Dry Ice...without the machine

[Spongebob]

For our end of the year choir production, we have this thing called "senior song," where the seniors sing a song of their choice, and then everyone else comes in at the end of the song to sing a song with a long tradition, "you'll never walk alone." While we're singing the last song, the juniors give the seniors roses as a tradition. I, being called the Tech God in choir (because some people there don't know how to turn a mic on...) thought it would be fun to have a fog effect, where the fog would come on at the end of the senior song, and the juniors would walk through the fog with the roses. We had a fog machine in theatre from a few productions ago, but I didn't know where it was, and plus many people complained that some people may be alergic to the fog. Therefore, we ran with dry ice. It was only needed for one performance, for like two minutes. I THOUGHT that theatre had tubes and a chiller and the whole shebang, and being the facilities manager for theatre, i thought i knew where it was. longstoryshort, i couldn't find it in time. also, we didnt even have a fan.

what i ended up doing was:
during the senior song, i crawled under the risers, and, with the help of some parents, placed hot water and MANY crushed pieces of dry ice into trays, and pushed them along the bottom of the risers. i backed up, and me and two other parents began to fan the dry ice with pizza boxes.

it was an epic failure. the dry ice effect only reached the people right in front of where the trays were. it was an epic three minutes of pushing trays farther towards the seniors, but it was a fail, because the dry ice pretty much lost its effect five seconds in.

the FML moment: the week after the show, i found the tubes, the box, and the machine.

It was a learning experience though. I bought 20 lbs of dry ice and ended up not using all of it, so i ended up using it a day later for a video project where i had an epic death into a swimming pool....

 

[renegadeblack]

We used dry ice for a show once. It was hella fun. If you ever get the chance, freeze an orange in the dry ice and throw it on the pavement once it's frozen. It's pretty freaking cool. But don't let actors play with it, they'll put it in the toilet and flush it once they're done with it. I think I need to make a post here...

 

[MrsFooter]

We used dry ice for a show once. It was hella fun. If you ever get the chance, freeze an orange in the dry ice and throw it on the pavement once it's frozen. It's pretty freaking cool. But don't let actors play with it, they'll put it in the toilet and flush it once they're done with it. I think I need to make a post here...

...I'm speechless. I'm literally speechless. Are you serious? Please tell me that this is your sick idea of funny, and that you were never this irresponsible with dry ice. No? S***. Okay, I'll say it once, and only once.

DRY ICE IS NOT A ****ING TOY! NO ONE SHOULD BE "PLAYING" WITH DRY ICE!

Do NOT put an orange in dry ice and throw it on the pavement. This is a great way for someone to get injured, and your ass to get fired. Do NOT let actors play with it, not because they are in any way stupid or inferior human beings, but because no one should be playing with it. In fact the only person who should be touching it is the technician who actual drops it, and they should be competent and mature enough to be able to handle it responsibly, which you are clearly not.

One more thing, I have to ask: where the hell was the teacher, faculty member, or responsible adult while all this was happening? Because frankly, their ass should be fired too. This is the kind of behavior that gets people injured, and is in no way tolerated in a professional setting.

 

[DuckJordan]

While Mrs. footer makes a big point i tend not to yell at people. ON that note she is right, Dry Ice is extremely dangerous hence why in some states you must be 18 or older to buy it and required to show ID. Also dry ice effect works better in room temp water instead of warm as it would cause it to melt too fast. As far as liquid haze/fog being an allergen it really isn't much since its more of a lung irritant but again that's what happens when un-educated people get put into power.

As far as it being a fail, it was an attempt and its just a reminder to always make sure you can do something before volunteering.

I would also like to ask a mod to remove the "ideas" for the dry ice off of that post. It seems to me its almost as dangerous as rigging.

 

[Les]

I agree with Mrs. Footer's sentiments, but I think her presentation could have been a bit better. "TALKING LIKE THIS AND **** EVERY D*** THING" isn't exactly the way to get people to take what you have to say to heart. It will just tick them off, and they will continue the behavior (they just won't post it on here).

While freezing and shattering an orange does actually sound slightly entertaining, you CAN get burns or frostbite pretty easily. I agree that dry ice should be handled with care, and only used for the purpose for which it was purchased. To put it in perspective though, this sounds pretty tame compared to what I've seen some technicians do with left over dry ice and bottles. One of them could have easily lost fingers or their entire hand doing what they were doing.