The talent show is over...here's the tally

[Anonymous067]

So...the talent show is finally over. I ended up cancelling my Saturday gig because yesterday (Friday) was so exhausting.

The final broken/injury tally...

1 broken mid traveler (ripped and does not open/close correctly anymore).
2 ripped holes in curtains (mid and GD)
2 broken boundary mics (they got rolled over by a piano....LONG story)...
1 broken S4 that fell from the ante pros while I fell. (okay...this one was my fault).
2 missing cables (MY CABLES...not the schools...)
a few dented grills.
a HUGE mess in the auditorium (including unused condoms scattered all over the place).
apparently "I broke the audio for video system"...(simply not my problem, because I don't touch that system...and the only part of it that associates with my board is two channels and an aux send that I DON'T TOUCH...). Whatever.
a few missing/broken clips and cable holders for stands.

will update when I remember the rest...
definitely will NOT be helping with this show again...

on the plus side, I will post pictures of the AWESOME booth setup later!

 

[WestlakeTech]

So...the talent show is finally over. I ended up cancelling my Saturday gig because yesterday (Friday) was so exhausting.

The final broken/injury tally...

1 broken mid traveler (ripped and does not open/close correctly anymore).
2 ripped holes in curtains (mid and GD)
2 broken boundary mics (they got rolled over by a piano....LONG story)...
1 broken S4 that fell from the ante pros while I fell. (okay...this one was my fault).
2 missing cables (MY CABLES...not the schools...)
a few dented grills.
a HUGE mess in the auditorium (including unused condoms scattered all over the place).apparently "I broke the audio for video system"...(simply not my problem, because I don't touch that system...and the only part of it that associates with my board is two channels and an aux send that I DON'T TOUCH...). Whatever.
a few missing/broken clips and cable holders for stands.

will update when I remember the rest...
definitely will NOT be helping with this show again...

on the plus side, I will post pictures of the AWESOME booth setup later!

Well at least they weren't used.

Where was this Talent Show? Sounds like you had a really rough night...

 

[GrayeKnight]

That sounds awful! I'm sorry.

Not the best night i see...

 

[Anonymous067]

not the best WEEK. for the record, the mid traveler got decommissioned due to misuse (the rip...) before "tech week".

 

[Anonymous067]

I will have to say, the day of shows was rather fun, simply because not only did I have a booth of sweet gear to work with...but I was calling the show. Being a sound guy, I never get to be the person "in charge", so it was kinda fun calling all the gos, and letting everybody know what was going on. And being the person to say "thank you" every time somebody went on or off headset...ahhh fun times. I will definitely miss that part of the show.

 

[LeadHead]

How did they manage to rip a hole in the grand drape? They seem to be made out of some fairly hearty material. I would think it would take some real effort to rip one?

 

[Anonymous067]

How did they manage to rip a hole in the grand drape? They seem to be made out of some fairly hearty material. I would think it would take some real effort to rip one?

I have NO idea. I think it was being closed as somebody was pushing a piano the oposite direction, and somebody was pushing the curtain (by mistake) against the piano... I didn't bother with this problem, because I didn't see it happen. So, I can't tell anybody who did it or what happened. I didn't see it. That's what I'm going to stick to for now.

 

[chris325]

You should post some pictures of the dropped Source Four as motivation for others to use safety cables and always pay attention when hanging fixtures!

 

[Anonymous067]

Oh...and scuff marks of white color all over the front 6 feet of the stage from the break dancers. ugh. yay for repainting.

 

[shiben]

So...the talent show is finally over. I ended up cancelling my Saturday gig because yesterday (Friday) was so exhausting.

The final broken/injury tally...

1 broken mid traveler (ripped and does not open/close correctly anymore).
2 ripped holes in curtains (mid and GD)
2 broken boundary mics (they got rolled over by a piano....LONG story)...
1 broken S4 that fell from the ante pros while I fell. (okay...this one was my fault).
2 missing cables (MY CABLES...not the schools...)
a few dented grills.
a HUGE mess in the auditorium (including unused condoms scattered all over the place).
apparently "I broke the audio for video system"...(simply not my problem, because I don't touch that system...and the only part of it that associates with my board is two channels and an aux send that I DON'T TOUCH...). Whatever.
a few missing/broken clips and cable holders for stands.

will update when I remember the rest...
definitely will NOT be helping with this show again...

on the plus side, I will post pictures of the AWESOME booth setup later!

Hate to be a dick, but that sounds like my idea of what you find the morning after a sort of sweet party (although the finding condoms part is kind of sketch). However, from the technician's perspective, i can see where this would be terrible.

How did they manage to rip a hole in the grand drape? They seem to be made out of some fairly hearty material. I would think it would take some real effort to rip one?

Grand Piano on wheels propelled by several over-eager volunteers. It might take a few people to get it rolling, but remember that it wont stop easy either.

Oh...and scuff marks of white color all over the front 6 feet of the stage from the break dancers. ugh. yay for repainting.

Sounds like our venue. Every show, sometimes several times during the run.

1 broken S4 that fell from the ante pros while I fell. (okay...this one was my fault).

Are you ok? Is the S4 FUBAR or does it just need new optics/lamp?

 

[firewater88]

I thought I had bad talent shows.... No where near this one...

Sorry to hear of your fails...

I have parts for S4's if you need something off one. let me know.

 

[DuckJordan]

sounds to me like some heads should be ripped. if this had ever happened in our venue i can guarantee i would be getting all new equipment as well as complete control of next years talent show. Last year when a freshman dropped a mic and broke it the "leaders" instantly took the mic off the stage came back to the booth asked me if i could fix it then offered to buy a new on. I took the courtesy of tracking down a dealer who could repair it and it ended up being cheaper to fix than to replace so i told them this they gladly fixed it. This year they asked me to talk to the people in the show and tell them how expensive just a little microphone could be. after that they also stated if you break it, you buy it. she finaly ended her speech by saying if you want to be in the talent show you have to sign this paper. it stated that if anything is broken by the act that is performing they are required to pay for such item and pay for the time to either "Install" or "down time" caused by it being broken. They seemed to straighten up instantly upon hearing this and were extremely careful about what they were doing.

The whole condom thing I have techs walk the isles before durring and after the show if any one of them saw an "unreasonable" amount of garbage in the auditorium we stopped the patrons and kindly asked everyone to pick up the mess their fellow patrons made.

Its kind of nice knowing at the end of the day that you still do work but its not as bad as working with inmates.

 

[Peyton]

Its kind of nice knowing at the end of the day that you still do work but its not as bad as working with inmates.

Wait.

Wait.

What? Really?
Im so very intrigued. Are they worse than children?

 

[shiben]

The whole condom thing I have techs walk the isles before durring and after the show if any one of them saw an "unreasonable" amount of garbage in the auditorium we stopped the patrons and kindly asked everyone to pick up the mess their fellow patrons made.

My guess is that the condoms were discovered in the theater's storage by someone backstage and distributed...

 

[DuckJordan]

owch and yes inmates are worse than working with children. (children generally try to not shank you when your not looking) although you will get a few fingers in the gut if not paying attention.

Oh boy would some techs get there heads knocked if i found out it was them.

 

[chris325]

You know, the whole idea of making actors completely accountable for any damage to any equipment they use seems kind of extreme. I mean, accidents do happen even when every reasonable measure has been taken to prevent them. I know that my school will only fine the actor if it was because of obvious negligence on his or her part. I do like the idea of having a "contract" for actors to sign (and hopefully their parents, in a high school situation) that leaves them accountable in the event of equipment misuse.

Things like falling on a mic in a fight scene, accidental water damage in a show involving a lot of water, a mic flying off while dancing, or other incidents really shouldn't result in the actor being penalized if reasonable precautions were taken.

However, things like a mic falling into a sink after leaving it on the edge (saw this in a previous thread), putting it in a pocket, maliciously damaging it, or other obviously preventable damage should result in the actor being fined.

A lot of this is preventable by simply giving a detailed "do's and dont's " speech about mics at the start of tech week. That way, they know what not to do, and can be held accountable if they do things that they were warned not to do.

 

[DuckJordan]

You know, the whole idea of making actors completely accountable for any damage to any equipment they use seems kind of extreme. I mean, accidents do happen even when every reasonable measure has been taken to prevent them. I know that my school will only fine the actor if it was because of obvious negligence on his or her part. I do like the idea of having a "contract" for actors to sign (and hopefully their parents, in a high school situation) that leaves them accountable in the event of equipment misuse.

Things like falling on a mic in a fight scene, accidental water damage in a show involving a lot of water, a mic flying off while dancing, or other incidents really shouldn't result in the actor being penalized if reasonable precautions were taken.

However, things like a mic falling into a sink after leaving it on the edge (saw this in a previous thread), putting it in a pocket, maliciously damaging it, or other obviously preventable damage should result in the actor being fined.

A lot of this is preventable by simply giving a detailed "do's and dont's " speech about mics at the start of tech week. That way, they know what not to do, and can be held accountable if they do things that they were warned not to do.

yeah in the contract we mention that accidental issues were acceptable but were under the jurisdiction of the event head.

Obviously we aren't going to charge a high school "Band" for a microphone that slipped out of the clip when he went to put it back on the stand. but we would have charged him if he had swung the mic stand with the mic on the stand and it flew off.

 

[masterelectrician2112]

owch and yes inmates are worse than working with children. (children generally try to not shank you when your not looking) although you will get a few fingers in the gut if not paying attention.

And how could we all forget the infamous "purple nurple"! Got one of those today. OUCH!