# stupidist mistakes



## ccfan213

im creating this for people to post their incredibly stupid mistakes, and ill kick it off with mine.

a few months ago i decided to try the strip of lights above the fly system that is designed so the fly op can see what they are doing and discovered that it would not work... today i had some time so i figured i would try and figure out what the problem was. before i started screwing around with it majorly, i climbed up onto the rail and discovered that.... someone had unscrewed all the bulbs!!!!!!!!! (yes bulbs, i dont call regular incandessant household bulbs lamps) 

ok next story, i was setting up a PA in my friend's basement for a party i was DJing that night (about two weeks ago) after a very very very long week, so i told him to help me set up the speakers and it didnt occur to me that he wouldnt plug them in to the amp, so i spent appx. ten minutes trying to figure out wtf was going on because i was getting sound outta the speakers but everything told me i should... kinda like the time the contractor who put in our new system at school unplugged my amp on me then didnt mention it when i asked him to check the amp


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## SuperCow

I touched a gobo that had been in for almost an hour with my bare hands. My thumb and middle fingers were just giant blisters. It hurt.


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## lights11964

i was working with ropelights for our musical last year. (jesus christ superstar) and i pluged one in, somethinig wasnt working so i unpluged it. but i really didnt i just pulled the cap off of the edison plug. thus revealing the fuse. i didnt realizethis tho. so i went again to unplug it and i grabed a huge hand full of live electricity. the funniest sound ive ever made.


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## Mayhem

Standing on a roadcase whilst tying a black to a rail. Roadcase was about 2m long and the rail about 6m. Tied on the first 2m without any trouble before walking off the end of the roadcase!


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## jonhirsh

well this is not my fault but its a big opps. during the shoot of a tv show i worked on for CBC its a kids show with big rock numbers in the end. we had a huge moving and conventional light rig. it looks amazing there is a truss arch at the back but they wanted to adjust a light above that on the grid (keep in mind this is a tv studio not a theatre) so we had a lift that had an extending plat form so the grip went up and extened over the truss arch which is like 25 feet tall its high. he moves the light and backs up a few feet and comes down. well he forgot to retract the platform and crushed two pal 1200 a very very expensive lite well a few taste less jokes latter and we finished the rig it was lots of fun. 


heres the web site its on at 7 and 10 am every week day on cbc check it out iits like the monkeys for pre schoolers its very cool and it should be in the states soon. www.doodlebops.com


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## lightwench

I was working with one of the guys from work and we were setting up a show. I was told no moving lights but we decided to add them that day (turned out if we hadn't, the manager would have made us add them the day of the show). They aren't getting signal. We re-run everything check cables, etc. When I figured out what happened, I offered the guy a break and it would my treat (we ended up with some shakes) before I told him what had happened as we had just spent a couple of hours trying to figure it out....turns out the cable needs to be plugged into the DMX out, not the worklight out (3 pin data for the lights, so I stuck the 3 pin cord into the littlelite 3 pin out on the top of the board....he didn't get too mad and we had a good laugh).


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## propmonkey

i went to change one of our cove lights that burnt out. i took the back out and took the old lamp out. then i had the new one wrapped in foam in my hand and well if you think i missed the part about unplugging it you are correct. i melted the foam and burn my hand very little. from now on i never touch those lights while the are plugged in unless im focusing.

i have a lot mroe of stupid mistakes i made but i dont want to waste everyones time and it 11:30pm and i just got doen with a dress rehearsal so thats all that came to mind.


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## Sam_

oooh do I have a lot of these. Most of them involve the actual theatre not the equipment itself oddly enough. I'm very careful around the equipment

Story number one: While in a preview of a show, I was onstage singing and was exiting when I found myself dropping into the pit. Now I've trained myself to drop in safely, which is not an easy feat considering it's a very long drop. (Probably... 10-12 feet?) Fortunately, I didn't drop onto anyone and reflexively landed softly, the audience loved it. However, it was quite a scarey moment in my life. Suddenly, while walking calmy offstage, I'm falling.

Story number two: I had to go to the lighting booth to grab my bag, and the booth is set up in the back of the stage on the second floor. I can scale the wall easily, and not to sound arrogant, but I'm sure many people would find it quite difficult. I used to do rock climbing. Anyways, I scale the wall, get the book, and jump back down. (Another 12-14ft drop.) Unfortunately a freshman saw me do this and tried it while I was coiling mics. He had a rather spectacular fall, but didn't hurt himself seriously. Now I won't show any of them how to climb up the booms to get to the catwalk. (This would be a fatal fall.)

Story number three: I was hanging upside down on the catwalk, checking a light that shorted out and got a nice handful of live wire. Somehow, part of the pigtail had stripped off at one end into the wire itself. This is msot likely WHY the light wasnt working but I couldnt see the wire in the dark. Gravity pulled me off the wire pretty quickly though and I jerkily got back on the catwalk and shivered.


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## tenor_singer

"The Show Must Go On!"

Or so I thought... big mistake!

I was playing Li'l Abner at one of our community theaters. The Saturday performance came and I was feeling a tad fluey. At that time we didn't have the personel to understudy rolls, so I went on stage. That was my mistake...

Throughout the show I was starting to feel better! However, during the second act, Abner gets into a fight on stage and gets knocked unconscious by a blow to his head with a wine bottle. Everything went off well with the choreography. The sugar bottle burst like it was supposed to and I went down like I was supposed to. *Then my stomach started gurgling.* When the "Dogpatch Citizens" came to help me stand, somebody pushed fairly hard on my stomach and *BLAAAAT*. It is embarassing enough to pass gas on stage, but the true hell of it was that my rear was right by one of the plate microphones... and of course the sound engineer had it at the maximum level he could without feeding back... so of course the whole windy experience was amplified.

The cast knew but didn't break character. I was really happy with that and I thought the show would move forward. Nope! 

Now we all have had that grandmother or elderly family member who has developed the "screw it... I'm old and will speak my mind" attitude. A little old lady who was a regular patron and who was also deaf as a post, leaned to her neighbor and asked in a voice that she, in her diminished hearing capacity, could hear...

"Did he just fart?"

700+ audience members started rolling and the majority of the cast, who were trying desperately to NOT break character, broke. I truly think that is when the stage manager should just signal somebody to close the curtains.

The show went on well from there and the audience, who noticed my palid features even with make-up, were very understanding.


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## mbenonis

I've done my share of really dumb things too.

1) We were building platforms (4'x8'x3'), and I was putting the carpet on the bottom of a platform that was stacked on top of another one. Well, I moved it a bit too much off the top platform - it made a large crashing noise as it crashed down about 3 feet. It didn't help that our director was briefing new techs on construction further downstage when this happened.

2) I was putting SourceFour's away one day after school with the shopping cart (don's ask). Anyway, I loaded as many in the cart itself as I could, then started hanging them on the handle. I rolled it into the closet, and started unloading. Well, you can probably guess what I unloaded first. The cart flew backwards and down, but fortunately I only damaged one fixture badly. It's still broken, but we have enough fixtures that its transparent - though we'll eventually have the county fix it.

3) I was working in the booth while study hall was in the auditorium. Now, you should know that if a CD is in the CD player, it will automatically play when its turned on. Well, it happened that I had the CD player going to the Pit monitor speakers earlier, and never turned it down when I left before. It as amusing watching the study hall monitor come running up to the booth waving his hands to turn it off.

4) Another study hall story - I was taking out our IPS status monitor to send it off for repair last Wednesday (if you have an ET dimming system, you may know that this is). Well, the DMX loops through the monitor, and sits between all control systems (including the house Unison system) and the dimmers themselves. So I take the monitor out, and just leave all the cables out on the counter. I pack it up, and am backstage when I go to turn on the dimmed work lights. The switch doesn't work, so I think "this is odd." As I'm walking downstage, the lights going down in the house under the grand drape, hear the usual screams associated with the lights being turned off (kids like to do this as a prank). Then I realize I disconnected the DMX cables and didn't connect them back together - oops. I go in to the house, mini mag in hand, get interesting stares and comments, and walk up to the booth and reconnect it.


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## Kruton

My biggest screwup was droping a gel frame onto a brandnew (less than 1 year old) Baby grand Yahama piano. Man i put a nice 1cmx1cm dent down to the wood in it. Man that was a depressing day.


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## falcon

I was running sound for MacBeth and the sound was working, after frantically trying to figure out what went wrong for 20 minutes, I discovoured that I forgot to turn the amp on.

Last year, someone took one of those Craftsman Sureshot staple guns, the ones with the handles that go backwards so you can easily put more pressure on the gun. The direction of fire was clearly labelled in big bright yellow letters, hard to miss and will haunt you in your sleep if you look at it too long (we repainted it to look like that when we got it). He takes the staple gun, thinking it was the normal ones and puts it to his and and pulls the trigger. The staple goes into his hand. Luckily, I only had 1/4 inch staples in there instead of our usualy 3/4 inch ones.

This year, we have rented wireless mics and compressors, and the sound guy that set everything up told me that if you don't get anything from the mics, unplug the compressor. Well, we got nothing from the mics and I spent ten minutes trying to figure out why before I rememebered what he said.


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## avkid

Not checking the fly system and almost being killed by a flying screen!


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## mbenonis

falcon said:


> This year, we have rented wireless mics and compressors, and the sound guy that set everything up told me that if you don't get anything from the mics, unplug the compressor. Well, we got nothing from the mics and I spent ten minutes trying to figure out why before I rememebered what he said.



Why on earth would you unplug the compressor?! Chances are all you needed to do was change the gate threshold to let the sound through.


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## DJErik07

avkid said:


> Not checking the fly system and almost being killed by a flying screen!


1) I have almost got whacked by a light batten weighing over 400 lbs falling on me. 

2) The other tech and I were loading an electric and it was misweighted and we both ran over the the fly system to try and stop it and we both got pulled up about 6 feet into the air before he caught his foot on the fly system.

3) Also Thursday I was lowering our back batten that has not been used in years. Little did I know there were lights that were installed there some time ago that had been removed. The wires were sticking out and when the batten hit it "KABOOM!!" There was a nice fireworks show followed by the old wireingcatching on fire. Luckly we could blow them out. That was a scary day!!


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## ccfan213

DJErik07 said:


> 2) The other tech and I were loading an electric and it was misweighted and we both ran over the the fly system to try and stop it and we both got pulled up about 6 feet into the air before he caught his foot on the fly system.



ive done that too! right after our show, we removed all the fixtures from our 1st electric, but it was still weighted for a full batten. we knew it would be heavy, so we were both ready to pull it up, but we still went a few feet into the air!


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## DJErik07

Ya that is scary. I have heard stories about people getting killed because they were flown to the top.


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## propmonkey

the old director form ym school has flown up 40ft twice when re-weighting, once without gloves and the other with.


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## DJErik07

I did get some good rope burns, even though I only went up a few feet. 

The way counterbalance fly systems are made to work is to have a loading dock at the top of the fly system. You load weights while adding lights so it will be balanced when you go to fly it.


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## switchblade

DJErik07 said:


> Ya that is scary. I have heard stories about people getting killed because they were flown to the top.



how are they killed at the top of the fly system? i've never heard anything like that...


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## propmonkey

they hit the bottom of the loading glalery and or other objects on the y way up and let go of the rope and fall.


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## ccfan213

im sure smashing ur head in a cinderblock cieling wouldnt be too healthy either.


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## Peter

DJErik07 said:


> The way counterbalance fly systems are made to work is to have a loading dock at the top of the fly system. You load weights while adding lights so it will be balanced when you go to fly it.



ahh ok, so that's how you are supposto do it... we dont have that. Our options are: Add the lights first when the bar is down (add weights after pulling HARD to get the bar up and the weights down), Add the weights first (pull HARD to get the weights up to put lights on the bar), Add Weights while bar is up and go up in the Geine lift and add lights (kinda defies the point of a fly system for electricals). Is there really a best way to do this?


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## The_Wiz

the safe way when there is no loading area for the weights, is to (like someone mentioned) was to alternate adding a few lights and then adding weights and alternating like that. this was the system is never severly out of balance. 

How often you alternate should depend on the weight of the person who will be on the operating line. ex. if the op is 120 lbs. then the system shouldn't be anymore then that. that way we prevent flying the techies.

I am a bit of a stickler for rigging safety. in my HS, before i got there, the fly system was poorly maintained, and we almost lost someone when the rope lock gave way under my watch as TD. the new rigging (put in after the accident) also failed and caused a tormentor and the rigging supporting to fall during a show, almost harming another person. THe rigging contractor the school hired was NOT certified.


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## Peter

Ouch, that's bad! Ya, I have to put weights and lights on a few at a time, (com'on, you all know I am superman, but I am not THAT strong  ) and figured that was probably the best way.


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## ricc0luke

> THe rigging contractor the school hired was NOT certified.



There is no certification for riggers. Each company is allowed to set their own standards. Anyone advertising they are certified is a load of crap. There are however well respected rigging groups such as- North American Association of Flying Effects Directors (NAAFED) - This organization has set forth a set of policies, but companies are not required by law to abide by it. When hiring a rigging contractor, ALWAYS ASK AND CHECK for references. If you have any doubts, find someone else.


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## avkid

Lately,putting up with the $$% I get from people at school,so they think I will not care if they do something. um...Wrong!


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## agave

I neglected to shut the outside door of the theatre behind me when I went inside for a tech rehearsal and my dog, Agave, decided after a while that he was bored and came in looking for me. He wandered backstage of the theatre I wasn't in and stuck his head through the curtain during a student one-act performance. Smiled nice, realized I wasn't there and walked out. Busted things up for a minute though, let me tell you. I never heard about it until the next day.

Geoff...


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## moderately_clueless

I've managed to avoid major injury to myself and my pride so far, no electrocutions yet, but I'm clumsy enough to do myself in. I can maneuver around the grid just fine, but when someone sends me to find someone in the scene shop, I trip on a step only to smash my head into a door. I still have a permanent bumb on my head from that. One of my more graceful moments. 

Another favorite, my first show ever and my job was to stick a pole up a trapdoor, hope the actor put it in the right place and to hold it there for a disappearing scene. (Christmas Carol, ghost of christmas future.) So, opening night, I'm nervous enough as it is after multiple people tell me, the stupid, inexperienced freshman not to screw up. So the pole failed to find it's destination, so we had a melting ghost as opposed to disappearing. This leaves me with six foot tall football player actor landing forcefully upon my head and scrooge tackling my pole, leaving me to try not to skewer him. Yeah, I had some cool scars from that night.


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## Radman

I was changing a leko lamp and when I put the new one in I was holding it in the foam they come in but forgot to unplug the base. The foam instantly turned to noxious gas tha didn't have anywhere to go in the catwalk but in my face. EEW.


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## avkid

that sounds like fun(not!!!) I will now always remember foam can strike back!


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## avkid

ricc0luke said:


> THe rigging contractor the school hired was NOT certified.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There is no certification for riggers. Each company is allowed to set their own standards. Anyone advertising they are certified is a load of crap. There are however well respected rigging groups such as- North American Association of Flying Effects Directors (NAAFED) - This organization has set forth a set of policies, but companies are not required by law to abide by it. When hiring a rigging contractor, ALWAYS ASK AND CHECK for references. If you have any doubts, find someone else.
Click to expand...


There is now,
http://www.etcp.esta.org/


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## Jamie

*Yes the autos move*

We were mounting 4 MAC 300's on our 1st electric, and everything had gone fine, tested good, a pretty lovely day. We go to grab lunch, but any staff member can get onstage cuz the stupid locks were keyed dumb. Well, director wanted to run through some scenes. We're not there, expensive equipment open to actors, and simply the fact that they're actors.
They were wired into the 1st electric worklights, and director turned 'em on and everybody marveled at the fact that they move. (Had them set to master/slave to test)
Freshman gets curious and wants to check one out while the units weren't moving. Well, finger + yoke + movement = we get blamed..  ..life is great


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## Smatticus

Probably the most stupid mistake I've made was when I arrived to the Council of the Arts theater alone early one morning. They had just built the set for the upcoming performance of Rumors so I decided to walk around it to check it out. Unfortunately I didn't turn the work lights on first, I figured the house lights were bleeding on to the stage enough. I went up the stairs to a 3/4 foot high platform and walked through one of the doors (supposedly to a bedroom), I stand on the other side of the door for a second and take one step to my right, after which I fall 3 feet to the stage floor. There wasn't any kind of railing or anything, and the platform didn't continue to the back of the door right next to it, overall it was a really bad set design. Actors going through the doors had no way to get down so they just had to wait there for like 10/15 minutes until they came back on stage. That and half the audience couldn't even see the front door. And they used a rolling staircase unit for the stairs, which wasn't secured enough and rolled a little scaring an actor during rehearsal. Subsequently Martin and I made some chagnes to their set for them.

In response to the mistakes made with fly systems, Martin, my theater mentor I just mentioned, was killed two months ago in an accident similar to the mistakes some of you were describing. http://www.controlbooth.com/ftopict-2429-.html 

It really is as simply as unloading a batten too much and then automatically, reflexively thinking that you can hold on to the rope even though, realistically, you know that you aren't heavy enough. He hit the underside of the loading bridge about 20 feet up and fell back to the concrete floor onto the spare weights near the fly brakes. The fly system or rigging system is definitely the most dangerous thing in a theater.


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## JP12687

o man i have so many of these, but i only have a couple minutes.

there was the time the bar was 200lbs out of weight, arber heavy...our technical advisor never re-weighted it after playing with hit., needless to say, at the time i weighed 140lbs...and i was on the front rope(going up) with no gloves on. Normally in that situation i wear gloves(setwear hot hands or pro-leather) and run the rope through my hands on the back rope, controlling it with preassure.

there was the time some body from the tech class(but not a tech crew member) was told to go to the cove and take down a light by the teacher..the light promtly fell to the floor, damaging a seat.

There was the time at 3am i was rigging in the grid, the artistic director was working down on stage, but was told NOT to travel US of the 3E pipe, well he traveled upstage of it, and righ under me. at the exact moment the shiv anchor broke...and fell to the ground..nailing him in the shoulder. I called heads instantly, but coming from a short 25ft grid, by the time its released its too late.

ok i have to get to call..but there will be more later....


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## Diarmuid

My best has got to be my first show as SM, and during the second to last scene, I forgot the upcoming scene change. As our TD calls the cues and i had ages before the next scene change, i went to grab a drink; by the time i came back I found the stage crew being taught to moon walk by an actor and the TD screaming down the headset asking why I wasnt on-stage doing a scene change, NOT a good first show!


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## ship

I was cutting some foam for a show on the table saw. Was having no problems with the blue Dow board but I ran out. I grabbed a 3/4" thick piece of furnature foam padding and attempted to continue on with cutting it. Got instantly sucked right into the saw and almost took my hand with it.


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## tenor_singer

I am the only advisor for my school's drama program, meaning that I not only direct... I choreograph, construct, design plots, lay out the program, market the production, sell ad space... Needless to say, I rely HEAVILY on my good seniors.

Two spring musicals ago we were doing "My Fair Lady". My seniors at that time were not being very reliable, and more and more of the tasks that normally I would deligate to others was starting to fall on my shoulders (including the painting of 4, 42' x 15' drop scenes). We got all of them finished, but had to pull an all-nighter (something I could do during my young-buck college days, but sure can't do now that I am ... let's just say "a little beyond college"). I was exhausted.

During our Friday AM show for the students, we had a plug end burn up (somehow one of the leads loosened and created a butt-load of heat... you all know the smell... rotten fish). After school, I decided to just cut that end off and put on a new plug end. I asked the student who was incharge of the light board to power down the board AND unplug that light lead from the dimmer. He did.

I cut the cord and *phwaaaap*. Luckily I did not get shocked. We later learned that a lot of our cords got mislabeled and the cord I was working on still had power and was plugged into a different satellite dimmer... which explains why a certain effect just wouldn't work during the show's run.

More luckily... I am the only person who fixes electrical items that somehow go bad during a show so none of my students got hurt (I do let them make jump cords... I double check them though... just nothing that could possibly already be powered).

I guess exhaustion + electrical work = ... too spooky to think about.


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## kingfisher1

I heard a story once about a pretty well know shakespere company. they weere in the midedle of Henry IV or some similar scene and the two leads had to do a fight scene at which one of them dies. fight choreographer did his job and everything look lovely until one of the actors (the one who ends up victorious at the end of the scene.) accidently stabs the other and draws a worrisome amount of blood. But the show must go on! the wounded actor finished his scene and ad-libbed off stage as fast as he could. he was rushed to the hospital and eventually recovered. However, the next day soe critic of the show made the comment, "I very much enjoyed the play however the fight aty then end of act II may have bit a bit overdone."

Man, if your blood looks to real the critics call you a fake. talk about irony


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## ship

Ah' the days of all nighters or many days straight. And they used to warn me about "once you hit 30 your life will change." As if...

For me, I have a Fluke AC-1 voltage sniffer that travels with me when ever I get up from my work table. Now if only it's range could be expanded so that it can sense voltage from my shirt it's clipped to as opposed to having to actually un-clip it and put it next to the wire.

More of a challenge for me is in remembering to un-plug the gear I note a problem with before I open it up to explore. Even while sitting at my work table and having the plug within arms reach, I often forget. Been zapped or close to enough a few times in getting over ambitious and forgetting to unplug the equipment. Constantly have to have a second look to verify before I touch what might not have good results if I touch because I at this point never know for sure if I remembered that first step.


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## bdesmond

ship said:


> For me, I have a Fluke AC-1 voltage sniffer that travels with me when ever I get up from my work table. Now if only it's range could be expanded so that it can sense voltage from my shirt it's clipped to as opposed to having to actually un-clip it and put it next to the wire.



Got myself one of those too that hangs out in my backpack that I take everywhere. It goes on the airplane almost every week. This week the TSA dude at the airport decided he was going to have to learn more about the thing and pulled me over to secondary. Had to have him plug something in, hold it up, red, unplug, no red light to satisfy him. He was throughly amazed by the thing and let me go after five minutes of extra hassle. Didn't really matter in the end, that flight left a good three hours late on Friday.


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## ship

Guy I know did a show with pyro and forgot to change his shoes before attempting to board a plane. He got more than pulled asside in a "spread up" type of way.


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## bdesmond

ship said:


> Guy I know did a show with pyro and forgot to change his shoes before attempting to board a plane. He got more than pulled asside in a "spread up" type of way.



Heh. Oops. I started going through the new vestibule looking security device that the TSA people call the "puffer". It blasts some compressed air at you and then you stand there for 15 seconds and it does something or another to make sure you don't have any explosives residues or something and then it releases you. Nobody wants to go through it so it just saves time and hassle at the TSA checkpoint. Don't have to take my shoes off either. Some airports seem to have it and others don't. Dunno if they're testing it or what, but it's nicer than the legacy metal detector, no shoes, hats, coats, etc route.


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## moderately_clueless

Well, luckily, this was not my mistake, but during my last show, someone decided to climb around above the ceiling tiles. Well, as an intelligent idea as I'm sure it was, it failed. So the guy slips, catches himself on a single cable (his "safety harness"), breaks through the ceiling tiles and is left there, hanging thirty feet above the floor. Luckily, we managed to get him down, but wow. I was in the house at the time, so seeing a huge explosion of ceiling tiles then some guy hanging there with a dumbfounded expression on his face, wow. That is a form of stupidity so great that it's almost artistic. What a fun day that was.


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## mbenonis

I'm sure your school's administration was thrilled to hear about the next day too.


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## hans44

Didn't happen to me but...
About 10 years ago (roughly) at my high school, one kid fell 30+ feet through the house ceiling, landing perfectly in a chair.
Our auditorium has a crawl space between the roof and ceiling where we run our electrical wires from booth to stage. The doors are never locked, so we techs try to keep an eye on the doors while running shows.
Well, apparantly a student was goofing around up there, fell off the 2x4's that serve as a catwalk, straight through the acoustic tiles in the ceiling, and landed upright in one of the auditorium seats.
He broke both legs, or so the story goes. We tell this story to every incoming techie, so that they know not to go up there.


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## soundman1024

I'll never forget the time I got electrocuted on the truss about 8 feet high by a strand of Christmas lights. I really didn't think it was Christmas lights because it was enough to make me just hop off the truss. I was about 12 at the time. Thats the most shocking experience I've had, and the biggest accidental fall. Christmas lights pack more of a punch than I thought they could. Fuses or breakers didn't trip or blow, thats what I find odd. Another thing I am remembering is the time I though I could jump out of the front of the sound booth, and I did not decide if I was going to try to land on the bleecher seat or on the concrete (carpeted but still hard) floor. I landed with my feet half on the bleecher so I fell onto the floor, my legs went out, my butt slammed on the bleecher, and continued to the floor and my head whip-lashed into the bleecher. I haven't done that since. Its a bigger drop than that truss was, but it was not an accident.


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## gabe

soundman1024 said:


> I'll never forget the time I got electrocuted on the truss about 8 feet high by a strand of Christmas lights. I really didn't think it was Christmas lights because it was enough to make me just hop off the truss. I was about 12 at the time. Thats the most shocking experience I've had, and the biggest accidental fall. Christmas lights pack more of a punch than I thought they could. Fuses or breakers didn't trip or blow, thats what I find odd. Another thing I am remembering is the time I though I could jump out of the front of the sound booth, and I did not decide if I was going to try to land on the bleecher seat or on the concrete (carpeted but still hard) floor. I landed with my feet half on the bleecher so I fell onto the floor, my legs went out, my butt slammed on the bleecher, and continued to the floor and my head whip-lashed into the bleecher. I haven't done that since. Its a bigger drop than that truss was, but it was not an accident.


 I HATE Xmas lights. I was doing a christmas show this year and the SM had the great idea. Lights around the procenium arch! Woohoo! So I'm up on the A-Fram totally interrupting a rehearsel stapeling xmas lights to the wall. When suddenly, the staple goes right through the coord. So, I start allllllll over again.


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## jacobbiljo

Im the technical director and senior lighting tech at our school theatre and during one show where i was feeling particulaly under the weather, i did not do a light check before the show as i normally do, to insure that all lights are working. The entire time before the show, i spent consoling the stage manager as i was particularly interested in her and she had just failed a major test and potentially failed a course. The junior techie who was running the board did not notice the dim lighting conditions until half way through the show i noticed that the main breaker for all our lights was not thrown on. As we were renting half of our dimmers for that show, those 12 had not been installed on the same circuit and were in an always on state. For the first half of the show we had run on only the front bar, so we were missing all of our fernels, and only had 8 large lecos. ONce i noticed i waited for a particularly noisy moment and threw the breaker back on, fading the lights on.

ive got to go get ready for a Mobile concert and Battle of the Bands coming up next week so i'll have to add my many other moments on later


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## MircleWorker

Believe me when I say this didn't happen to me, I was just a by-stander. When I was in high school we had a dance studio presenting their annual dance recital. They were using flash pots, rehearsal went great. except the person controlling them never unplugged the control unit from the wall and the pot was live. Our TD went to refill the pot and never bothered to check the power situation out. He got burnt.

Let me tell you how these things were designed. It was a single gang electrical box with a light bulb socket inside. You would have to take an old 1 amp screw fuse and cut off the plastic top and dump the powder in. Kinda cool in a way. Nowadays hard to find those fuses.

back to my story, He was leaning over the pot screwing in the fuse when Wham!!! and he was smoking. He wasn't happy.


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## Mayhem

MircleWorker said:


> Believe me when I say this didn't happen to me, I was just a by-stander. When I was in high school we had a dance studio presenting their annual dance recital. They were using flash pots, rehearsal went great. except the person controlling them never unplugged the control unit from the wall and the pot was live. Our TD went to refill the pot and never bothered to check the power situation out. He got burnt.
> 
> Let me tell you how these things were designed. It was a single gang electrical box with a light bulb socket inside. You would have to take an old 1 amp screw fuse and cut off the plastic top and dump the powder in. Kinda cool in a way. Nowadays hard to find those fuses.
> 
> back to my story, He was leaning over the pot screwing in the fuse when Wham!!! and he was smoking. He wasn't happy.



This is why there are pyro accidents and why people get injured or killed or clubs burn to the ground.

1. The person who made the pots deserves a beating. A pyro pot should never be live (nor should it have the ability to be live). It is a container, nothing more. An electronic fuse head should always be used.

2. The person using the system also deserves a beating as a pyro system needs to be isolated after the system has been used and MUST have a key switch that cuts the power.

3. The TD can escape a beating but only because of what happened to him. He should either not be playing with pyro or should have ensured that the system was not live. In fact, he should have not been anywhere near it because unless he is operating the system, he shouldn’t be near it. 


It sounds like this was a purely amateur thing and I am willing to bet that not one of them had any training or held a license. If they did, they do not deserve to, and should have their license revoked. There is a reason why pyro has to be done by trained professionals – IT CAN KILL PEOPLE.

We all kick up a storm when someone overloads a circuit, doesn’t use safety cables or attempts to balance on a ladder that is perched on a chair because it was easier than getting the lift out. Yet when it comes to pyro, everyone just wants to play because it is so cool! Ask your TD how cool the burns were or how cool it was to have to hose of his shorts before throwing them into the washing machine.

I hold a professional theatrical pyro license, as well as a professional fireworks license and have worked in this industry for over a decade. There are too many cowboys out there that think the rules don’t apply to them or simply just ignore them. Every time there is an accident, it makes my life tougher because there are fewer clients that want to risk using pyro and my insurance premium goes up. There needs to be tighter regulations or more people will get injured.


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## MircleWorker

I totally agree with you, Mayhem


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## soundlight

My stupidest mistake was not unmuting the CD channel during a talent show, so there were, as the MC said, some "long technical difficulties" while the audience waited...and waited...and waited...

The thing that made me not notice the mute was that the mute didn't affect the aux levels, and I was able to hear it through the aux-line monitor that was at my mix position, but I didn't unmute the channel after cueing up. But that was when I was away from my "home base" mix position. I'm used to having the mute indicator lights there that immediately tell me if a channel is muted or not, and the mute also kills all of the auxes.


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## PhantomD

My most recent stupid mistake (and I don't make very many at all) was to drop an AV curtain rod behind a set of unmovable wardrobes...the look on the director's face was classic...especially as she was on the phone at the time.


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## iammike

My most stupidist mistakes was when I mistaken a boy as a girl and ask her out for for some fun. I was embarrassed when I realized he is a girl. But the thing is she sound and behave like a girl. Oh no he is a gay. That will be the last silliest mistakes I going to make in my life


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## Pie4Weebl

worst thing I have ever been a part in was one time during a talent show where I was a spot op. The Sound guy was using the telex headset built into our board (a mackie SR56*8) to talk with the rest of us. So some stoner band is first up after intermission, during it a bunch stoners are gathering by the edge of the stage and some of the kids in the band are hanging out on stage. As usual for an event like this we were killing time by talking smack on heads about the band, they play get off stage, the change over happens, and one of our techs get on heads backstage and tells us that he could hear us talking over the onestage monitor, something which until then we thought was impossible, becasue the two systems are not connected. We found out there was a bleed somewhere in the soundboard and since have gotten it fixed. Luckly for us the bleed was faint and we were playing music so what we said wasn't heard over the system. Moral of the story, watch what you say on headset!


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## ship

iammike said:


> My most stupidist mistakes was when I mistaken a boy as a girl and ask her out for for some fun. I was embarrassed when I realized he is a girl. But the thing is she sound and behave like a girl. Oh no he is a gay. That will be the last silliest mistakes I going to make in my life



Not getting this by way of spelling??? "Oh no he is a gay" and other types of confusion.

Was this guy a guy in not really being interested in you, a guy but a guy potentially interested in you interested in or a guy but you not being interested? Is a gay some form of mutent? Not that I am or in knowing but I do remember some gay men's chorus shows I worked at a time where while the only straight guy on stage, some of the best of shows I ever worked in fun. You got something against gay people, or was it some guy with a poney tail you were attracted to and later found out the negative side of attraction to?

Or was this as advertised a girl that was a guy you asked out for fun? Ah' the prospects in spelling and intent. This much less sex. Some of my best friends are gay. Don't matter in the end I would hope with you a with all in our industry. You choose what you find you wish but respect those of other choices. A friend of mine recently got married. He in the past kept his coice in men secret for the most part. You know, who cares in the end if your friend. lets see the wedding ring in hoping the best for your friend.

A choice by you in people you wish to invite out for a night with I hop in no way has a reflection with those you at work or more so find an interest in as a friend if not your choice for relationship. Those what are not your choice but close you find in mistake that should instead be a friend, perhaps can be a good friend and one that is close otherwise shhould you not push them away. Your mistake should not mean your mistake means someone you would not make a friend. I would hope all with friends respect their own choices also and when someone finds a match much less chooses to wear a wedding ring, that choice and wedding ring is both equally respected and looked at with some extent of you go girl at least if not in lookng at the ring some, lots of support for a friend that has tied the knot.

At least I would hope those of our trade wish happiness on others where ever they find it. If not your choice in guy over peraps girl, I would hope the choice in guy a friend over a problem in your choices.


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## Pie4Weebl

recent dumb thing I did, for a talent show I created a fake electric with a drop box, I switched one of these circuits over to non dim and parked it to power the mac 550's I had rented. During one song I would black out my light board and then start running cues of the hog for the movers, but the lights never worked, in the last reh I notteced that when I hit black out the movers must have lost power as well, even though they were parked.


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## Radman

What I got out of it was that he asked a guy out thinking he was actually a girl. Then to add to the akwardness the guy turned out to be gay, potentially thinking that mike was gay as well. But I agree, that was a hellofa doosie to interpret. (sp.)


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## AVGuyAndy

At least he figured it out sooner rather than later.


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## mlacy

All right, here goes nothing, from oldest to newest:
Our auditorium was done over in grand fashion on a shoestring budget. We were fortunate enough to get an entirely new light and sound system, a complete sourcefour, fresnel and roundel package with two full electrics.

1. When we first got the system, nobody knew how to run it, other than using the faders that had been standard on the previous board.

2. Patching dimmers to channels took about six months, because nobody could find the manual for the etc express 24/48 board we have.

3. never try to stop the fall of a fixture...one of the fresnels decided to unhook itself, leaving it attached to a safety cable (looped around the clamp and electric in case of emergency) dangling in the air. we have no catwalks, so a 20' ladder was bought for repairs and riggings of this nature. someone was assigned to catch it if it did slip (not smart, but i had nothing to do with that one), but we didn't know any better way back when.

4. The architectural sliders are evil during a show: we have no protection on them, so during our first performance with the new system (Footloose), an audience member leans up against them, turning the house lights on. we spent the better part of a week trying to get them to turn off again.

5. Learning how to disconnect the wall stations in #4 without bothering to figure out how to reconnect them (now we know how to do it, so we're prepared to turn off the more conspicous ones for performances).

6. Having a ladder knocked out from underneath you while hanging onto an electric 20' in the air above a stage (which was just refinished)...it didnt happen to me, but the person who taught me how to run the system

7. Having a hoist line snap while leviating a fixture to the first electric...good thing there was a table underneath where it ended up dropping on...minor damage

8. Sparking a followspot by giving it lower-than-normal voltage through a dimmer (we created an edison-to-stage pin adapter and plugged the spot into it)....it was about that time we discovered _patching profiles._

9. Opening curtains that hadn't been in twenty years...there's a loft stage right where a lot of our old band instruments are kept. it has one window that always stays shuttered. for some reason, we needed to mount some fixtures to the bottom of the window (don't ask me how this was accomplished or what we were doing) and the shade fell down on top of the lights, melting the shade.

10. Make sure when you play CDs in a sound system that all components are on, and when you shut the door, antennas for the wireless mics are *inside the door*....we've lost two of our four antennas that way

11. When changing zones at the architectural processor (Unison racks), make sure nobody's around: whenever you change a preset or zone, all dimmers turn off. i did this during a rehearsal, and after explaining what I did to the director, was let off with just a warning.

12. Although not recommended, a hammer works wonders on loosening a bolt on a $500 fixture that seems like it needs an act of God in order to be adjusted. Just don't hit too hard.

13. I learned the hard way why you take homemade gobos out of a fixture when you're done with them....let's just say the fixture started leaking something other than heat.

14. Whacking a focused light with a ladder. This was the most recent one, and possibly the worst one...considering the lamp blew and the entire fixture did a 360....how do you bench focus a source four? some tips would be appreciated!


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## RelativeMischief

Was working a club gig a couple years back and my co-worker was getting the lighting rig up. The dimmer we brought was being powere by a 100amp 3ph service (camlock connectors). Buddy grounds the dimmer, then with his hand on the metal chassis of the dimmer, picks up the first hot line. He had about 208V @ 30amps go from his right arm to his left. Luckily he was thrown back by the jolt not frozen. Forever known as the "Flying Frenchman" afterwards.

When you've got two 3000w strobes powered from a wall socket, don't use the "blinder" button too often.

Speaking of strobes: 

LD to Stage Tech: "I think the lamp in the strobe is gone, can you go check?" ... While Tech holds strobe up to face LD presses blinder button. Turns out the fixture was fine, even if the Tech couldn't see for 10 minutes.

I was running an outdoor gig last summer, 2x2 powere mackie rig with single 18s for subs. One of the subs had a small stress fracture but I figured with all the cars going by and the fact that the sub was quiet but not nessecarily sounding bad, I'd let it go. Didn't cross my mind at all that the fracture might get bigger after more use. The best word to describe the woofer when I got back to the shop would be, "Disintegrated".


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## ship

mlacy said:


> 9. Opening curtains that hadn't been in twenty years...there's a loft stage right where a lot of our old band instruments are kept. it has one window that always stays shuttered. for some reason, we needed to mount some fixtures to the bottom of the window (don't ask me how this was accomplished or what we were doing) and the shade fell down on top of the lights, melting the shade.!



Story time, everybody bring your sleeping mats about me!

I remember now a dumb mistake by me given this. Long story but perhaps of value in setting up a stupid mistake but also some history of what is still out there in the industry. Or what when bad is really bad.

A 1926 opera house I once worked at had a gallery above the stage with four non-lockable counter balance linesets for the electrics / more or less permanently installed boarder lights, in addition to the pin-rail hemp type linesets. Only four real counter balance fly system linesets original to the house. It of course was a hemp/sand bag wing and drop house and these boarder lights in being balanced were always in balance so there was no need to lock them or prevent them from becoming a fly away given they stopped about eight feet from the deck. (Just high enough that if you did wish to use them and remove the fixtures, they would be a real pain in the rear for pipes even still. Suppose that’s why they abandoned them) Sure a 26' long section of boarder light with perhaps only one break, - four of the linesets and no room to add more lights to the pipes so they had not been touched since probably the '1950's or 1970's at best since they were useless pipes and no longer even attached to power. 

Place still used it's origional cloth covered multi-cable drop lines, just now to the newer electrics. Long story about attempting to do grounding, much less the isolated grounding balls used to ensure the fly system did not become live given a lack of ground on the new bronze sash cord to solve problems in a hemp system but not that of the lack of ground in the drop lines. Let’s just say how much are these iso ground in between pipe and fly line things rated for in load rating and how old are they? (Still have no idea of where they came from or who made them and when.) This much less in the theater how it was yes, grounding was only on newer fixtures not that it went anywhere but thru the wire rope holding up the lights when the balls were not used. Wooden A-frame ladders on caster platforms were constant in use of course so you were high resistance as a theory. Most shorts thus were never known in the olden days as a theory or shock to the system. Nobody shocked thus falling off the ladder in dying or getting seriously hurt was a good selling point for not changing it. After all other fixtures where perhaps the neutral also shorted to ground installed on the pipe but not active thus becomes a ground better for you thus while you might feel a slight tingle, overall, the system does get a ground or is isolated in short. Great stuff these non-grounded and iso ball equipment systems. They do work as long as enough equipment has problems as the one having the short. So if say more than one fixture has a hot to fixture casing problem, it still is a ground in going thru the filament of the lamp by way than while not powered up thus also going to ground to some extent. As long as you don’t touch something or another pipe with less resistance to ground - say a pipe without Iso rigging system stopping of grounding by way of them balls - so the wire rope in the fly system does not become a conductor and short while also being load bearing cables, and it than provides a better path of lest resistance other than thru the filament of a lamp of the bar with a problem - given a second fixture with a problem on it, you are completely safe.

These all techie things with the fly system beside the point, at some point I had found a contractor constructed candle holder still attached to the structure of the building and ready to use. Imagine, crawling around over the top of the proscenium and finding a candle ready to use, much less the use of it to light your way while constructing the building. No light bulbs in bolting or plastering something, just a candle. It’s still up in the ceiling should anyone find it in later years. This was an old place still using it’s original asbestos fire curtain and fixture whips much less as you sat on the toilet and people walked above you on the stage you were showered in a little silvery haze of stuff coming off the plumbing pipes above you also asbestos coated but painted given certain holes in the coating. Plug in the over the fly gallery installed index light - in the wrong way (really old porcelain plug attached to a really old porcelain outlet) and your fly system was electrified by way of the C-Clamps attaching it to the safety pipe over head. Given it was grounded somehow - no doubt the frame of the theater or really old wood on stage, you never knew until you touched metal to metal and saw sparks. Somehow that wee short in the index light just had never been gotten to fixing - after all if plugged in right there was no problems with it.

About this boarder light, while at some point the rope to the battens was replaced by bronze bright sash cord - SWL of about 200# per line. (Less abrasive on a hemp block than GAC steel wire rope as a hack past done techie secret originating in the 1950's in the days of great theater but also using malleable wire rope clips and other techniques that were not as safe but are still culturally considered as premium real theater days - set off the train stage screws and jacks type of stuff in shows loading in and making great art.) These boarder lights were only using about three wire rope cables per pipe - that's about maxing it out per line on each fixture. The hand lines much less wire rope had been sitting idle for years upon years. The hand lines were now at least 1/2" thick, totally fibrous and rotten. Not telling how thick they originally were but there was lots of slack in the hand line. This in addition to a certain specific lack of lock to these battens - no lock at all, since they were in balance, apparently nobody ever thought they needed a locking mechanism for them. Given this, such things were always in the way and never used. Always in the way of the next show loading in but they neither could use them nor have anything in the area that might bump them - just change your design to compensate for what is there and cannot be moved. My task was to remove them while making as safe as possible the rest of the fly system on a low budget type of safety upgrade.

In getting to the point finally - hope the above description was of interest, I of course just pulled on the first hand line so as to bring down and remove the first fixture or at least access it given we were going to use a few techies as ballast for it once the fixture was removed so as to safely bring the pipe back up and de-rig it. Had a crew of six and long lines ready to be attached to the pipe so all will have been well in removing the pipe and donut weights later. Donut stage weights - turn them in just the right direction and give them a bounce and on the single arbor bar and they fall if bumped quite effectively. Who will have thunk it or come up with a better idea back in the days of sand bags? I had donut weights growing out of my ears but not enough steel to rig shows given a fly system using at least four different types of weights.

Got the first pipe moving, in fact got it moving than the hand line decided to break. Who will have thunk it? Hmm, ½" thick hand line that’s rotten and stretched out, much less had not been moved in years breaking once pulled upon. To confound this my hands pulling the line and making the wheels move hit me squarely upon the head. Dooh! Yep, stupid mistake, and while the hemp line pooled around me as it fell, the last part of the hemp line also hit me upon the noggin to just cross all “T’s in this being a stupid thing to do. Gee, MR. Master Rigger, perhaps this lineset might not have been so wise to trust your hands tugging upon.

Ok, it was not the classic run away in it being something that crashes to the deck or grid, arbor bending and stage weights falling everywhere, instead it was more like I got this thing running at 36" per minute but no way to stop it now that it was moving and the hand line was pooling about me. More than enough time for the most wheel chair bound person (as if ADA were invented for a stage in the 1920's), to still find time for a smoke break and get out of the way safely in time. Urr, ... this thing is out of control... get out of the way... Lost major Ego points in this hand line coiling about the top of my head, much less while we waited for the thing to crash and nothing to do about it, waited and waited for the boarder light to stop moving.

No problem, great engineering on very heavy duty hand made bolts about, the thing did not do any damage once it stopped moving. So what did I do, I of course did the same with the other three linesets. Only one more broke and it broke as I tugged on it but before the batten moved.

Ah’ what a way to start the day. Were it not so out of budget/time/thought/inexperience in calling myself a Master Rigger, that perhaps a rope that had not been used in 20 years old might break, I will have perhaps first replaced it or rigged it safely. Nope, get the job done was on my mind up until and even after the rope coiled about my head. Dumb in even trusting the at the time 70 year old bolts for the system without a very good inspection of them or in general the concept of them holding tight one last time.

System was removed and in general safety was or at least better safety factor was done during my era, but as a Master Rigger - professionally, much less in general, my learning curve could have killed some people. I did my best but what I did not know or consider was insufficient for once the thing got moving what damage it could have done. Did my best within budget but is budget a real factor in rigging? Did my best to the best of my understanding yet was young enough to trust a rotten hemp rope where expediant. Lots of lessons here in stupid mistakes, also in humor teorized, a sense of concept or scope of such things one is not in calling oneself master of really having mastered that should weigh on the brain before hand. TD of your show... are you really the TD' in having done all the math, or just some term for the person running the show by way of seat of the pants?


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## saxman0317

lights11964 said:


> i was working with ropelights for our musical last year. (jesus christ superstar) and i pluged one in, somethinig wasnt working so i unpluged it. but i really didnt i just pulled the cap off of the edison plug. thus revealing the fuse. i didnt realizethis tho. so i went again to unplug it and i grabed a huge hand full of live electricity. the funniest sound ive ever made.


same one we did...got any pics?

But as for stupid mistakes...before spending about and hour rerunning cables and checking batteries and going crazy, make sure your receivers are on...


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## nez

as greg has mentioned we did jc and well we had a sweet kick ass tunnel system right and well i had made it so lights shine out of it when it is open and well i hade to redo the pluges on them cuz they were either twist lock or didnt have a plug at all and well that was last year and now this year just recently i have come to find out our schools insurance will not cover anything made by a student so if somting would have gone wrong holy crap but lucky not a thing did thank the lord


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## Thranduil

I had a nice classic run away yesterday. We had some strip lights(4) on a pipe that i needed for a part of the musical. The lights had been used as works before, so it wasnt a huge problem to get rid of them. So i flew them in, took em off with two other people. Now at this point im going to alert you that we dont have a weight loading gallery, or a grid of any sort. I had the line set wrapped and tied off, and untied, unlocked and was able to with the two other people get in in alot. we had about 2-3 feet left, and couldnt wrap the ropes anymore, when it slipped out of our hands, and it flew straight down, hitting one of the guide wire connectors and cutting one of the guide wires. All weights stayed in place, and no one was hurt, aside from the arbor grazing my finger as i pushed people away. That was my stupidist mistake. Could have been fixed by havign just one more person there, to brake on and off slowly.


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## Chris15

Thranduil said:


> aside from the arbor grazing my finger as i pushed people away.



I am guessing from the fact that you grazed your finger that you were not wearing gloves. Perhaps they might help to reduce injuries in the future?


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## Thranduil

we generally have a no gloves near rail policy because idiots tend to get things caught, and i dont like to set examples for this, also even with gloves 400 lbs hitting the tip of your finger at speed is gonna hurt.


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## Chris15

I would tend to think that idiots should not be anywhere near the fly rail. I like my hands in their current condition, so I tend to wear gloves when there is the chance of damage to the hands. So I would say that stopping rope burn and reducing, for what of a better word, splinters caused by the manila rope. A well fitting pair of gloves would be good for OH&S. Idiots should not be near the fly rail and so should not have the opportunity to get anything caught. If not for getting things caught, fly systems can kill and so for that reason, people need to be kept away anyhow.

It might be that in your situation that the use of gloves is not appropriate, but in general, I would prefer to protect my hands.


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