Kathryn VanArendonk: I wasn’t surprised when I first read about phones being put in locked pouches. That’s a form of audience control I understand. But NDAs feel like an entirely different bridge to be crossing, a situation that tries to address a real-but-moderately-sized problem with a gargantuan, ill-fitting solution. It’s a nuclear option, and like most things that come with “nuclear” in the phrase, I worry about long-lasting and wide-reaching side effects.
One other thought I had to start: Because what you’re describing is an ideal world where audiences respond to early material with the understanding that it’s unfinished, there is a corporate parallel for this. It sounds like what Davidson wants is a focus group, a group he can use to test out some material and swear them to secrecy in case it’s bad.
Also, I don’t think what I’m describing is like a focus group; it’s more like a screening of a TV show or movie that studios have with civilians so the directors can make changes in the edit. This audience doesn’t pay and they do sign NDAs. This is different from Pete’s show, which was a regular show that people paid for, but it’s closest to an early cut of a final product — still entertaining, but flawed. Comedians charge for them because the audience will pay for it.
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