I wonder if he's having issues with being denied access to certain venues. The reason why ticketmaster and the rest can get away with those fees is because they give a kickback to the venue owner. The venue owner can tell acts to get lost if they don't go through the ticket vendor that gives them $5 per ticket for nothing. Obviously CK is a huge act and you can't blacklist him, but you may need his level of star power to pull this trick off. Even Pearl Jam couldn't do this and they were hugely popular. Maybe stand-up venues aren't as greedy/stupid.
Indeed, he says as much in the message: it was a real challenge to find venues around the country that could work with our exclusive ticketing service under these perameters [sic]
He is playing at offbeat venues; The Chicago Symphony center, for instance, and the Symphony Center in San Francisco. A quick peek at both venues will show you that neither are popular among mainstream touring acts.
I only checked the Texas shows, but the Magnolia Theatre in Dallas is a pretty "classic" theatre that has hosted plenty of top-tier comedians, and ACL Live in Austin books all kinds of heavy-hitting musical acts in addition to the stuff you see on the Austin City Limits television show. Not exactly comedy-specific clubs, but probably more appropriate than the places run by Ticketbastard/AEG Live.
They're certainly still getting a cut, it's just not itemized during checkout for all to see, I guess. The only other thing on the receipt besides the ticket price was sales tax, which came out to an even total of $45.00.
In his post he said he had trouble finding venues that would work with him on this. I know last time through Arizona he played Comerica Theatre (capacity 5500) and on this tour he is playing the Celebrity Theatre (capacity 2650). I would guess that this specific venue change was due to Comerica Theatre not wanting to work with his exclusive ticketing.
I'll bet you that if you look closely enough you'll find the Comerica (and most other equally large venues) is owned by Livenation/Ticket Master and as such will only deal with acts who work though Ticketmaster. That's the hardest problem to solve with ticketing, the fact that most venues of a decent size won't touch you unless you also use their ticketing service.
Pearl Jam is really a different example: you can't use, say, a local movie theater that converts to stage because of the sheer size of the equipment needed (Metallica had their own jumbo jet for this). For smaller bands and other groups however, I hope to see this kickstart a new era.
Yes, it is practically guaranteed this locks him out of numerous larger venues that have exclusive ticketing deals. A price he's willing to pay clearly.
