This reminds me a show I did last year where I was brought in to coordinate all of the audio equipment. They were using OrchExtra in place of an
orchestra and no one had time to learn it so I accepted the duty. I go to college 2 hours away so I could only make it up to their
theatre on a few weekends. Anyways, I have my ops in HS so I brought them in and started teaching them how to operate everything after I set it up. Well, hours before the show I'm told there is going to be a keyboard player. Not a problem, I quickly set it up without a word of protest.
Well that night the mics were having the worst interference I have ever seen. My op almost walked out it was so bad. Still, to this day I can't figure out the exact cause of the interference... So I'm trying to fix the microphones, I have an obnoxious audience member telling me wireless equipment doesn't go further than ten, yes 10 feet (side note: this guy claims to be a professional), the keyboard player now wants
monitor headphones with only orchextra and her coming through but she wants to be able to control the volume of each, and
intermission is only 15 minutes long and I'm working alone....
Forgot to say we don't have the most money so we had two (old) sound boards linked together and every
channel is being used. Did I mention everything I do has to be creative and all of our cables were used up? Yeah, figuring out those
monitor headphones took some thought.
Now to answer the question: I ended up telling the "professional" off which is very unlike me, but at the time it had to be done so I could begin thinking of how to fix the problem. The "client" kept asking what was wrong, and I kept explaining it's either this or that (I sounded a lot like
House when he just makes up diseases...). Eventually I had to admit I couldn't fix the problem during the show and the problems will be fixed for the next night. The "client" agreed because that was all she could do.
In summation: always be polite and as accommodating to everyone as you possibly can. The nicer and more friendly you are, the more likely you will be hired back. If you can handle yourself in a situation of crisis, you give off the
image that you can handle anything. Don't try to lie and
cover things up if you don't have a solution; however, giving a hypothesis as a possible cause is a better idea than admitting defeat.