It’s a big year if you’re a fan of stand-up comedy, folks.
Australia is already copping it sweet in terms of tours from big-name comedians in the Two Oh One Seven, and our quest to tick off every head on comedy’s Mount Rushmore just got one step closer to being complete.
Chris Rock has announced his first tour of Australia in over 9 years, with a run of arena dates set to go down this coming June.
Australia! After 9 years I’m heading back #TOTALBLACKOUTTOUR Tickets on sale at 12pm Friday 24 March thru Ticketek. https://t.co/4pmYOzyeo0 pic.twitter.com/Y3eYs5MrOv
— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) March 15, 2017
The last time Rock graced our shores was back in 2008, when he brought his ‘No Apologies‘ tour to major cities across the country. This time around, it’s the ‘Total Blackout‘ world tour that’ll be hitting us up in the bowels of winter; this is the same world tour that’ll feature the filming of the first of two planned Netflix stand-up specials in a deal worth a whopping $40million to the legendary comic.
That proviso goes part of the way towards explaining a particularly curious clause in the fine print of the tour announcement: All phones taken into the arena area during the show will be disabled at the door.
The announcement features the standard-issue “no recording devices” clause, but the prevention of phone use is a relatively new curiosity for a major Australian tour. At the show, all phones being carried by punters will be placed into a Yondr pouch, that will automatically lock once people enter the arena area. The pouches remain locked throughout the course of the show, and will only unlock once a person has passed back through the sensors lining the arena doors. This also applies to any smart watches being worn by punters.
The Yondr website labels the company’s vision thusly:
“Smartphones have fundamentally changed how we live. How to integrate them into our lives as a useful tool, rather than a compulsive habit, is a question that needs an answer.
We think smartphones have incredible utility, but not in every setting. In some situations, they have become a distraction and a crutch—cutting people off from each other and their immediate surroundings.Yondr has a simple purpose: to show people how powerful a moment can be when we aren’t focused on documenting or broadcasting it.”
A nice sentiment, to be sure. But also when you’ve forked out $40 million real-life dollars, you’d definitely be keen to prevent some crappy YouTube upload from spoiling all the gags before you’ve had a chance to put the special online.
Tickets for Chris Rock’s tour go on sale from noon on Friday, March 24th through Ticketek.
Full dates comin’ at you.
CHRIS ROCK – ‘TOTAL BLACKOUT‘ AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2017
Friday June 23rd – Perth Arena, Perth WA
Saturday June 24th – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane QLD
Monday June 26th – Hisense Arena, Melbourne VIC
Wednesday June 28th – Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney NSW
Source: TEG Dainty.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty.
