Four years ago, I started working with a famous artist. I was only a few months into being his LD, a position that was more like Russian roulette, based on the long line of predecessors. I was setting up Front of House around noon that day. This older gentleman was putting up his personal video camera right in my sight line. Instead of attacking him about what he was doing (“You can’t video the show!) Or dissing him over poor cable management (his were very messy), I simply asked him in a very nice tone if he wouldn’t mind moving just a bit to the side and keeping it clean. We were expecting a lot of guests at FOH today. Our soundman, who’d been with the artist a long time, was nice enough to stop what he was doing and introduce me to the artist’s father. Gulp. Point being, if I had barked at him, there probably would be someone else writing this column about the jackass he replaced on that gig.
—Joel Reiff, from “LD at Large,” PLSN, Aug. 2015
