Tour: LD Jon Pollak is supporting Boz Scaggs’ 2015 tour, with U.S. shows in May, July-August, 2015. The photo here is of Pollak in New York City circa 1976, when Scaggs’ album, Silk Degrees, scored a #2 on Billboard‘s Top 200. The more recent shot of Scaggs himself (below, performing in Austin, TX) was taken by Debi Moen in 2015.
Design: “We carry no equipment; I ask venues for front washes, back washes, treatment on a curtain and 12 Lekos. I temper it down to make it look like what the audiences saw on Midnight Special or Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. It’s the image they have of Boz. Sometimes it’s hard because the equipment is so inappropriate in the venues. I don’t want to use moving lights the way they are fashioned to be used — if I have them in the venue, I don’t move them. This tour is about lighting management, containing things to a concise framework. The challenge is to explain the principle to the venue production teams.”
BACK STORY:
Home Base: American, but based in Reigate, Surrey, UK.
First Industry Gig: Los Angeles Ballet, fresh out of junior college.
First Tour “Break”: “Rickie Lee Jones, by accident. Marc Brickman was her LD. I was the lighting guy for Variety Arts Theatre, and Obie’s head tech had fallen and broken his leg. Marc said, ‘Hey, do you want to go on tour?’”
First Tour as LD: “Tom Scott & the L.A. Express. I ran lights, drove the truck and set up Steve Gadd’s drums.”
Background: “In high school I took stagecraft classes to be around a popular girl who was in the shows. At Los Angeles Valley College, I studied under the technical theatre program.”
Early Mentors: “My professor took us out to see the sunsets, natural environments to show us how light worked, before we even learned how to use a Leko.”
Inspiration: “From artists, architects, musicians. I was not cognizant to visual influences until I saw the play The Blitz lit by Richard Pilbrow. That was the ‘aha’ moment. I was quite young. My mother took me to loads of Broadway shows — my parents were quite connected with Old Hollywood, who frequently showed up at our house for parties.”
What do you like about what you do? “I get a buzz working with artists I like.”
Best Advice: “Listen to Joni Mitchell. It’s like reading a book and watching a movie. She has the vision, she takes in all her influences and is such a wonderful journey.”
Advice to LDs: “Have a basic idea of what is appropriate for the show. Know the market and who you’re playing to. Unless you can get 90 percent of your show in, you’re doing yourself a disservice by over-designing the production.”
