They ought to put Reid’s picture in the dictionary under “pyro technician.” Take one look at him, and you know he’s the type of guy you would expect to drive fast cars, own his own custom fit Storm Trooper suit and blow up stuff for a living. He’s been the lead engineer and technician at Strictly FX, Chicago’s premier special effects vendor for the entertainment biz, for more than 15 years. PLSN sat down to chat with how he and Strictly got to where they are today.
PLSN: How did you get into this business of building and running pyro on shows?
I started out working and taking training classes with several organizations in the electrical business. Along the way, I got a job as an electrical engineer down in Florida. I spent the day designing and drawing electrical panels and other assorted devices on AutoCAD. I worked for a company that would permanently install these devices in theme parks such as Disney and Six Flags. These clients would need some sort of effect, whether it was cryo jets or water fountains spurting out of the ground, designed and fabricated. So we figured out how and built them.
But how did you and Strictly join up?
Strictly was a new company that started in 1996 and was doing special effects. Just so you understand, pyrotechnics is just one type of effect. Lasers, smoke and snow machines, water jets, and confetti are just some of the things they specialize in. At the time, Strictly was banging on doors, trying to get work as a laser company, but needed some flame cannons for a show. This was around 1999, and the company I worked for sold them two. At some point they had an issue with one of them and called me. I figured out the problem and could’ve talked them through it, but they were insistent on flying me up there. I fixed the cannon, we spoke more and more and eventually they offered me a job.
Is that how you got into concert touring?
No, I had worked with other companies and the first tour I worked on was with the Rolling Stones back in 1994. I designed the control systems for the flame units on the top of the towers. So I came to Strictly already knowing how the touring biz ran. At the time, it was a small operation. They had two offices for owners Ted Maccabee and Mark Grega to work out of, and a space in between the two for everything else. They had four artists who constantly drew animations for the laser programs and me. They did a lot of lasers and a little pyro for sports teams. The first tour I did for them was ‘N Sync, where I designed and built the cryo jets and we had guys doing the lasers. Eventually I engineered a lot of effects for that act.
So other than lasers, you came up with whatever effect Strictly needed?
When I got to Chicago I started building flame cannons, CO2 jets, confetti machines; whatever was needed. As far as the special effects go I would guess that I have designed and built 90 percent of the effects that are our own. I learned from my electrical background as well as seeing how all this other stuff was built at places like Universal Studios. I can work on most mechanical things from cars to washing machines fairly easily. I can research and build all kinds of things besides pyro. I designed an LSG (low smoke generator) for low-lying fog effects called the MK2. Le Maitre is still selling it today.
So you brought this construction knowledge to Strictly FX?
Yes and no. I had the knowledge of how they could blow up a car on site once per hour at a permanent install. I got here and they wanted to know “How do you make it small, portable, road worthy? How do you make it safe and how do you shoot it?” That’s when the electrical engineering background came into play. I basically just invented what I needed. That’s why all our flame gear was run off of PLC, Programmable Logic Controllers. We build all of our own cables and gear. We dabble with dangerous stuff, and that’s why most of our gear is proprietary, built in house. Nowadays people want it run on DMX and we can do that, but I’d rather not myself.
I understand you were the “shooter” on Roger Waters’ The Wall tour.
Yes, I was. It was one of the larger pyro productions we ever did, and the entire pyro product was used in just one song, on only two cues. But what an effect! The beginning of the show we had one song that used 190 comets. Those are a pyro effect where you shoot one star through the air. Think of a Roman candle on steroids. They shot up between 40 and 300 feet, depending on the venue. The second effect was when we fired off anywhere from 385-1,800 gerbs over a short time period. You can think of a gerb as a jet of sparks fired from a clay and cardboard cylinder. It took four pyro technicians over four hours to set up an effect that ran for 18 seconds.
Was this the biggest show you have done?
Not really. Product wise, the 2014 Super Bowl was massive. We had thousands of pieces of product we fired. 16 positions on the field, 30 positions on the roof, some stuff was shot from the racetrack across the street from the stadium. We also had the flame cannons surrounding Bruno Mars. I shot the stuff on the field and two other guys shot the other stations. Probably had 20 employees there. This years’ bowl is toned down.
Twenty employees seem like a lot for a special effects company.
You gotta realize that once you have 8 or 9 tours out at the same time and you get a gig like the Super Bowl come up, we need everyone we know. When I started, I had an office with a list of 10 guys to call on to do shows. Now there are times we have over 70 people working at once. I did Justin Beiber’s last tour and we had just about every effect you could name out there.
Looking back, what was the most satisfying gig you’ve ever done?
Thinking back, it would probably be an Avenged Sevenfold tour I did years ago. I was the first pyro guy they ever had. I had eight pyro boards with gerbs, etc., on them, eight flame cannons, two concussion mortars, LSG units and four confetti blowers mounted on the truss. I never knew if I would ever get all my work done in one day. They would literally be yelling at me before showtime, saying “We Gotta Go!” But every night, it all worked, 100 percent. The pressure sucked, but at the same time it was fun. Nowadays I would have two other techs helping me out. But in the end, they shot a DVD, and my name and work are displayed. That’s the most rewarding moment, when I can look back and see how cool it all looked and know that I pulled it off everyday by myself. That is a pretty awesome feeling.
