Demetri Martin tickets sell out in minutes
Less than five minutes after ticket sales began for comedian Demetri Martin’s Feb. 26 performance, the Norris Box Office Web site announced that tickets were sold out.
“There’s a couple of things that we’re looking into as far as the official time that all tickets were officially unavailable, but the sold-out message started going up around four or five minutes after the tickets were sold,” said Weinberg sophomore Barry McCardel, the A&O Productions Promotions and Public Relations co-chair. “Some students maybe refreshed their browser because they thought that it was lagging or something, so they had tickets in their shopping cart that got held for 20 minutes.”
McCardel added that those tickets returned to circulation after 20 minutes, but when spoken to at 11:20 a.m., McCardel confirmed that all tickets were sold out.
Demetri Martin’s performance marked the first time that tickets for a large on-campus event were sold exclusively online. Tickets went on sale at 10:30 a.m. on Monday on the Norris Box Office Web site.
“There was a huge demand,” McCardel said. “That was truly a record-paced sell-out, but that by no means is that something that we’re excited about. Of course we’re happy when we put on a popular event, but it’s always much more disappointing when there’s students that can’t get tickets.”
After seeing the enthusiasm surrounding the announcement for Demetri Martin’s performance, A&O decided to lower the number of tickets that could be purchased by NetID.
“We booked an incredibly popular show and it’s important to know that we made the proactive decision of decreasing the ticket count to two from three to avoid an even worse situation.” McCardel said. “We felt that two was the best possible number.”
For McCardel, the fast sell-out of some A&O events has to do with the lack of large venues on campus to accommodate all the students who would want to attend.
“It would be hard for anyone to anticipate it going out in five minutes, but we did anticipate that this was going to go fast,” he added. “We just don’t have a venue big enough for some of these shows.”
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Not that I’m surprised, but A&O really screwed this one up. First, they made a system that favored freshman by having freshmen automatically signed up for Norris box office online, but not upperclassmen. A system that favors freshmen is sort of… inherently ridiculous. I mean, it’s also ridiculous that he’s doing one showing in a venue that holds only 600 people, and it’s ridiculous that the largest venue at a school with a PERFORMING ARTS school’s biggest auditorium only holds 600 people, but anyway… A lot of people I know lost their tickets because of the whole sign up thing. It’s also insane that they held tickets in shopping carts for twenty minutes, then re-released them without announcing it to all the people who were on there when tickets first went on sale and couldn’t get one. And it’s ridiculous that they were held for an entire 20 minutes. And it’s also ridiculous that they lowered the ticket count to two without warning. I know several people who don’t have tickets because they had made an arrangement to get a ticket from a friend who was supposed to buy three, as some people don’t have credit cards, and don’t make purchases online. I know the system before was a bit of a zoo, but at least if you cared enough to show up really early, you got a ticket. With this, if you were lucky enough to hit refresh at the right time, you got a ticket. What the hell is that? I also don’t really get why we can’t have events like this in Patton or something. Obviously, people would be willing to stand or a performer who sold out in 5 minutes. Or they could use a secondary venue, like they did when they brought Death Cab. I realize that was more expensive for them and the students, but honestly, these tickets are going to be more expensive than they otherwise would have been now that the only way to get them is through entrepreneurial scalpers who, if the Flight of the Conchords concert is any indication, will mark them up to prices upwards of $80 a ticket.
At this point, the only way to amend the general-ineptitude-laden fiasco that was ticket sales for Demetri Martin tickets would be to either a) have a redo that’s actually, you know, done fairly (ie, sell them at the actual box office or notify sophomores, juniors and seniors that you must sign up – or better yet, sign them up as with the freshmen- in order to get tickets) b) move the show to a larger venue and sell more tickets c) consider limiting to one ticket per wildcard, and make it such that your wildcard must match the name on your ticket to avoid scalping or d) asking him to perform another set earlier in the day, since stand up shows are usually pretty brief anyway. I mean, there’s obviously no guarantee that he’d be able to, and it may be too late to work out any of these, but A&O needs to learn a lesson from the recent ticket-selling issues and actually make a positive change.
Really, A&O seems like an organization of Idea-People who don’t understand logistics, or think things all the way through.
Katherine
February 17, 2009 at 9:46 pm
FYI – It’s in Pick Staiger, which has close to 1,000 seats, not 600.
Anonymous
February 17, 2009 at 10:00 pm
freshmen weren’t automatically signed up. i am a freshman and i signed up because i had read that i had to register.
don’t be bitter.
anonymous 2
February 18, 2009 at 1:07 am
also, they notified us of the change in the number of tickets you could get
anonymous 3
February 18, 2009 at 1:11 am
My mistake, I looked into it later and it was Pick. Still not Cahn, which is weird. Another freshman told me they WERE signed up – or that they were informed to. I’m not entirely sure why registration was necessary at all – at no other website I’ve been to are you required to register before you can add something to your shopping cart, and the system where you can access as an NU student or member of the community at large is confusing, particularly because members of the community at large aren’t able to buy tickets. I’m upset that my tuition is bringing someone to my school that I wanted to see, and despite trying my reasonable best to see him, I am not able to. I prefer the line system, because last year, with the line, I showed up really early to get Flight of the Conchords tickets. If you were dedicated, you got to go. With this, it’s just luck. They shouldn’t have test-run a new system on such a popular show.
Katherine
February 18, 2009 at 1:19 am
I agree, this was a particularly bad show to test a new system. Big shows like this should use the line system. If you get there early you get tickets, and there’s no confusion about who’s registered to get them. Also, why the hell isn’t this in Cahn? I’m pretty sure it’s bigger than Pick and with a show this popular there’s no reason why it should be in a smaller venue. If Cahn’s bigger it really should’ve been moved. Oh, and the ticket number notice was definitely not well broadcasted enough and way to late.
Anonymous
February 18, 2009 at 1:38 am
1) A&O can’t always get Cahn. If Demetri Martin is available, and they can’t get Cahn, they have to have to consider other venues. Do you really think A&O wouldn’t get the biggest venue they could if they could? A&O has lobbied the administration for a bigger on campus venue for decades, but as of now this is sometimes just the best A&O can do.
2) You can’t just have a performer do two acts. You’d have to pay them much more, with no guarantee that it would sell twice as many tickets. This is the way it works don’t just assume things and accuse people that work VERY hard to put these shows on at all of “general ineptitude.”
3) Freshmen weren’t automatically signed up, or notified to. You may have been referring to e-mails that went out over dorm listservs. The reason people have to register before, by the way, is to make sure they are students before they go through with the purchase.
4) The ticket change was announced within a day of the original announcement. It’s why A&O has a website, that has a RSS feed you can subscribe to for updates. Also, it was a headline story on this website (NBN), which you obviously read.
5) Do you really think it’s possible for A&O to go off campus for every single show? Really? It costs a fortune and is really only appropriate for shows that are guaranteed to sell out that big of a venue.
6) A&O didn’t make the fucking system, but the administration is trying to get everyone to convert to it for events. They assured us it would work well, which it did, except people refreshed their browsers while they were processing. Rookie ticketing mistake. If you did that for a Ticketmaster purchase the same thing would happen.
7) If you got a ticket, someone else’s tuition would have been “going toward an event they couldn’t go to.” When there’s a limited # of tickets, this is just how it shakes out and no one is happy about it.
-someone who knows what’s going on, unlike yourself
get the facts
February 18, 2009 at 12:10 pm
If only we had allowed the tickets to be auctioned off in a private market. The benefits are two fold:
1) The tickets are automatically allocated to those individuals who value them most. (Hooray efficient, utilitarian outcome!)
2) Students are not forced to subsidize the ticket purchase of others, while not enjoying the show themselves. I had 0 interest in attending this event, but I’ve personally paid a small portion of all your tickets. You’re welcome, I guess.
Dan K.
February 18, 2009 at 12:24 pm
1) I have difficulty believing that A&O doesn’t get first priority for venues like Cahn. And apparently, this DID sell out, and very quickly, which means it easily could have been moved to an off-campus venue successfully.
2) The comment about ineptitude was clearly associated with the numerous other problems associated with this and other shows. I mean, obviously, with any student=run or partially student-run operation, there will be problems with experience and continuity, but still. That suggestion was merely a possible way to amend the situation that we have now, not something they should have done. If you’re going to quote me, don’t take it out of context.
3) No shit, sherlock. But you should still be able to put it in your shopping cart before you are signed in, as with every other website on the face of the earth. Most places, you can put stuff in your shopping cart, THEN sign in, and it tracks it with cookies. They do this so you an enter credit card information. And I know for certain that any freshmen who bought tickets to something during student week were registered for the Norris box office, but I will now admit that my understanding of that system was somewhat skewed and incomplete. And their should have been a waitlist for when those tickets that were in shopping carts became available, so that those who were online when the sold out got first dibs, and not lucky stragglers.
5) Who said every single show? I said shows like this one, and like Flight of the Conchords, which both sold out within minutes. I didn’t suggest they move Joshua Radin to the Chicago Theatre, I reasonably suggested that they move to a different venue in order to accommodate more students at a show that is CLEARLY popular enough to sell out at a different, larger venue.
6) Actually, no, when you buy tickets on ticketmaster, if you refresh the page, it gives you a message about reloading the script and resending information and tells you NOT to reload because it’s just taking a while. I don’t care if they switch to the system, but they absolutely should have worked out the bugs with a smaller show, which they did not do. Northwestern does this a lot: starting a new system before they work out the kinks, and then the students are the ones who suffer for it.
7) Yes, and I complained about it with Flight of the Conchords when I got tickets. It’s crazy to spend a lot of student money on something that benefits a small minority of the student population. At least the other things that our money goes to that benefits very few people are things like URG’s, which are merit-based and COULD benefit anyone.
Katherine
February 18, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Hey Get the Facts,
I absolutely one hundred percent agree with you but calling Katherine a “c*nt” is ABSOLUTELY absurd. This girl is clearly ignorant but watch your language as I’m sure no members of A&O want someone supporting them to use that kind of language toward anyone.
wow
February 18, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I disagree that large shows should continue to use the line system. The whole reason the online system was implemented is because some people really can’t afford to skip classes and stand in line all day to buy tickets, no matter how much they’d like to see a certain performer. This is especially true if you and most of your friends are science/engineering majors, who 1) have classes almost daily (particularly in the mornings), and 2) actually learn things and need to go to lectures to do so. Yes, I acknowledge that the online system is currently flawed, but hopefully with improvements it will be vastly better than the line system in terms of giving students who would otherwise not be able to stand in line for a day a fighting chance.
anonymous
February 19, 2009 at 12:11 am
Katherine,
A&O doesn’t get priority on Cahn. That’s not how it works. If Cahn is booked for the specific night, then it is booked.
Anonymous
February 19, 2009 at 12:25 am
Pick and Cahn differ by no more than 100 seats, and I’m sure 100 extra tickets would not quell this complaining
pick = cahn
February 19, 2009 at 1:01 am
they actually differ by exactly 11 seats. The 11 seats that are in Cahn are generally taken up by a sound board anyway.
Useless little facts that everyone should know.
anonymous
February 19, 2009 at 1:54 am
I’m going to scalp my tickets for SO MUCH $$$!!!
I EaT sO mUcH PeAnUt bUtTeR
February 19, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Last year, they had a lot of measures in place to prevent scalping. It’s illegal, too, so it’s not the best idea.
Sara
February 19, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Lots of anger from a lot of people who aren’t on top of the system. I graduated 2.5 years ago and I knew exactly when tickets were going on sale, that you could only get two, and what I needed to do to get one.
For those that are bitter about their money going towards something they don’t get to appreciate…are you also pissed that you aren’t part of Boomshaka? Or Adshop? Have you been to a soccer game? Or a fencing match? Your funds are supporting all these groups too…assuming that you’re even paying 100% of your tuition (which very few people are). For those that are bitter, I say thanks for entertaining me. I look forwards to a night of fun courtesy of your tuition.
Get over it. Not everyone can get tickets to every event. Life isn’t fair. Just stay on top of your game and the odds of it working out are much better.
Cheers and I’ll see you there.
C-Mo
Doesn't Matter
February 20, 2009 at 12:41 am
PS: More tickets go on sale tomorrow if you aren’t up to date
Doesn't Matter
February 20, 2009 at 12:41 am
I don’t think that’s true anymore – Northwestern’s made it a lot harder to get aid. I’m paying all of my tuition, and most of the people I know are, too.
Sara
February 20, 2009 at 1:30 am
Yeah I went online at around 12:30pm that day, not even realizing that they had “sold out”. Somehow I still got tickets.
I guess they were some of the ones that’d been held in shopping carts?
Who knows? It doesn’t really matter anyway.
Chill out and maybe next time you’ll be as lucky.
cm
February 20, 2009 at 3:38 am
I’ll respond to Katherine, she must be the most stupid person at Northwestern if she thinks:
A) freshmen were somehow “signed up” for online ticketing. They weren’t.
B) Pick-Staiger only holds 600 people. In fact, capacity is 989.
C) A&O somehow “didn’t announce” the reduction to two tickets per NetID. In fact, this change was announced in NBN, to over 1000 people on facebook, on A&O’s website, and on the box office page itself. What more do you want?
D) We could have Demetri Martin in Patten. I mean really? Do you think professional comedians will agree to do a show in a gym with people standing? Are you dense?
E) A&O is an organization of “idea people” who don’t see things through. Please name one other student group on campus that consistently puts on more successful well-run events than A&O does. McSA? ASG? ColDems? Hillel? I thought not.
F) A&O can just “put” an event wherever it wants. Have you looked at event schedules for Pick, Cahn, Welsh-Ryan, or Patten recently? It’s fucking impossible to get an open date.
G) it’s unclear why you had to register to buy tickets online. I mean really? YOU HAVE TO BE A FUCKING STUDENT, HOW ELSE ARE THEY GOING TO VERIFY IT?
Thanks A&O for implementing a ticketing system that keeps such dimwits as Katherine from getting a seat.
urdumb
February 26, 2009 at 2:20 am