Regal Cinemas: You’ve Got It All Wrong
Update: Tech Soup calls me an “asshole” — So much for originality
Update: CustomScoop coverage
Update: My apology to Bryanna and Regal Cinemas
Update: ValleyWag coverage
Update: TechCrunch’s coverage has launched a global assault on my name, values and identity. Now, the world really thinks they know something about me, when they know nothing at all. It’s just sad that getting pissed off will land major coverage, but my interviews with the world’s elite and everything great and wonderful I’ve done are ignored.
Update: TechCrunch coverage
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On Saturday, October 13 at 7:55 PM in Denver, Colorado, I was confronted by Regal Cinemas employee Bryanna Goecke regarding the web cam attached to my shoulder: The entire incident was viewed live and is available below for viewing.
As a 24/7 lifecaster for the past five months, I’ve walked into many theatres with my gear without incident. I’ve purchased tickets, food and more. I’ve talked to managers, cashiers, etc. Mind you, I am fully aware of the issue of piracy, but is it my problem? Of course not. Prior to each movie, I shut off my laptop and stow it away until it’s time to leave. To be an avid moviegoer and face an egotistical power broker such as Bryanna is a real slap in the face.
Furthermore, I average 60,000 viewers a month on my lifecast. What idiot is going to walk into a theatre and broadcast a motion picture considering his/her audience and the possibility that someone will report them?
Would any pirate wear a camera for the public to see? Highly unlikely.
Comments
60 Responses to “Regal Cinemas: You’ve Got It All Wrong”
[...] Sarah Meyers was recently booted out of a book reading in New York. Less surprisingly, another Justin.TV lifecaster, Ronald Lewis, was told he couldn’t record a movie at a theater. He wasn’t kicked out, but that didn’t stop him from referring to the confused but polite manager as a “fucking bitch” as he walked away. The video clip is above, and his blog post on the incident is here. [...]
Bryanna,
On behalf of reasonable, sentient people everywhere, I apologize for this little shit’s attitude and behavior. You’ll have to deal with assholes your entire life, and this is a good example of that.
Dude… that was a douchebag move.
You come across as a total douchebag in these videos. You should go back and apologize to that girl. She was just doing her job, and you were being an ass.
She was nice about it…
dude calling her names because she won’t play along with your stupid game?! you should get a life, not broadcast one.
You are in the wrong here. The lady was just doing her job and you were giving her attitude. Deal with it, having a camera doesn’t give you a right to do anything you want.
Classy move, Ronald. You are such a gentleman.
Why should anyone in the real world give a crap about your lifecast, let alone a woman who is just doing her job.
Absolutely… unbelievable.
You’re labeling HER an “egotistical power broker”? Dude; that was a dick move.
Who the fuck are you? Just because you’ve got a need to broadcast yourself (quite a narcisist - no?) doesn’t make you famous. If anything it makes you an idiot. This video now just makes you a rude idiot.
No one’s ever heard of you. I saw the link on TC and tomorrow I won’t remember you or your claimed audience numbers. You are a complete idiot and an embarrassment, go take your Lobot-ass amongst people who want to be around you.
Are you kidding me? I was aware that strapping a camera to your head made you look like a douchebag, but I didn’t know it made you act like one too.
If you’ve accomplished anything with this, it is to prove that an always on world is not a good idea. At least not when a moron has the camera.
Amazingly lame on your part, Ronald.
Your Mom would be ashamed of you.
Your Dad would punish you.
You have revealed yourself as a small, mean-spirited person.
Maybe you were just having a bad day?
It’s amazing how judgmental we as Americans are. You’ve taken a minute long video and you’ve made up in your mind that I’m all of these things.
Do any of you know anything about me? Of course not. You don’t know how I interact with everyday people, how I engage them, etc. However, because of this video, it has given you just reason to make these broad judgments of me.
There’s a reason why there’s a community of great people surrounding my lifecast. They come because who I am as a individual and human being.
Funny. People aren’t allowed to make judgements about you based on a minute long video but you’re allowed to decide that Bryanna is a “fucking bitch” just because she wouldn’t allow you to indulge your narcissism?
Please.
–matt
All right. I understand lifecasting may be very important to you, Mr. Lewis, and to many others. I can also understand that it is a new, exciting, and adventurous tool to connect with thousands of other people globally. I commend those same people for having the security to do this everyday of thier lives without fear of criticism and privacy.
However, as such, we also need to keep in mind that there are some people who are or may be ignorant to these types of technological tools that our society is adapting to right now. Piracy is a HUGE problem right now. People are going to prison for this issue and it can be a serious price to pay. Mr. Lewis, and I urge you to consider this woman’s position; and perhaps your own. Say, for instance, you were to be taken to jail over this? How would that make you feel? Please do not see my comments as incriminating, because that simply isn’t so. But instead, try to see things through this perspective.
here’s an idea Einstein, if you don’t want to be judged, don’t broadcast your fucking life for everyone to see.
narcissistic fuck…you FAIL at life
You totally need to get over yourself… You’re a real prick.
It’s amazing how judgmental Ron as a lifecaster is. He’s taken a minute long conversation and made up his mind that this chick was a fucking bitch.
Did Ron know anything about her? Of course not. He don’t know how she interacts with normal everyday people, how she engages them, etc. However, because of this one conversation, it has given him just reason to make these broad judgments of her.
There’s a reason why there’s a community of great people calling him a dickhead. They come because who she is as a individual and human being.
We know that you can be rude.
I’m not going to pass judgment on your entire life (but the fact that you broadcast it all on video invites judgment… *cough*)
But these clips show you to be an idiot. No doubt Bryanna thought she was doing her job, and you made an ass of yourself.
How judgmental we are as Americans. Good try bro, way to be dramatic. Try not encompassing all Americans into your distorted wack job of a world. You think this fad with live viewing will really last? Give me a break…
Do we know anything about you? No, do we need to other than what we just saw. So unless your bi-polar I’m to expect that your attitude and personality differ from what we saw in the video? How many sides are there to you exactly?
We aren’t making broad judgments of you based on hopes and dreams. We are calling it like we see it and what we saw was a dumb ass who tried to act all cocky and cool in front of a movie employee. I really hope “chicks” are falling at your feet because I’m sure your a real prize.
U fvking retard…try that shit down here in LA u pu$$y…i’ll bash your head in
Ok so you are making money from being over the top …
But do you really watch yourself and reflect on your actions in this video and not question yourself?
You lied to her
You were rude to her
You were condescending
You called her a name
and you later refer to her as “egotistical power broker”
Unless there are parts of the video that are missing like where she yelled at you or something I personally do not believe your behaviour is warranted.
dear god what an egotistical tit, nobody knows who you are, nobody cares, you’re not famous, she didn’t need to be patronized and didn’t need to know your name at the end there, she forgot about you instantly. Considering how much of a prick you were you got off splendidly lightly.
Wow. I am floored by your behavior.
Bryanna made a valid inquiry, listened to your explanation, made an appropriate compromise to accommodate you (instead of throwing you out of the theater, which she would have been certainly within her rights to do), and treated you with dignity and respect. Bravo for Bryanna. Regal Cinemas has it all right for hiring people like her.
You, on the other hand, behaved like a self-important douchebag.
What you need to do right now is take your camera and your ignorant ass back to that theater, find Bryanna, and film yourself apologizing to her for being such a royal asshat.
All in favor of Ronald Lewis going back to Regal Cinemas, finding Bryanna, and apologizing on video raise your hand in subsequent comments!
Guess what Ron, I was born in South Africa, have spent the last 10 years in London and now work in Norway, and I also think you’re a fuckwit. Newsflash- people from countries other than America have the internet too y’know, so cut the over-dramatic “Americans are so judgemental” crap. It’s not just Americans- people all over the world now think you’re an utter asshole and will now promptly forget all about you.
There are enough honest-to-god celebrity wankers out there, we don’t need a ZZ-list idiot like yourself weighing in with your own brand of condescending small-minded idiocy. For god’s sake the woman was doing her job- ever think that she might have been fired if her boss had seen you lifecasting your movie visit online? That she might be working there to support her family or put herself through college, and you’ve just attempted to make her feel small? Fucking prick.
this guy is a jerk and all this will do is bring him more hits b/c of the dirt bag move he did….
you’re the smartest fkn dk head in the internet marketing field….and what needs to be filmed is that girls boyfriend bitch slapping you around!
Dude, if you turn off your recording gear when you see a movie anyways, why not just make everyone’s life a little easier and simpler by leaving the gear in your car, or removing it before you walk into a theatre? That girl had every right to question what you were doing, and if it had been me I would have probably tossed you out if you refused to remove the camera when I asked you to.
You are not special. Just because you are “lifecasting” (which, with no fault of their own, most people don’t understand) it doesn’t give you the right to walk into a movie theatre with recording gear. Is that really so hard to understand?
That girl was not a “bitch.” She was actually REALLY nice and understanding. She let you go in the theater, man! WIth a camera! How is that “bitchy?”
Grow up. Really.
Well, you could start adopting a policy of going to managers at movie theaters and explaining your situation and offering that in exchange for you being able to walk around the lobby and get popcorn and a drink (because our own theater lobby’s are way different than your own I guess) you offer to put your laptop and webcam out in your car before you go into the theater and sit down. If an agreeance can’t be reached, you don’t have to like it but you should respect that a theater manager has a certain obligation by a massive organization, the MPAA, to put the kibosh on any POTENTIAL situations involving piracy, etc. About your comment “what pirate is going to walk in with a movie camera right out there” haven’t you ever heard of the strategy “Hiding in plain sight” ? It’s that exact reasoning you just displayed that actually lets some people get away with things, they try to trick the person into questioning themselves, a cunning strategy..it works against you no doubt.
You’re showing the world through your lifeblogging that you don’t always think about your actions, or peoples reactions, or even consequences. That’s a dangerous way to live, but I do respect honesty, and your honesty about how you live everyday. At least you aren’t trying to broadcast a façade.
Those are my positive comments. Your virtually unknown site got some publicity on the interweb because you were a dick. It’s bad publicity but you are still getting recognition. Everyone else already said my negative comments.
Dude, that was a pretty lame move, I just don’t get why you would treat somebody just doing their job to the best of their ability in that manner. Don’t you think those people get enough crap as it is? Quit giving Denverites a bad name.
Man you are a prick!
Turn that camera off before this whole thing backfires some more
What most of you fail to realize is that I encounter these types of people weekly — People who are highly judgmental for no reason at all, and rather than confront most of these people, I move on about my business.
If you’ve spent the past five months with me as a friend, then you’ll well know that I am one of the most humble and decent people on the face of this continent (North America). I’ve gone out of my way to be kind toward others, even when all that I do in society is rarely reciprocated.
The reality is that Bryanna not only startled me, but pissed me off at the same time. I am not the world’s first human being to respond in perhaps an unfavorable way to a situation and it’s surprising to me that the world is now “perfect� because of this.
What bothers me most is that mere strangers have taken this as an opportunity to bash someone they haven’t a clue about. They’ve summed up 28 years of a man’s life of striving to do the right thing with little reward to being an asshole and douche bag in a minute’s time.
I’m glad your lives are “picture perfect,” but I certainly know better.
Jonathan F:
Because you’ve never visited my web site, doesn’t mean it’s “unknown.” In fact, it’s well known. This isn’t the first time my site — or my work — has received publicity.
Unfortunately, it took losing my composure to land on the front page of TechCrunch. Certainly, there are better things I’ve done that are far more deserving of coverage than this.
None of you have a clue of who I am, so at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what any of you think — You’re simply taking advantage of the situation to feel better about your own lives.
what an ass.
“that I am one of the most humble and decent people on the face of this continent”
humble my ass!
you are a self-serving prick. we have all the info we need to judge you and your life.
Fred Jenkins:
Do you feel better about yourself? I hope you do.
Being judged by strangers isn’t a new concept to me. You’ll be one more person who thinks they know everything about me without knowing a damn thing. Big deal.
“that I am one of the most humble and decent people on the face of this continent”
Prick, you just contradicted your own statement. Yeah..you are humble. Listen to yourself man…I am so humble that i think I am the most humble guy in the face of this continent. You think you are being humble with that statement? You should get an award for being stupid.
You come off as the egotistical douchebag here that gives anyone partaking in this “lifecasting” hobby a bad name.
If you are so humble, why do you find your life so much more entertaining than others to the point you would walk around with a video camera on your shoulder for everyone to see and in turn, judge you by? You’re a nobody, just like the rest of us and you acted like a complete jerk to a lady that maintained composure and dealt with you very well instead of calling security. Are you this oblivious to how Real Life works after delving so deep into what the Internet thinks of you? Again, nobody cares you nobody. Take that stupid camera off your shoulder and try to be nicer to people, maybe get involved with the community and stop being such a jerk. I like how you called her a “fucking bitch” as you walked away from her.. Calling a woman doing her job a “fucking bitch”.. What a great man you are.
Ron, I think most people are more upset by the fact that you don’t seem apologetic for what happened. As if it was Bryanna’s fault that she happened to “startle” you, and that you were consequently “pissed off” at her for questioning your headgear.
Hundreds of us have now watched your video and have all drawn the same conclusion: that Bryanna was not being a “bitch,” but was actually rather understanding about the whole confusing i-have-a-camera-attached-to-my-head situation.
I’m sorry if you encounter “highly judgemental” people all the time, but you made a publicly broadcasted decision to call another human being a “fucking bitch” simply because she questioned the odd sight of a man with recording equipment about to enter a movie.
You recorded the face of another human being and then demeaned her for all the world to see. Do the right thing and just apologize. Not for “lifecasting”, but for saying something so awful about another human being in such a public forum.
I’ll bet you anything that most people will respect that.
Ronald, look I get it, you are participating in a new form of social experimentation. For that I applaud you, but it doesn’t give you any leeway in your behaviour toward other people or the way we judge you for it.
If you don’t like being judged don’t put yourself in the public eye.
You have no right to demand anything of your audience, anymore than Britney, Paris or Lindsay. Once you are in the collective consience you are our to do as we please.
The woman in the theatre handled herself perfectly. I do not think she came off as anything but professional. Her situation is simple, she lets you in with a camera she loses her job. Why on earth would she risk that for someone she doen’t know?
Your comment that “this is something you do in your every day life” ahs no bearing, when you are in public you have to abide by societal rules. Masturbation is something I do in my everyday life but is hardly acceptable in public.
All you had to do was drop the last 5 sec from your clip and you’d have seemed completely innocent.
But that’s hardly good for ratings now is it?
Jimmy James:
I’m not the first, nor will I be the last, to use vulgar language. And, I don’t care how many people have watched the video — It only shows that most people care about drama than actually taking the time learn about the person they love to hate.
No one knows anything about me, my life experiences and why I snapped at Bryanna. One things for sure, I’m at my wit’s end with being the “decent and respectful” guy. Fuck everything, because I don’t care anymore.
Ronald, I happen to believe you when you say you are a good guy. I know that nobody is perfect, myself included.
If you don’t mind, I would like to offer you some advice. Instead of getting all defensive, which stirs up haters even more than they already are, just swallow your pride and admit you were wrong in the way that you treated that girl (and whether you like it or not, you were wrong). Then, I personally would go one step further and publicly apologize to that girl for the way you publicly treated her.
The rest of the criticism you are receiving seems not so much directed at you but at “lifecasting” in general. Don’t take it so personally.
I’m confused. You shot the video and edited the video. So you were presenting this in the way you wanted to be presented? And you really didn’t see that most people would feel you were the offender?
I don’t know anything else about you, but the fact that this is your own video calls into question your ability to understand when you should be proud of your actions and when you could have done better. In general, a lack of self awareness. Ironic for a lifecaster?
What a great demonstration of that staff member’s professionalism. That theatre should be proud to have her as an employee.
This is not directed at “lifecasting”, it’s directed at this tool - here’s an idea, get a girlfriend and ditch the camera, maybe some lovin’ will loosen you up a bit champ.
Ronald,
Most of the comments suggest you acted inappropriately and leave it at that. Some are more extreme and judge you more harshly than is deserved. I agree with Cory. If you want to deflect the negative criticism, stand up, admit you were rude to Bryanna, and go apologize.
Imagine this: perhaps Bryanna is a mother. Do her kids deserve to see a video of her being called names just because she was acting respectfully towards a patron and attempting to do her job?
Ciao.
God!.. what a douche! Take the fucking camera of… no one gives a fuck!
What a hypocrite. You’re surprised and offended that people are judging you on this short video clip. But you put the clip up and wrote the blog post expressly so that people would judge Bryanna and her actions. So we can judge her by this clip. But you’re so much more of a complex and deep person, it’s not fair to judge you? Puhleeze! Turn off the camera and take a look in the mirror, dude.
Realize that casual observers will judge you by whatever limited set of experiences they have with you (i.e. a 1min video clip of you overreacting).
Your viewers have no responsibility to pursue a balanced view of you as a person before they make a judgment on your character.
Frankly, the way that people react in contentious situations is typically the best indicator of their character. For example, I already have pegged you as one of those jerks that yells at their waiter in a restaurant.
Are you “that guy”? No clue, but it is definitely not my responsibility to try and delve any deeper, particularly if the first impression I have of you is so off putting.
If you want to live your life publicly you need to come to terms with the fact that people may not like what they see.
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Joe: I am the guy who greets servers with humility, respect and kindness. I am the guy who leaves tips for a simple glass of water. I am the guy who tips servers when they don’t even deserve it. Of course, I’m an asshole, so I may as well live up to it. I’m not the guy who treats people kindly — I’m the guy who treats the world like shit.
Ronald:
You very well could be the second coming of Mr. Rogers but if you serve up your life in a public forum you have to accept the fact that you are consciously giving up the ability to control what is consumed and how the viewer perceives you.
If you don’t want to be judged by the moments in which you falter, then either be more conscience of how you carry yourself in your “lifecast” or turn off the camera. Otherwise, you need to come to terms with the fact that some people are going to view these bite sized chunks of your life and come to conclusions about your character that you may not like.
[...] last night, there’s been a flurry of activity surrounding my recent video about an encounter with a theater employee at Regal [...]
asshole to the tenth degree.
OMG you were unbelievable rude if you are going to carry a camera you have to be able to handle when people are going to make you turn it off . and they will thats just life dude get over it, carrying a camera and lifecasting doesn’t make you a star that can act like a wanker i used to come to your channel but you keep showing your true colors when it comes to women you dont have alot of respect or much nice to say !!
Ronald, how sincere is your apology when you still call Miss Goecke an “egotistical power broker.” When presented with a chance to explain what you do, you lied (”no, this is not a camera”) and then you sulked off and insulted a woman for doing her job - with complete courtesy, I will add. If being a lifecaster means showing your life 24/7 you have to accept that your viewers will see warts and all. You also need to be honest with yourself — you can be rude in person and in your blog. If you don’t like it, practice not showing your rudeness.
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