YOU DID WHAT?

The fondest memories are those where you should have gotten into big trouble, but didn't. I was at Epic one day and my coordinator said, "Do you want some ice cream?" Normally that would sound innocent enough, but this was during a show. We walked over to the dinosaur ice cream stand outside Epic and ate ice cream, then strolled back to the stage in time to finish the show.

During the run of Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of my cast was a Michael Jackson impersonator. To look at him out of make up, you would never know it. I am a photographer on the side and had started making a name for my self as such at several of the stages that I worked at. He wanted pictures of him as MJ, so one day, he dressed up and did the hair and make up. Let me say he looked exactly like MJ. We went out on stage and shot some pretty good pictures. The techs saw what we were doing and turned on the fog machines and fans. It was pretty darn cool.

HOWEVER, it didn't stop there. Back in the day, before lights motors action stunt show, there was residential street and a backstage studio tour that ran right next to our stage. MJ impersonator walked off the Hunchback stage and into view of the tour tram. People started to talk. He walked next to the tour tram. The tour guide lost her train of thought and started stumbling over her lines. We, meaning MJ impersonator, myself and half dozen members of the hunckback cast walked into the park. Now, mind you, the cast was wearing shorts and t-shirts with 'Hunchback' written in sharpie on the front. They were playing the body guards. . . . God help us. Seeing how the crowds mobbed MJ, this as not a smart idea.

We heard a few guests say "Hey MJ!" "Is that. . .no it couldn't-" "Look who it is." You could feel the electricity start to build in a matter of moments. Seeing a stir start to build, we ducked out the back gate as soon as we could. End of story ? Not quiet. Later our stage manager came up to us and said,"Please tell me that you did not walk through the park like that." We said, "Of course not." WE knew, that he knew, that we knew.

Speaking of being in place you probably shouldn't, as a photographer for several of the Indy Stunt doubles, I have been in places on that stage that I KNOW I should have neve been in. Like the Mayan temple set in the ball(rolling boulder) track. In a prop rock during the show so I could get pictures of the Plane scene. At the top of the market place buildings, so I could get shots of high falls. At least I never went up in th rafters like the boys did one day. THey were bored and moved the high fall pad to under one of the beams in the rafters and decided to take flying leaps from the roof of the stage.

If you have ever seen the Indy stunt show, then you'll know that scene two is the cairo marketplace. In that set above the awing is a little niche. They use this niche for DJ's at times during convention shows. One day two of our Epic/Fantasmic! cast got bored between Fantasmic shows and decided to climb into the set and pretend they were eating dinner. . . during the Epic show. One was wearing one of Marion's shirts as a diguse. At the end of the scene, he knelt down to the other and pretended to propose. (By the way, both guys were married with kids.)

THe cast and crew about died laughing. The stage manager, thank goodness was awesome. She came up to them and said(paraphased) "That was the funniest thing i have ever seen. Don't you ever do it again."

Fantasmic! stunt perfomers meet at Epic, use Epic's pargo to ride over to the stage. Every so often they'll give ride to a character or two as well. One day the driver took a short cut through the creative costuming tunnel (part of the backstage tour) and turned a lliiitttle to soon. Because setting outside of the tunnel are prop planes from the movie Pearl Harbor. On this particular day, the Epic driver plowed into the wing of the plane an crumpled the top of the pargo. No one was hurt, from what I can remember, but they did have to use the jaws of life to get one of the character girls out of the front seat. And wouldn't you know, the driver still works at Disney.

I had my own personal "You did what ?" moment one day at Fantasmic!. I was not in a good mood that day. I had one precious darling cast mamber get all over my case one day because she said "This is not my costume. My costume does not have this piece in it" (it was a snap in, snap out removable piece)
I said,"you're the only one doing this role today. Not one else has worn it. It's identical to the other costumes in the trailer."
She still said, "This is not my costume, I don't use this piece."
Now, mind you, we are on the steamboat. The cross bridge is pulled back and the boat is about to start moving. I snatched the costume from her hands, ripped out the unwanted item and handed it back to her. "Here it's doesn't have that strap anymore."
She went out and did her part, but ran to the stage manager afterwards and said "costuming was being mean to me."
And 'bless his soul', he stood up for us and said,"Did you check your preset ?"
She started to cry.
I went to my manager and told her what happened. All she said was, "Yeah, you probably shouldn't have done that."

Ah, those were the days.