EXCLUSIVE
Here’s what I’m hearing about Pete Davidson suddenly canceling a dozen shows over Christmas and New Year’s.
For one thing, Davidson has performed at least 55 1 man shows since June on a grueling schedule. If you’re in a city that was just canceled, keep in mind that the SNL comic has been working like a dog for months without a significant break.
On top of that: on November 10th came word that Davidson had signed with William Morris Endeavor for representation in movies and TV. He had already been a client for ages with Mike Berkowitz for touring. Pete was on tour when that announcement was made.
EXCLUSIVE: It’s unclear what happened, but very quietly in the last month — since that big announcement — Davidson exited WME and Berkowitz in matters of touring and jumped to the Gersh Agency. He did this in the middle of this wild tour schedule. (WME and Berkowitz still are his agents for film and TV.)
A source says: “He must be exhausted. He didn’t want to do this much.”
We can only imagine that after 55 stand up dates, show after show, few breaks for recharging, the idea of hitting the New York area, plus other key cities, might have seemed daunting.
During the tour, Davidson — who pays to put audiences’ cell phones in locked pouches — lost it with a fan at New York’s City Winery on November 2nd who’d somehow smuggled one in. Pete cursed the guy out — he was ejected from the show — complained about paying $10,000 for the pouches that performers are using more and more to keep their content safe, and off social media.
Davidson’s tour — which was sometimes billed as “with Friends” — but still required solo sets, was so popular dates were being added spontaneously to keep up with the demand.
On top of that, Davidson was no doubt looking forward to being in a hit comedy this fall. “Dumb Money” was, however, dumped by Sony and was a flop — partly because of the strikes but also because lawsuits were threatened from people depicted in the movie. “Dumb Money” had an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, and an 85% from audiences. It should have been a huge hit, and certainly in the awards talk this fall after a successful premiere in Toronto. But it all went away overnight. Poof! The total box office was $13.9 million with almost no foreign release.
So let’s cut this guy some slack, and hope he’s getting some earned rest. He deserves it.
