I once camped out all night for tickets to The Cure's Halloween show at Irving Plaza. By morning, our lives had been threatened with big knives by scalpers (I managed to smile and bribe the scalpers to stay behind us in line with my delicious Royal Canadian Uncle-Buck Size Pancakes, which were bigger than their knives, but that's another story), but that night we learned life lessons about camaraderie, New York sidewalks, and the best rule: No Save-sies.
I'm not saying you can't save a seat at a movie for your friend who has to run to the bathroom, or for one person who is running late, or another person who went to get popcorn. But those kiddos at the midnight Harry Potter Premiere last night ruined our evening by draping their Hogwarts capes and scarves over entire rows and saying, "These are saved."
At one point, theater officials came in and asked everyone to move to the center of the aisles to show available seating. Someone then cast the Imperius Curse upon the poor man and he zombie-walked out of the theater, defeated.
After waiting around for 45 minutes, and with still another 40 before the movie was supposed to start, we took our popcorn and left. Eventually, we found a manager, who was actually really kind, offering us a refund or reserved seating at another show another day. Good customer service like that means the difference between an infuriating and public angry blog, or just a silly one that reveals perhaps I should leave the midnight Harry Potters to the folks who remembered to bring their wands.
I'm not saying you can't save a seat at a movie for your friend who has to run to the bathroom, or for one person who is running late, or another person who went to get popcorn. But those kiddos at the midnight Harry Potter Premiere last night ruined our evening by draping their Hogwarts capes and scarves over entire rows and saying, "These are saved."
At one point, theater officials came in and asked everyone to move to the center of the aisles to show available seating. Someone then cast the Imperius Curse upon the poor man and he zombie-walked out of the theater, defeated.
After waiting around for 45 minutes, and with still another 40 before the movie was supposed to start, we took our popcorn and left. Eventually, we found a manager, who was actually really kind, offering us a refund or reserved seating at another show another day. Good customer service like that means the difference between an infuriating and public angry blog, or just a silly one that reveals perhaps I should leave the midnight Harry Potters to the folks who remembered to bring their wands.
2 comments
Was Garrett your Irving Plaza camp out buddy at Irving Plaza? He and I did that once for Tori Amos tickets. It was fun, though it was the one and only time I camped out for any reason at all.
ReplyDeleteYes! It was Garrett ... and Ben and Jeff. I think I had a migraine the night of the Tori Amos camp-out, but I remember Garrett got me a ticket. I also remember having a horrible time at the Tori show because everyone rushed to the front of the stage, and I had some sort of anxiety/claustrophobia/angry at everybody thing. But I remember she played great.
ReplyDelete