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31 October 2005 - 10:25 Set up and tech days suck. They just do. There's a lot of waiting around, and a lot of people talking about doing stuff, but not actually doing stuff. Never enough teamwork. There's always this huge segregation between the 'actors', the 'tech people' and all the others who make a difference. I always wondered why there wasn't more of a crossover... I am really of the firm belief that if things aren't right, or if you have a better idea about how to do something then you have a responibility to share it... when we get to show time, it's not about pointing the fingers of blame or heralding individuals, it's about everyone pitching in - we're all implicated in the good or the bad. In this case, we have a paying public who have reached into their pockets to pay for a service - us. I tried to help out in the most constructive way I could with the sound set up, but was basically turned away... I tried to explain to them that I had done the show and worked with these specific mics and equipment (for 3 years) but was given the "yeah, right" look. I tried to tell our director that we needed to concentrate on ensuring that radio mic levels all worked and that they shoul dbe a priority - a team should have that as their first priority, but was told to leave that to the tech team. Bearing in mind the reception I had before, I decided to say 'fuck it' and let it happen. Don't misunderstand. I don't consider myself to be the god of all things sound and technical related. I just had some experience to share. So when we had a 'tech rehearsal' which consisted of 2 songs and some fairly intense feedback 10 minutes before the doors were due to open, it didn't surprise me that everyone's confidence was visibly drooping. People were nervous. I was nervous, and normally that doesn't happen. And not a good nervous 'anticipation' energy. More a 'trepidation' energy. The kind that makes you pee a lot. I am the very last charachter to make an appearance in the show. I burst through some side doors and run through the audience to the stage before launching into "Hot Patootie". I had an idea as to the size of the crowd due to the noise they were making, and figured it to be a reasonable, yet exuberant crowd. When I banged the door to announce my arrival and then swung it open, I actually stopped. Where there had been a direct access to the stage there was not. The room was so full, it actually made me check back for a second (which character-wise wasn't such a bad thing - I had been frozen and left for dead for a while), but the waves cleared and I was able to gallop to the stage to hit the number. Which, for some reason ran at 100 miles an hour... But whatever, we were up there doing our thing... My other character, Dr Scott got a lot of laughs, I know I hammed it up to the max, but it was so worth it. The scream I get when I reveal my fishnetted legs is worth the shitty set-up day alone. And just like that, it was done. We were taking our bows. And doing the final Timewarp of the evening. Tonight is the 2nd and last show. And then we'll go through the process of asking ourselves if we'll ever do this again. For the 5th consecutive time. I still have tickets for tonight... Oh. And go back and tell me the songs here Oh. And Happy Hallowe'en. Boo!
   My life is rated NC-17. What is your life rated? |
