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Found another review of the Sunil C. Patel produced "Eric Thomas in London" event.

Excerpts:

The event was due to start promptly at 10AM — but by 10.10 it was clear something was wrong.

Soon 10.30, 10.45 … now 11AM was creeping up; the event had still not started. People were still coming in at around 11.30.

As the host went into his own speech, the crowd seemed to get increasingly angry and hostile. The host was losing the crowd. A quick look around and I saw faces of people who were confused as to what the event had turned into. An event about ET, an event that wasn’t about selling; became about selling.

Suddenly the crowd gets incredibly hostile, the host/member of the crowd start arguing and the 1/3 of the crowd to my left are now all on their feet chanting “Let him speak! Let him speak!” whilst some of the the people on my right are disgusted with this crowd; about the lack of respect. And the mini-crowd around the main stage, a scuffle ensued and the event seemed to turn ugly.

The people around me were in shock, we all said in unison “I’ve never seen this thing before! Wow!” I couldn’t believe it. It was crazy! I didn’t know what was going on. It felt like I was watching a car crash in slow motion!

But then … then without warning, an individual in the premium crowd suddenly got hot, aggressive and it was pandemonium. I could hear shouting, confusion — wow, “not again” I thought.

I heard a rumour that the security entourage had cleared the room where ET was, or something occurred where ET had to leave; and this is why the scene got heated. Yet again, another ugly scene marred the event.

A few of us speculated whether the whole thing had soured relationships between ET and the company, and indeed; one of my fellow colleagues speculated that ET would probably not come back to London.

As stated earlier, at least 1/3 of the crowd got hostile/angry. I’ve never seen such scenes before, I’ve never seen a host lose the crowd or explode on an audience before.

Maybe it was the constant referencing to “me and I” in the speeches, maybe it was not reading the crowd, maybe it was the idea of not selling; and then breaking this vow to sell.

Regardless, the interaction between the crowd and main host soured the event and made us question whether ET would even return to the UK after this incident.

I just want to touch upon a commentary of the trend of Youtube social media/Instagram stars hosting live events; and what it means for us and society in the future.

I wonder whether this is a hyper-realisation of Andy Warhol’s classic 15-minutes of fame quote; or simply a realisation of the democratisation of fame through the medium of the Internet.

The event was soured by poor logistical issues, which I understand because it was their first event; and by a crowd/host interaction which was crazy; it felt like watching a car crash in slow motion. It’s not something I’ve ever seen or witnessed before and soured the event.

The complete review: Review: Eric Thomas London 2019. – silentflute

SD

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