Dave Chappelle, other artists make fans lock phones in pouches during show

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Fans waiting to get into Dave Chappelle's show at Radio City Music Hall tapped and texted away on their phones. Hopefully, they got it all out of their system because phones are not allowed inside the show. In fact, show-goers have to lock them up in little pouches.

Chappelle has partnered with a company called Yondr, whose mission is to create phone-free spaces.

"Yondr is a response to life in the digital age, kind of around the amount of time we spend behind screens," said Kelly Taylor, Yondr's director of marketing.

At Chappelle's show, every phone goes into a lockable neoprene pouch, no excuses. The patron holds onto the pouch, but it can only be unlocked by a Yondr team member with a proprietary unlocking mechanism.

Chappelle was one of the first artists to use the system, but Taylor said its popularity is quickly growing with artists like Alicia Keys, Guns N' Roses and Tracy Morgan joining the phone-free movement.

"On the one hand it protects their content from leaking online," Taylor said. "And then there's also the experiential component, which is that it feels better to perform to a crowd that's present, engaged, and actually with you in the room instead of on that's constantly texting or recording you."

Being told you can't have any access to your phone for a few hours can be a little scary for some, but most people waiting in line told us they actually don't mind being forced into a little digital detox.

"I think it's kind of old school to do that, I like that, kind of bring it back to the old times," said one ticket-holder.

But some feel a little uncomfortable being totally disconnected.

"As a mom, I think that is kind of out there, it's too much," Debra Frasier said. "I want to be able to have the capability to use my phone or to let somebody contact me if they need to in an emergency."

Show-goers can keep their phones on vibrate and go to one of the phone-access zones whenever they need to check it. But Yondr says that if you can hold off you may just find the phone-free experience to be kind of fun.