I ran out of guys to run shows last week. Again. I can see a legion of kids out there waving their hands “What about me, I’m sitting here looking for a gig”. But I don’t know all of you and cannot vouch one way or another for you until I do know ya. Been bitten on the ass for trying to have people I don’t know run one of my bands.
I think this country is short on good directors as well as techs. Lighting companies cannot find enough qualified lighting guys these days. They often have to rehire people they fired last month, just because they have nobody else that can make their gear work. I get the feeling that PRG doesn’t fire anybody. Or the fired person has to screw something up badly (to the tune of thousands of $) to be permanently banned. I say this because I notice that everyone I have ever fired or seen fired by another lighting company, shows up on gigs where this particular vendor is providing gear.
Last week Visual Ventures needed a stage manager/lighting programmer for a summer tour. My partner can program a console if he has to, he just would rather not be bothered with it and prefers to deal with other duties during the day, then just walk up to the console and run a show at 8 PM. No big deal. But it’s summer time and everyone I know is already booked on a tour. Mike wanted someone young who was just looking for a break in the business.
That was a good idea I thought. So we took a chance and posted a help wanted thread on the light network (www.lightnetwork.com). This is a free site designed for lighting techs to ask technical questions, vent on gear or employers and just generally bullshit with others in the same field as themselves. It’s a nifty place. Anyway, I got about 20 responses to the thread and actually hired a youngster on Friday. Will see if he works out this month or we will put another post on the network. Either way I won, because I have 20 resume’s from people who can program a hog console and want to learn more stuff. And I may need them sooner than I know.
