WAR STORIES

WAR STORIES. . . When I thought about what to write this month, I started coming up with a list of near misses, slip ups and other accidents that the participants eventually walked away from, but they sure did have a good story to tell anyone willing to listen.

With Epic being a Stunt show, people do get hurt. Luckliy, no one had ever been killed on the stage.(At least up until 2009, but that's a story for another blog). We did have two serious near misses over the years, however. Both accidents involved the the slide for life. Which is a cable slide from the top of the Indy high fall building to the floor. During a rehearsal in the early ninties, when the park had barely opened, one of the Marion stunt doubles fell from the cable near the top of the building. She broke several bones in her face and elsewhere. Although she did survive her injuries, I don't believe she ever returned to performing after that. Then one of tumblers fell from the slide for life in the early 2000's. After some time in the hospital and a lengthy rehabilitation, he tried to return to the stage, but we didn't see him much after that.

One of the Epic tumblers was on the buildings in scene two and landed wrong. He didn't break his leg, instead is bowed out on him. It was about like having a sprained bone. He limped into the stage one day to show off his injury. His entire leg from the knee down was solid black and blue. The tumblers have their names written on the inside tounge of the shoes, so obviously, we know who's is whose. One of the tumblers sprained an ankle and was taken to the hospital for x-rays. He said the emergency room workers were giving him a hard time because a grown man 'had his name written inside his shoes'.

Stunt men aren't the only one's with 'war stories'. Characters are constantly getting wacked, hit and jumped on by the 'precious darling children'. A operation's cast member was working the autograph line for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and had to cut the line off so the performers could leave the stage after thier 'set' was done. Apparently a particular guest, who was not included in the last few people to get the autographs, took offense to that and hit the cast member. Did i mention that this particular cast member was a 5 foot nothing grandmother.

During the nineties, we had a group of performers who rode to thier set location in a modified minivan. (For integrity sake, I can't tell you which performers they were). The one in the back wasn't prepared for the van to start moving and fell out of the truck. He was taken, in costume, by ambulance to the hospital to be checked out. Once he was given a clean bill of health, he had to wait to be picked up by some one from his dept. Oh yeah, he was 'still' half dressed in a muscle suit costume. . . a green muscle suit. He said the people at the hospital was giving the oddest looks. Just remember, those things that don't kill you, make you stronger. . . Right?

When Universal Studios had the X-Men stunt show, several of our guys jumped over there to do that show as well. And yes they brought back more 'War Stories'. Like the time 'M', was supposed to run off the top of a building and rapell down. However, the rigging malfunctioned and he went straight down. Everyone who saw it thought he was dead. Thankfully, enough of the rope was wrapped around him to slow his fall. He still hit hard and messed his back, knees and ankles up. 'M' never really got over that fall and he felt the aftermath for many, many years.

Our performers worked hard, lived hard and in some cases played even harder. Since the inception of 'turn around pay' it was possible for people to be literally on the clock, getting paid for several days straight, 24 hours a day. The 'Turn Around Pay' clause in the contract says if there is less than 8 hours between shifts, you get paid straight through. The characters were notorious for working Fantasimic! at night and a character breakfast shift the following morning. This meant less than 8 hours between shifts and it usually meant at least a few of them sleeping in the breakroom over night.

A favorite 'in the park' cast member past time, especially for the college kids, is drinking thier way around the world at Epcot. The few times I joined in, we rarely made it passed a couple of countries. At least drinking in the park was a bit safer that down town Orlando. At one point, Orlando's downtown was nothing more than bars and tatoo parlors. (AS OF 2010, IT'S NOT THAT WAY ANYMORE). One night three of our performers from Epic went out drinking and got into a bar fight. Long story short, they were jumped in the parking lot by people with knives. One actually got some teeth chipped when a knife went through his cheek. It all came to an end when one of our guys grabbed his gun from the car and fired into the air.

While working at Universal Studios, I watched a stilt walking class practice in the rehearsal room. I asked what happens if you fall? Are there any tips for landing safely? The answer, 'you don't fall'. Rrr-i-g-h-t. Hunchback of Notre Dame had it's own fair share of War Stories, not the least of which was when a stilt walker fell on stage and broke his hand. I was actually sitting in the audience that day and had no way to help him. The stage had a run way that the cast used to enter the theater. The stilt walker slipped on a wet spot and as he fell one of his stilts got hung up under the bleechers. With out missing a beat, the rest of the cast ran off stage and literally picked him up. Once he was back on his feet, or stilts, he finished the scene, then went to the hospital with a broken hand.

Like I said, work hard, live hard, play hard.