My primary job on this show is as the house V1 (video engineer). But I am also doubling up as an A2, which has also kept me pretty busy working to fulfill the needs of Ian Smith the company’s Sound Designer. Mostly my A2 skills are being used just in case things go sideways! I will take care of everything in the orchestra pit, while my friend and coworker, John, the primary A2 for this show is handling things like getting lav mics on to the actors. He and Genna wired the microphones in the orchestra pit earlier. John doesn’t work as an A2 very often, and this is a big job for anyone.

As the V1 I am responsible for making sure that any video related needs of the visiting company are met. I’m working with Greg Mitchel, the company’s Projection Designer to do so. And there’s a lot! The company is doing some complex image mapping using a pair of different ultra wide lenses. Last week, in preparation for this opera I changed the lamps in our two 14K Christie Roadsters and discovered that one of the lamp driver boards went bad! So that threw a monkey wrench in things. The rental projector came late on the first day that the opera company was in the room and we had to take down our projectors again (We flew them after I changed the lamps for a show the evening before the opera showed up.) Then we rigged up the rental projector and hung both projectors back up with the company’s lenses, after testing. One of the lenses the opera rented had a bad motor. I had to disengage the focus motor, then zoom and focus to the approximate dimensions we needed. Then there were two 150 ft cables which we ran from the fourth floor balcony that went bad and had to be replaced for the supertitle projector.

Every day something new has been added to the gear in the orchestra pit, not unusual for a show that’s just being teched for the first time (being put together)- but a little annoying. We will move all the gear off the tech tables and relocate it a few hours before showtime on the day of the first performance. So there will be that to deal with. Hopefully all goes well. 

At least the show looks and sounds great! And the company’s technicians and cast have been really friendly and cooperative. Although the work has been hard and the days have been busy, I hope that they will return for another event.

I’m working seven really long days in a row, and everyday more hours get added for me to come in to work early, or leave late. That’s fine with me, I love making the overtime hours!

I also had to act as a medic one day when one of the actors, Vitor, a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and actor scratched up his arm on stage. It was a pretty minor injury, and I fixed him up in no time. He’ll need a surgeon for the horns, though!

I’ve been writing this over a few days. We got the show up and running with only minutes to spare. Everything during the two show runs went great, and the show was a hit with the audience!

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We semi-recently did two shows with Rob Kapilow and his series, What Makes it Great? I’ll write here about the show titled, Beethoven’s First Symphony, the other show was about the Beatles, as I have no photos of that one!

Kapilow performed at The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts 

https://ccpa.cerritos.gov

Rob has been returning to the Cerritos Center for thirty something years, three or four times a year. So it’s easy to say that he has been here more than any other performer in our history. And that’s great because he is a pleasure to work with, and is also a very talented musician, conductor, author and performer.

From Rob’s website https://robkapilow.com/

“Rob Kapilow “gets audiences in tune with Classical music at a deeper and more immediate level than many of them thought possible,” hails the Los Angeles Times. In a three-part format. Kapilow dissects a musical composition. The pieces are performed, and a lively Q&A concludes the evening. “You hang on to every word and note,” says The New York Times.”

Essentially he takes a piece of music, breaks it down, explaining each part of the composition in language that anyone can understand and tells the audience what makes it great. He also gives the audience background about the composer/ musicians who wrote the piece so that the audience gets a good idea about when, where and why the music came into the world. His show is always fascinating and I never fail to learn something about the history of music.

The Beethoven’s First Symphony show was of course interesting, informative and something to hear. Rob played along with the Fullerton College Symphony.

https://music.fullcoll.edu/index.php

The Fullerton College Musicians often accompany Rob, and they are extremely talented. The school has, over the years provided many musicians for this endeavor and all the many generations of students have been exceptional musicians.

Some quick video from rehearsal.

The other show we did with Rob Kapilow was about the Beatles. I didn’t really have time to write about this show as I was busy preparing for a corporate event which followed the morning after. So sorry!

Here you can find his books through this search link: Rob Kapilow’s Books.

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With a swinging rhythm section (Bass and Drums), and full complement of a horn section, and two fun frontmen. (Plus a great guitar player and keyboardist) And if that’s not enough there’s the added bonus of beat box to liven things up! If you want to see a great energetic and highly entertaining band, Phat Cat Swinger is one for you. They are off to do some shows in Las Vegas next, where I’m sure they will be greeted with enthusiasm.

After their set, and a quick four minute change over of the stage Jay Leno came out without announcement and made the crowd laugh until they cried. He has been here a few times, and I wrote about him in my book, Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories.

Jay is always friendly and happy. When he arrived he came to our crew break room to say hello to everyone. Afterwards I presented him with a copy of my book. When I stopped by his dressing room he was skimming through the pages. He commented on the chapter about Art Garfunkel. Apparently Art is well known as the guy I wrote about in the first part of the chapter about him. I’m glad to have yet another chance to work with Jay. He is one of the most down to earth entertainers who I know.

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I think when I retire, it will be safe to say that this will be the act with which I have worked longer and more days in my career. 

I’ll leave you now with a short video which I shot backstage as the mariachi bands played in the green room together after they arrived and before soundcheck. And some photos from tonight and the past.

Above mariachi bands Sol de Mexico and Mariachi Reyna De Los Angeles rehearse backstage.

And below,

And a memory from the past. One night working the MerryAchi Christmas show I had to clear some mics and cable for the dancers, but they went on too fast! I call this video The Mariachi Stomp. 

That guy getting stomped on by the dancers would be me. I had to run out and clear a cable and mic stand! Don’t get in their way!

Photos and video from past shows below.

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We’re working tonight on what is billed as the Latin Rock & R&B Show. Three Latino rock bands on stage together. In the order they played, the bands are:

Thee Midniters

Cannibal and the Headhunters 

Malo

Tonight’s show is hosted by “Shotgun Tom” Kelly of Sirius XM Satalite Radio.

Cannibal and the Headhunters was here once, a year ago, our contact is Robert Zapata, the drummer for Cannibal (and also Thee Midniters). He is a nice guy who has tried to make things flow as simple as possible. It’s the 60th anniversary of his band Cannibal and the Headhunters. They were one of the first Mexican-American groups to have a national hit record, “Land of a Thousand Dances”. Reigning from Los Angeles’ East side Francisco Mario (Frankie Cannibal) Garcia founded the group in 1965, and they helped to usher in LA’s “East Side Sound”.

Thee Midniters were among the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. They were one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960s. They were among the first rock acts to openly sing about Chicano themes in songs such as “Chicano Power” and “The Ballad of César Chávez” in the late 1960s.

Malo a San Francisco-based ensemble, was at first led by Arcelio Garcia, and Jorge Santana, the brother of Latin-rock guitarist Carlos Santana. After the release of their first album, many of Malo’s original band members left the group. But the band continues on and still retains their great sound. The horns and excellent percussion really take the show up a notch.

This show turned out to have a lot more audio inputs and videos than we first expected. We were sent a stage plot for Cannibal but not the other two bands. Also, although we knew that Cannibal would have horns, they were not shown on the plot and nobody told us what instruments would show up. So that was a surprise.  We also found out about the horns and percussion (three bongos, a pair of timbales, some cowbells and a cymbal) for Malo at the last minute, also a couple of saxophones, a trumpet and a trombone. Once again this is not that unusual in this business, though we always hope that the performers let us know ahead of time.

 (They never sent a plot or an input list for Malo)

At least all the players and their people are very friendly, which makes going a little out of the way for them easier. And they were good bands.

We were told there would be a video for one band and a still image logo for another, but it turns out each band has a logo and Cannibal has seven videos. They brought a laptop with all the content in PowerPoint but it’s better for us to throw all the videos into PlaybackPro Plus X, our video playback software, mainly because this way a progress bar never accidentally shows up on the screen. 

Some of the other crew members (not on audio today) decided to throw in a helping hand but accidentally plugged in some inputs out of order so Ducky and I had to go through each line and mark both ends for the changeover. So that didn’t really help, it just made more work for the two of us.

The last minor annoyance was that Malo, the closing band, didn’t bring their videos until a few minutes before they hit the stage for the show! No still logo, just three videos  to loop and no instructions. That’s how we roll in the live entertainment business.

At least all of the bands sound great though, and of course the horns help out in that regard.

Word from the box office is that the show has sold pretty well too, but it’s hard to tell from under the balcony where the video station is – although when I did get out on stage the crowd looked pretty decent.

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