I'll Always Have Nigeria.

Tonight, was not a good show. I sort of had an idea that is was going to be all bad, around midday when we sent the guys up to put the colour into the followspots.

Mel and I were sitting at front of house waiting. He needed to talk to the spot operators to make sure the spots and headsets worked, and I had to meter the spots to make sure they had a balanced amount of brightness. So we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally Mel turned around and saw a bunch of people standing around one followspot so he yelled up to them, "Hey! Someone get on headset so we can test the lights!"

Then someone yelled back, "Hold on! I have to train these people on how to turn on and run a followspot!"

Oh boy, it was going to be a long day.

...

6:30 PM. Doors open. I walk in at about 6:45, go and have dinner, and then head out to front of house around 7 PM. I get into the arena, only to discover the work lights are still on. The house manager didn't turn them off. So I go to his office and here's the conversation we had...

"So, guess what we forgot," I opened.

"We forgot to turn off the work lights," he replied.

"Yes, but that's fine, I'll just turn them off as a cue when I start rolling the pre-show video. Is the houselights operator in position?"

"Yes, she should be up there."

"Great, I'll go talk to her on headset. What's her name?"

"You know, I have no idea, she new. It's her first time."

Seriously.

...

I go back out to front of house. Now for those of you who've not seen the Blue Man show (and that's probably 5 of the 6 readers of my blog), at 15 minutes prior to the start of the show, I run video clips of scrolling text that get the audience fired up. "Please yell if you've seen the Blue Man show before," kind of thing.

Around 7:10, and I get on headset and start calling for the houselights operator. No answer. Now, keep in mind, the house is open, and the seats are filling up. I wait a few moments, try again, but still no houselights operator. So I call the the house manager and ask him to find the houselights operator so I can give her the cues. Instead, he goes over to the switch panel and turns off the work lights. at 7:10PM! The audience lets out a gasp and goes quiet, as if waiting for something to happen.

Now here's something I learned from Sandy many years ago. What sound does a lighting designer make?

I made that noise a lot tonight.

...

So about 7:15 I finally get the houselights operator on headset and as a cruel joke, guess what her name is... Nicole. If my wife was up there, I wouldn't be doing this

I give her the run down. Basically, we have video running before and after each act, and in the video is the houselights cues. I will give her a "Standby", then a "Ready" and the "GO". I tell her very specifically, "Do NOT do anything until I say GO."

So at 7:30PM, we start on time. Our opening act goes on and plays his set to perfection. Before the start of the last song, I say to the houselights operator, "Houselights Nicole, this is his final song coming up, we will restore the houselights look at the end." He plays his final song, and as soon as the music ends, Mel (who's calling followspot cues) says on headset, "Followspots, standing by to fade out," and just as he says it, BAM! All the houselights pop on!

"Turn of the houselights!" I yell into the headset, "WAIT, until I say GO."


...

After tonight, I'm now a big believer in rhythms and tempos. And how if one thing in the tempo or rhythm is off, everything is off, and it becomes harder and harder to get back on track.

Houselights was the beginning. I couldn't get it back on track. In the first song, I went early on a cue and practically exposed a Blue Man picking his butt. The third song, I jumped ahead a bunch of cues and screwed up all the video playback.

I had stomped and messed up so many things halfway through the show, I thought I was going to be sent home. But then, it dawned on me. This is not worse than Nigeria. I will always have Nigeria as the worst show I've ever been involved in. This was nothing like Nigeria. I wasn't my best show by any stretch. But it's definitely not my worst. It's not Nigeria.

A calm had come over me. I knew I could make it to the end of the show, pack up my gear and get into the shower and then crawl into my bunk. Tomorrow is a day off, I'm going for a ride. I can make it through this. It's not Nigeria.

Doesn't mean I didn't continue to screw up. As a matter of fact, I was missing cues up until the last song.



I'll always have Nigeria.

...