# Be careful around a hot mic



## EPAC_Matt (Apr 23, 2005)

So a friend and I were up in the soundbooth during a rehersal for our musical Grease, and we're looking on a list calling individual people over the talkback mic onto stage to test their mics and figgure out which receiver they were going through. However, I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but on several occasions we sort of forgot that the mic was hot so we were up there swearing and saying other things trying to figgure out "which f***ing receiver" was recieiving the "goddamn transmitter" while exclaiming "oh s*it that's not right!"....

.. with about 40 people in the house listening to us. Good times :?


----------



## avkid (Apr 23, 2005)

Wow, that sucks. In my venue (with the same acronym) we are now in the middle of a four week run of Grease, weird huh?


----------



## EPAC_Matt (Apr 23, 2005)

wow, that is kind of weird, heh. Eh, I guess our mistake was just kind of funny for those in the house, nobody really cared, but we're still going to be a bit more careful with the mic


----------



## mbenonis (Apr 23, 2005)

After a show, we run to our black box and scream (why, I don't know, but we do). Well, one night I left one of the actor's mics live when they did this. There must have been a few puzzled faces in the house while this was going on.


----------



## propmonkey (Apr 23, 2005)

a few weeks ago i was working a show. and after the half time show(the show was Guys On Ice). after the blackout we forgot to turn off his mic and we hear "that was fun!". im sure gladed we turned it off, because i dont think people would have liked to hear the other words said after that by him.


----------



## koncept (Apr 23, 2005)

do u want to tell us what else he said or is it that bad???

I've done the same thing, people run off stage with their mics on right past the monitors n how can you say FEEDBACK


----------



## propmonkey (Apr 23, 2005)

well, when i heard him backstage all the time he always used some lovely words. so i cna only imagine what ones he used after we turned it off.


----------



## ccfan213 (Apr 23, 2005)

as soon as he walked offstage, before i had a chance to mute his mic, one of our actors said for some odd reason, "i have a three foot wide v*gina and i like to stick pennies in it" im not quite sure y he said it but the administration wasn't happy. luckily on this show he was the king in once upon a mattress and had no lines till the last scene so he didnt have a mic


----------



## BNBSound (Apr 24, 2005)

I sent my asssistant to power up the system one night while I handed out mics to the actors. I had forgotten to re-route one channel the night before, so one was going out live. This wasn't a problem while he was sitting backstage reading a book, but then the 3/4 full house got to hear him warm up. Ah well, at least he wasn't flat.


----------



## falcon (Apr 25, 2005)

When I was doing footloose, our actress who played Ariel ran offstage and before I even had a chance to mute her mic after unmuted a few others, she let out a few naughty words. Thankfully, that was only a rehearsal. But all during rehearsals, she figured out very quickly that i could listen in on any mic i want and while she was muted, she said some very strange things to me, everything i wihs i could have replied to but couldn't cause everyone would hear me. she was pretty much talking dirty to me and you could hear the laughs coming from backstage around her. and when she was onstage, it looked like she was talking to her boobs. The look on our directors face was hilarious.


----------



## avkid (Apr 25, 2005)

Once people figure out that you can hear them when thay are "muted" they tend not to say anything interesting without putting their hand up to their mic(which makes a cone around it and makes it louder) they think it magically blocks the sound. Poor un-informed actors!


----------



## AVGuyAndy (May 1, 2005)

I've heard this story from a musical of ours: This kid had a wireless mic, and he had 1 line in the entire show. His line was "Here, this is for you" So he goes up on stage and just totally locks up and says nothing, so he runs backstage and just yells F**K since the sound guy didn't get the mic off in time. It ripped through the entire auditorium. It was blue-hair night. One guy with an iron-lung started laughing, and so did everyone else. That guy saved the show.


----------



## DJErik07 (May 1, 2005)

Ya our actors forget/didn't know about PFL. It is the best to listen to them talk about their lives. Then they usually b%$#h about how bad the directors are and I just laugh.


----------



## propmonkey (May 1, 2005)

Sound Offenses
Missed pickup $ 20.00 
Missed tape cue $ 20.00 
Late tape cue $ 50.00 
Early tape cue $ 75.00 
Wrong tape cue $ 150.00 
Going on an uncalled cue $ 10.00 
Not going on an uncalled cue $ 500.00 
Failure to bail out clueless stage manager $ 0.01 
Unauthorized bailing out of clueless stage manager OSTRACISM 
Failure to duck out offensive orchestral players $ 35.00 
Failure to duck out offensive vocalizations $ 55.00 
Feedback $ 100.00 
Falling asleep at console $ 20.00 
Causing feedback by falling asleep at console $ 150.00 
Audible snoring at console $ 75.00 
Making audible rude comments on the performance $ 5.00 
Failure to maintain correct mixing levels $ 150.00 
Failure to correct glaring errors caused by designer $ 50.00 
Correcting glaring errors caused by designer LOSS OF JOB 


*Wireless Offenses
Failure to mute faulty wireless $ 100.00 
Failure to mute wireless when actor is not on stage $ 50.00 
Failure to mute wireless while actor is in bathroom $ 2.00 
Recording wireless while actor is in bathroom $ 0.00 
Recording wireless while actor is gossiping $ 0.00 
Listening to wireless gossip on headphones WHO'LL KNOW? 
Self-serving use of wireless gossip $ 5,000.00 *

Backstage Offenses
Unauthorized use of wireless condoms $ 300.00 
Recycling wireless condoms $ 300.00 
Overzealous transmitter changes on opposite sex cast members $ 69.00 
Overzealous transmitter changes on same sex cast members $ 66.00 
Recycling batteries $ 20.00 
Failure to recycle batteries $ 150.00 
Failure to share vast wealth from recycling batteries with: 
House Department Head DEATH 
Stage Manager $ 5.00 


General Offenses
Excessive whining $ 10,000.00 
Excessive cheerfulness $ 15,000.00 
Hiding/sleeping during load-in ELECTROCUTION 
Hiding/sleeping during load-out HANGING


----------

