Have you ever used a clipboard to get into seeing a Broadway show?

Does just carrying a clipboard actually work to deter ticket takers from perceiving you as an audience member? Thus allowing you to enter the theatre without a ticket. Or is this just a myth? There is something about people with clipboards that make it seem they have authority.

I honestly cannot stop laughing at the thought of someone doing this, it sounds like an SNL sketch.

Updated On: 8/2/22 at 11:00 PM

I’ve used the “I forgot my wallet at that restaurant” 3-4 times to get into Times Square 10-15 minutes before the New Year’s ball drop. As many know, all the crossed streets/blocks into Times Square are closed off and heavy police control so no one is allowed to cross. I used that wallet excuse and they let me and my group in and we dashed 42nd Street to Times Square. It always baffled me that people stood in Times Square for hours and we snuck in 10-15 minutes before the New Year’s ball drop.

In all the years I worked FOH, I never saw anyone with a clipboard. Anyone working on the show will be directed to the stage door, where you'll have to identify yourself. And with Covid policies, you won't be able to fake your way in.

Takes me back to Psych 101 freshman year in college and reading about a study (from the 60s I think) which assessed the perceived authority of people carrying clipboards in work environments.

So incredibly embarrassing. I rest my case.



Enjoy Palm Springs.

BrodyFosse123 said: "I’ve used the “I forgot my wallet at that restaurant” 3-4 times to get into Times Square 10-15 minutes before the New Year’s ball drop. As many know, all the crossed streets/blocks into Times Square are closed off and heavy police control so no one is allowed to cross. I used that wallet excuse and they let me and my group in and we dashed 42nd Street to Times Square. It always baffled me that people stood in Times Square for hours and we snuck in 10-15 minutes before the New Year’s ball drop."



For folks like you, negative strokes are better than no strokes at all.

Updated On: 8/3/22 at 12:31 PM

Going slightly back on topic -- has ANYONE used a clipboard (for anything) since, say, the early 1980's? Anyone working on a show would have a Macbook or Ipad (and the FOH staff knows everyone who works in the building anyway).

This thread needs to be put out of its misery. It was a stupid question that should never have been asked in the first place.

OhHiii said: "Brody is a menace on this board, but ya'll are THIS upset about a fib about a wallet to get into an event that's....free and attended by 100,000 people? Step away from the keyboards every now and then, folks."

Keyboard warriors do be keyboard warrioring

BrodyFosse123 said: "Oh, sweets. At my plus 50 years I’ve been thrown obstacles and curveballs y’all will never experience in your lifetime. And I’m still thriving and having life adventures millions will never experience. I don’t take anything for granted and my skin is so thick from personal strength, at this point in my life there is nothing anything or anyone can do to break me. It’s all one big joke so just enjoy it. I laugh at my nonsense every day. Especially at those that take my stupidity so intensely and personal. "

So you come to this website to bully and troll. Gotcha.

dramamama611 said: "Can I just ask why this is even a question? I'm too old to be up on all things pop culture."

Well.... as you may or may not know Dramamama, in professional and college football, it's traditional for the backup quarterback who is not playing in the game to be on the sidelines with his helmet off carrying a clipboard to facilitate taking notes on what's happening on the field to learn from it and prepare to be ready to go into the game if the starter is hurt or pulled out late in a lopsided game, hence the phrase "he's carrying the clipboard today" meaning he's the backup QB.

Well apparently the backup QB on one team was talking with another player on the sideline and happened to mention he loved live theater and especially musicals and had attended several shows recently and carried the clipboard with him into the theater to study his football notes during intermission to prepare for the next morning's practice and to keep his program in pristine shape and at one of the shows, the usher asked him if he worked there and he respon... uh... he resp...

You know, I have no freaking idea why this is even a question.

I haven't tried this, but we were at a Celebrity Golf Tournament awhile back and both of us had hats with the logos of a TV Network that we had been given as part of a tour. Someone with the tournament yelled at us that "YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE OVER HERE, WITH THE PRESS" so we went over there instead of staying with the gallery. I'm sure I was wearing gym shorts and an inappropriate T-Shirt for a member of the "working press" but who were we to argue?