THE PRACTICLE THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM DISNEY

In all of te years I have worked with Disney, I have learned a few practicle things that everybody can use in daily life.

A product called JINX INX is absolutely fabulous for getting ink out of everything. Unfortunately, I have never seen it for sale to the general public. Basically, it's industrial strength acetone. . . nail polish remover. We have several characters with white gloves. From the Head Cheese (Mickey) himself on down to Shitty Kitty(Sorry, I mean Gideon the cat from Pinochio). Sidenote: We sometimes have pet names for certian characters. Gideon is basically a drunk cat with just one line in the whole movie. . . a drunken hiccup, thus the nickname.

Anyway, kids want autographs. This means kids often come at the characters with sharpies, felt pens, ball point pens and everybody's favroite. . . gel pens. At the end of the night there's always a large basket of gloves that have to be specially treated for ink marks. What Jinx ink dosen't get out, Alcohol will. (no not the drinking kind. . . that comes later.) Rubbing alcohol does wonders at getting ink out of things. Mixing Alcohol and Jinx Inx creates a nice little chemical reaction in the laundry area. A quick fix for ink marks is, believe it or not, hair spray. I don't understand how or why, I've just seen it work.

One costuming trick that we were never allowed to try is Vodka (HMmmm, I wonder why?) I was told that touring shows and professional theater troops spray Vodka in their costumes. When it dries, any body odor is gone. It also works pretty well when dealing with Divas. After a few shots of Vodka, who cares, who's yelling at who.

Sometimes I feel like I've led a deprived life. As a kid I never heard of PEEP Jousting, Dry ice bottle rockets and Mentos in Soda bottles. Easter has just passed and of course packages of PEEPS, chicken shaped marshmellows were everywhere. Some cast members decided to 'blow one up' in the microwave. This was done covertly, so I never actually saw the after math. Since it was in a manager's microwave, i assume the microwaved PEEP just expanded to three times it's normal size before deflating.

The next day, I heard about PEEP Jousting, where you put toothpicks in each PEEP and Microwave them. The winner is called when the toothpick of one stabs the other and makes it deflate. . . some of my fellow cast members really need a hobby. :)

I recently heard a story about dry ice, bottle rockets and pipe bombs. Apparently this happened several years ago when the Muppets On Location show was going on. One day it was raining and the show was downed. A wardrobe person was bored and put dry ice in a soda bottle with a little water. After a few minutes, the soft plastic popped a hole and the bottle shot off like a rocket into the air.

The next day, it also rained. Still bored this person had a new audience, so he did it again. This time, however, the only thing he could find was a harder plastic Evian bottle. He puts the dry ice in it, seals the top, the spectators peek out from half open doors and watch as the thing starts to crackle. Getting nervous that the bottle didn't shoot off, he decided to throw a seat cousion over it and stomp on it. (yeah, real smart) It still didn't do anything. Wanting to hide the evidence, he tired to kick it inside. Thank God it never made it that far, because the break room was wall to wall mirrors. The Evian bottle became wedged under the dry ice bin and literally blew up. It rocked the building and would have shattered the mirrors. Shrapnel flew every where. Manager types and security were checking roof tops after that. One person said they heard it half way across the part and thought it was Epic (Indiana Jones). Needless to say these cast members never played with dry ice again.

Ever since Blue Man Group arrived at Universal, I've been dieng to try the Mentos in Soda experiment. . . when i have a few extra bucks to waste, I mean, to spew every where, I'll try it and report back to you with my findings.

Have you ever tried signing the back of your brand new credit card only to curse out the ball point pen because it won't write. Next time that happens, try the 'ancient Disney secret'. Put a piece of scotch tape over the signing strip, rub it a few times and remove it. I'm not sure if it adds a layer of stickiness to it, so the pen can grab hold or if it removes some kind of oily residue from the manfacturing process, all I know is that it works.

As a way of amusing the hundreds of kids that pass through the resorts, our managers have supplied the bell service guys with the long 'Balloon Animal' balloons. When I was at All Star and had to work luggage, i learned that I should never quit to become a Circus clown. Making balloon animals is not my forte'. Some of the luggage folks got pretty darn good at it though. They were making life size figures of children holding helium filled ballons to keep it upright. Needless to say we were all very impressed.

At Boardwalk Resort, it's helium balloons in the lobby. I have a greater repsect for the balloon sales people that walk the parks. It takes skill to be able to walk from point 'A' to point 'B' with a handfull of helium balloons and NOT have a tangled up mess. I learned how to blow up the double balloons like you see in floral bouquets.
. . .And more importantly I learned how not to do it. When a balloon pops in a double balloon, it will flat make your ears ring. One day I was tieing the weight on a helium balloon for a couple of kids. It didn't touch anything, didn't get near anything, but it exploded. Unfortuneately, down the lobby was a soldier returning from Iraq, like fresh off the plane returning. I was told that the balloon popping about scared the $%%T out of him. . . . Sorry Mr. Army Guy, where ever you are, and Welcome Home !!!!

And my final bit of Practicle Things I Have Learned From Disney is a biggie:
NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING.

If you go on vacation, never assume the hotel, plane, car rental company, etc. will have your information or have the right information. When checking into a hotel, bring your confirmation papers. When getting a rental car, bring your reservation confirmation number. When boarding a plane, bring your confimation number, reservation number and your Photo ID. Every time some one says, "I didn't know I needed my comfirmation information," is usually the time the computer has eaten all traces of thier reservation.

So save yourself a major headache and bring your paperwork when you travel.

TaTa for now.