You what? 2nd of March and I can see my own breath in the air when I go to get the newspaper?!
Last night I did the unthinkable. I succumbed to a telemarketer. I know I shouldn’t. But somehow I did.
I didn’t actually buy anything, but when a woman rang up and was selling cheap Comedy Club tickets, I was wondering “is that the place next to the Nova? Do they know me ‘cos I went there last year?” and I was in a hurry, and told her to mail me out some info about it and I GAVE HER MY NAME AND ADDRESS. Argh. Do I really need or want cheap Comedy Club tickets anyway? Blargh. I wish I hadn’t done that.
8 replies on “Weather and stuff”
Never mind. When you get the junk mail, you can either write “RTS” on the front and send it back or you can chuck it in the bin.
Then again, you could open it, find a good offer and buy it. :)
The problem is… what if it wasn’t just the Comedy Club. What if it was a big call centre on behalf of the Comedy Club, and I just (a) confirmed that I am interested in unsolicited phone offers and (b) told them my name and address?
Argh. Remember for next time: “Just say no.”
Ohoh… the Comedy Club thing is cool, I got them last time they called up and went. Funny as hell. Well worth the interruption to my dinner. Saw Will… thingamybob – him. (Okay, I can’t remember his name…)
Hopefully it wasn’t the Comedy venue located in North Melbourne. They tend to dress themselves up as the Comedy Club or as a key part of the Comedy Festival, have you part with your cash and then torture you with a 4 hour performance of 3 or 4 really crappy performers. Not worth the money and reason enough to slam the phone down on telemarketers.
IN theory you can avoid people giving your information to call centres who might use it to flog other things to you by crossing out any clauses on forms that say they might share your information. If they then do share it you can complain about them.
I give information to telemarketers all the time as long as I don’t have to buy anything. I know they’re mostly impoverished uni students who need the money and are under pressure to get responses from people they ring, so if it costs me nothing i’ll do it.
Strange, given that the Comdey Club has been shut down and Cinema Nova is building 2 or 3 new cinemas in the space. More likely, it’s the Comics’ Lounge – which is the one in Errol St, Nth Melb – they do a heap of door to door promotion… Their multi-ticket packs aren’t too bad but the selection can be a bit lame. The venue is a complete barn without any sort of warmth or intimacy. And generally, the audiences they get are VERY suburban – much the same as you find in the theatre restaurant scene – usually boozy bucks/hens nights with a higher than usual wanker/hoon ratio… Brad Oakes – one of the owners – used to have interests in a couple of theatre restaurants…
Well a brochure arrived in the mail. It’s advertising “The Last Laugh at the Comedy Club, Upstairs at the Athenaeum”. I also note the envelope was handwritten and they didn’t quote my surname, so hopefully it really was just them ringing around (maybe based on previous clients) rather than a gigantic call centre simultaneously gathering victim data.
Hi… Brad Oakes here.
I have just been trawling through the net in a ‘vain’attempt to see any news of myself and I noticed a comment on this site that must point out is incorrect. Brett, Tues March 9, refers to me as one of the owners of the Comics Lounge in North Melbourne. This is entirely untrue! Further, the idea that I used to own a couple of Theatre Restaurants is prepostestorous! I don’t get to own anything when I play Monopoly (TM)!
Of course I realise that the sub-text of his message is that I ‘…act like I own everything’! Hey, I can’t help that. Ask anyone; ask my Mum. I’ve always been like that! People try to pay fares to me on trams!
As to Brett’s point about higher ratios of wankers and hoons vis a vis the Comics Lounge, I’d be curious to see the statistical analysis he bring to support to such a claim. And remember nearly everybody comes from a suburb at some stage.
BTW Brett the Comedy Club is not defunct: It has moved to the Athenaeum Theatre in Collins Street in the city. And I don’t own it either! Anyway, get in touch with me and I’ll arrange a couple of tickets for you mate …Oaxy