It's time for my yearly to clean up my file of jotted down Disney snipets that didn't have a home anywhere else.
When dealing with guests, you have to be professional and courteous at all times. Well, when you are checking them into your resort and see that they live on Swamp Poodle Rd ( I think it's some where in north Philly), you just have to ask, "Are you kidding me ?" I also had a guest who lived on Yellow Brick Rd. She said she loved her street was was never going to move. Jump off Joe Rd (Grant's Pass, OR) Actually came with a history lesson. Apparently 'Joe' was being chased by indians back in the day and jumped off a small bluff into the falls to get away. Sadly, the legend states that he didn't survive the fall.
A friend of mine worked at the Give A Day, Get a Disney Day call center. (Give a Day was a promotion that Disney did in 2010 where they encouraged a million people to do a volunteer project and get a free Disney ticket to the park in return.) Apparently a pageant promoter had ALL of the girls in the pageant do a volunteer project, BUT they only wanted us to only give tickets to the girls who won the pageant. WTH ??? Obviously it was a resounding and unanamous NO from our end. If you did the work, youw received the tickets.
That was about as good as the guest who was soooo pissed off that they weren't going to get the tickets, BECAUSE they didn't actually sign up to be apart of the million volunteers, that they threated to call the President of the United States. My friend was so tempted to say, "Really ? If you have Obama's phone number, can I get it too ?
There was actually two different Pocahontas shows at Walt Disney World in the nineties. The Animal Kingdom version had Pochontas, Grandmother Willow and a cast of sometimes reluctant animals, like the rabbit that needed a nudge from the stage hand to get going. . . I literally saw a hand from backstage pushing the rabbit out on the stage.
Most people, however, have forgotten about the short lived (nine moths + or -) show that was at the Studios. It was supposed to be 100 % native American cast and crew. Yeah, that didn't happen. There was one wardrobe person, one stage technician and about half the cast who were native American. I actually found it on youtube the other day. (Search for Spirit of Pocahontas )During the run of the show one of cast members who played the medicine man performed a traditional native american wedding on the stage. (after hours).
When you work in a show, you tend to 'create your own little world and some things that make perfect sense in your sphere of reality makes other people go "HUH?" One of the lines in Pocahontas was, "Wingapo, this how we say hello?" Which later turned into (backstage anyway) Win-GA-Po. For years after the show went down, a few of us still said, "Win-GA-Po," when we'd see each other.
While I'm on the subject of 'our own little world', the show that came after Poca, was Hunchback of Notre Dame. . . A Musical Adventure !. During the run of Hunchback, we had Gypsy wedding. One of the performers and a Stage Technician got married (not on stage though). Everyone in the cast and crew stepped in to help with the preperations from the dress and food to the photographer and decorating the hall. The bride asked one of her fellow cast members to walk her down the isle, because her elderly father wasn't physically able to. This cast member was so humbled and honored to be able to do it that he got a little teary eyed. He said, "since he was gay, that was probably going to be the only time in his life that he'd ever be able to do that.
When guests come to the park, they can get a Happy Birthday button to wear. I had a guest with some questions come to the desk. As i was trying to help him, I could have swore the name he had written on his Birthday button was 'THE*DORK'. I was about to ask why he wrote that on there, when i realized it actually said THEODORE. O0ps!, Glad i didn't make a comment.
I recently was asked about a new resort that Disney World was going to open called Buffalo Junction . It was going to have Buffalo and Elk, i guess like a north american version of Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had never heard if, but after a little internet searching i realized he was right. It was supposed to be located in the strip of land between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness campground. I found articles written about it from the 80's and 90's and a possible resurface in 2009. I'm not sure if the powers that be are still kicking around the idea, but who knows, what will crop up, if the economy gets better.
Speaking of the Fort, i often wondered what ever happened to the famous cow called Mickey Moo. She was a dairy cow with a black corporate mickey shaped spot on her side. Again I went to the internet. My sources tell me that she passed away in August of 2001. Awe does that mean there's no more Mickey Milk ?
Alas, my meanderings are more like fizzelings, so i'm calling it a night
. . .
A NIGHT.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
OPENNING OF ANIMAL KINGDOM. . . AHhh the memories
Over the nearly twenty years of being with Disney, I have had the opportunity to be apart of some amazing and unforgettable events, not the least of which was the openning of Disney's Animal Kingdom. To start out with, this job wasn't even something i was pursuing. In fact I was just passing through the Epic (Indiana jones show) breakroom one day and a friend of mine was on the phone. She stopped me and told me about her phone call with one of tech managers/ crew chief's (not exactly sure what his title was then). His job with the Animal Kingdom opening was assisting all of the radio broadcasters who where doing live remotes from the various parks and he was looking for people to help out with the setup/ tear down/ escorting (basically get the media folks thier stuff and keep them from getting lost).
Of course I jumped on that with a vengences. 'J' and I pestered the snot out of our department manager for permission leave the department briefly and a week or two later we're sitting in the rehearsal room at the studios finding out what our job would be. Call times at 2:00 AM, most mornings. 12 + hour shifts most days. Exclusive rights to join the media's parties most nights. Basically a no sleep marathon for a week. Since, for the week, we were concidered media crew, we were allowed to join in the parties, eat free food and get the souveniers. In a word 'AWESOME'.
They were also celebrating the newer Downtown Disney Westside opening, so during one of the parties we sampled food from Wolfgang puck and Bongos. David Copperfield made an appearance at Pleasure Island. Way back then, they were going to build a David Copperfield's Magic Underground restuarant at the Studios and they opened a magic shop in the newer part of Downtown Disney.
The Studio's media party was amazing. Disney has what they call Screaming Fans. Cast members get paid over time to line a red carpet and scream and yell like the people who are walking in were movie stars. They do this for conventions and other occasions. I've worked it. It's fun. You just have no voice left the next day. Anyway, at the Studios party, we were met by Screamng fans. At the end of the red carpet, managers were handing out pineapples filled with wine. My manager who gave us the permission to do this side job was there. I looked at him and said, " I guess I picked the right extracurricluar activity". As I worked the crowd, I saw my other managers standing off to the side just watching and unable to participate. They were alot like seeing Roudolph not being allowed to play in the reindeer games.
The only party I didn't make was the one at the new sports complex, now called ESPN's Wide World of Sports. My heart was willing, but the little thing called sleep deprevation was kicking in. It didn't help that I had to be at work at 2:00 the next morning. . .
Oh yeah, 'the work'. I guess I should talk about that too :). At 2:00 in the morning, we were back stage loading up Pargos( flat bed golf carts) with tables, coolers of ice, media gear and a hundred and one other things, then we'd get our assigned areas that needed to be set up. We learned, very quickly, when driving a bumpy little golf cart at full speed, that the back section of the park (between African and Asia) is not flat. In fact it's down right rough. I won't tell you how we found out the first time, but. . . . Table ? what table? . . . KIDDING, sort of.
At 2:00 in the morning you freeze, but by noon, you'd about get heat stroke. We'd get the tables for the stations set up early in the morning. The morning radio personalities would arrive and get a ride to their spots through out the park. However, at 9:00 all motorized vehicles had to be out of the park. We were hustling along the media crews that were right on the edge of the cut off time, because we knew it was foot traffic only after the park openned. During the week WE got a crash course on where all of nooks and crannies in Animal Kingdom were. At one point, I could almost draw you a map to were the all of sprinkler heads and power oulets were located. To this day, when I go to the park, I look around and think, we were there and through that backstage gate is the Lion King breakroom and over there is the Pride Rock Cast Member comissary. . . .
The afternoon was spent walking back and forth assisting the broadcasters with tons of equipment. Okay, maybe not tons, but at near 100+ degrees out, it sure seemed like it. After one of my trips to the furthest reaches of the world. . .I mean park, I chugged an entire bottle of water in in one gulp. Others in our group were manning media information stations in the present day Tusker House covered seating area. (Oh, yeah, we were fed there too. . . At that time, they had rotiserie chicken, ribs and Prime Rib. Mmmm, prime rib). I never worked at that post, I just remember seeing radios all over the place and a bees nest of activity.
We did see our fair share of celebrities. The most memorable story was when one our ladies was told to stand by an open box truck. They were loading and unloading items and needed to make sure things didn't walk away without one of us tied to it. She said a gentleman walked passed her and asked he could sit on the truck's lift gate for a few minutes. He stated that he wasn't feeling as energetic as he usually did. She didn't see any harm in that, so they hung out and talked for a few minutes. She asked if he was having a good time and was able to see all the animals. He said he was and had no problem getting into the exhibits and rides. She noticed his hair was shaved or very short, but never recognized who she was talking to until the plaid dressed VIP escort walked up and asked if he was ready to go. As he walked away, she realized she was chatting with Micheal J Fox. (He had resently had surgery trying to help the Parkinson's disease)
The one and only time I ever saw Mr Eisner was back stage before a media appearence. . .moving on.
Animals have away of letting you kow when they are not happy. The Gorillas in the Gorilla Falls portion of the Savanna were no exception. If you go to Animal Kingdom now, you'll notice that it's not called Gorilla Falls. That's because not long after the park openned, the charming primates started throwing Poo at people. Disney quickly changed the name of that section and has kind of down played the Gorilla exhibit ever since.
Another park openning faux pas came from our illustrious leader himself. During an interview with Mr. Eisner, a bird in the background kept squaking and drowning him out. When asked what was the bird's problem, Eisner said something to the effect of eating it for lunch if it didn't stop. , , OF COURSE the Disney Spin Doctors jumped in and said 'no, no that what our CEO meant to say was that someone needed to feed the bird it's lunch'. Riiight.
Of course I jumped on that with a vengences. 'J' and I pestered the snot out of our department manager for permission leave the department briefly and a week or two later we're sitting in the rehearsal room at the studios finding out what our job would be. Call times at 2:00 AM, most mornings. 12 + hour shifts most days. Exclusive rights to join the media's parties most nights. Basically a no sleep marathon for a week. Since, for the week, we were concidered media crew, we were allowed to join in the parties, eat free food and get the souveniers. In a word 'AWESOME'.
They were also celebrating the newer Downtown Disney Westside opening, so during one of the parties we sampled food from Wolfgang puck and Bongos. David Copperfield made an appearance at Pleasure Island. Way back then, they were going to build a David Copperfield's Magic Underground restuarant at the Studios and they opened a magic shop in the newer part of Downtown Disney.
The Studio's media party was amazing. Disney has what they call Screaming Fans. Cast members get paid over time to line a red carpet and scream and yell like the people who are walking in were movie stars. They do this for conventions and other occasions. I've worked it. It's fun. You just have no voice left the next day. Anyway, at the Studios party, we were met by Screamng fans. At the end of the red carpet, managers were handing out pineapples filled with wine. My manager who gave us the permission to do this side job was there. I looked at him and said, " I guess I picked the right extracurricluar activity". As I worked the crowd, I saw my other managers standing off to the side just watching and unable to participate. They were alot like seeing Roudolph not being allowed to play in the reindeer games.
The only party I didn't make was the one at the new sports complex, now called ESPN's Wide World of Sports. My heart was willing, but the little thing called sleep deprevation was kicking in. It didn't help that I had to be at work at 2:00 the next morning. . .
Oh yeah, 'the work'. I guess I should talk about that too :). At 2:00 in the morning, we were back stage loading up Pargos( flat bed golf carts) with tables, coolers of ice, media gear and a hundred and one other things, then we'd get our assigned areas that needed to be set up. We learned, very quickly, when driving a bumpy little golf cart at full speed, that the back section of the park (between African and Asia) is not flat. In fact it's down right rough. I won't tell you how we found out the first time, but. . . . Table ? what table? . . . KIDDING, sort of.
At 2:00 in the morning you freeze, but by noon, you'd about get heat stroke. We'd get the tables for the stations set up early in the morning. The morning radio personalities would arrive and get a ride to their spots through out the park. However, at 9:00 all motorized vehicles had to be out of the park. We were hustling along the media crews that were right on the edge of the cut off time, because we knew it was foot traffic only after the park openned. During the week WE got a crash course on where all of nooks and crannies in Animal Kingdom were. At one point, I could almost draw you a map to were the all of sprinkler heads and power oulets were located. To this day, when I go to the park, I look around and think, we were there and through that backstage gate is the Lion King breakroom and over there is the Pride Rock Cast Member comissary. . . .
The afternoon was spent walking back and forth assisting the broadcasters with tons of equipment. Okay, maybe not tons, but at near 100+ degrees out, it sure seemed like it. After one of my trips to the furthest reaches of the world. . .I mean park, I chugged an entire bottle of water in in one gulp. Others in our group were manning media information stations in the present day Tusker House covered seating area. (Oh, yeah, we were fed there too. . . At that time, they had rotiserie chicken, ribs and Prime Rib. Mmmm, prime rib). I never worked at that post, I just remember seeing radios all over the place and a bees nest of activity.
We did see our fair share of celebrities. The most memorable story was when one our ladies was told to stand by an open box truck. They were loading and unloading items and needed to make sure things didn't walk away without one of us tied to it. She said a gentleman walked passed her and asked he could sit on the truck's lift gate for a few minutes. He stated that he wasn't feeling as energetic as he usually did. She didn't see any harm in that, so they hung out and talked for a few minutes. She asked if he was having a good time and was able to see all the animals. He said he was and had no problem getting into the exhibits and rides. She noticed his hair was shaved or very short, but never recognized who she was talking to until the plaid dressed VIP escort walked up and asked if he was ready to go. As he walked away, she realized she was chatting with Micheal J Fox. (He had resently had surgery trying to help the Parkinson's disease)
The one and only time I ever saw Mr Eisner was back stage before a media appearence. . .moving on.
Animals have away of letting you kow when they are not happy. The Gorillas in the Gorilla Falls portion of the Savanna were no exception. If you go to Animal Kingdom now, you'll notice that it's not called Gorilla Falls. That's because not long after the park openned, the charming primates started throwing Poo at people. Disney quickly changed the name of that section and has kind of down played the Gorilla exhibit ever since.
Another park openning faux pas came from our illustrious leader himself. During an interview with Mr. Eisner, a bird in the background kept squaking and drowning him out. When asked what was the bird's problem, Eisner said something to the effect of eating it for lunch if it didn't stop. , , OF COURSE the Disney Spin Doctors jumped in and said 'no, no that what our CEO meant to say was that someone needed to feed the bird it's lunch'. Riiight.
Monday, July 19, 2010
SNIPETS ABOUT SHOWS I NEVER WORKED
To say I never worked at Doug Live on Stage isn't quite right. I did work there a couple of times dressing the guests that were picked out of the audience, but it was never my scheduled home stage. Doug was a Nickelodeon character that Disney bought, created a show and a merchandise line out of it, then sent it back to Nick. Doug was a very imaginative pre-teen that turned in to the super-hero Quail Kid in an effort to save the world. . . or maybe it was just to survive middle school and to conjure up enough courage to ask out Patty Mayonnaise. When they were in rehearsal for Doug they had a Veerrrry expensive prop called a Cosmic Thingy. It was worn on the head and had gadgets and gizmos all over it to simulate something from an old sci fi movie. I was told it cost nearly $2000, that's right two thousand dollars. Well, it never made it past rehearsal because it was dropped and broke. Never Fear The Techs are here. One of the techs built a similar looking gizmo out of a bike helmet and coiled tubing. Same effect at a mere fraction of the cost. Have I mentioned that Disney is like a small government. Bids for items are always inflated. Sometimes you just have to sit back and go "Huh?"
I have been told by good authority about a Magnet Incident that sent a wardrobe cast member to the doctor. The Quail Kid costume had a large 'Q' on the front held on by a set of very strong magnets. When costuming was preparing the costumes for laundry, one of guys put the magnets in his pockets and continued sorting the clothes. As he loaded the clothes washer, the magnets did what magnets do and attached themselves to the washer, BUT not before they snapped together catching a particular part of the male anatomy we'll call Mr Coolie along the way. The costumer was stunned at first, but then he realized he was helplessly stuck to the clothes washer. My good friend SS worked at the show. She was too busy laughing hysterically to help free him. To add insult to injury, he said that in the doctor's office, they also were laughing when he told them the story (By the way, he survived the incident and later became a manager. So it's all good.)
I asked CJ, a good friend of mine about any stories he had about his days as a Disney character. I think he has writer's block, because he could only think of one. While working at the Jungle Book show in Animal Kingdom, since their stage was in an out of the way place, they'd send the monkey characters out in the street to draw people back to the show. On one particular day, a monkey was messing with some guests at the Restaurantoursaus. At that time I think it was still a McDonalds. He knocked on the window glass and actually broke the glass. After that, there were no more Jungle Book monkeys running a muck in the park.
During the Pocahontas show, the short lived one at the studios, about half the cast was native Americans. In a world of 'cookie cutter' people (men with similar hairstyles, no facial hair, no tattoos, etc), seeing the Indian cast members with native hairstyles was refreshing. Apparently the Greta Groom, now it's referred to as the Disney Look people, had fits about letting them keep their long hair. They wanted them to conform to Disney standards. . .then wear wigs for the show. In order to get Native Americans in the cast Greta had to give in and for a while we had cast members with Mohawks, braids and hair down to their waist. . . Ah the good ole' days.
One of the cool things that happened at the show was a wedding. Two of the cast members were married on stage (after hours) in an authentic Native American wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, I wasn't working there at the time, so I missed the event.
During the show, John Smith meets Pocahontas, offers to shake her hand and says, "this is how we say hello". For a brief period of time Indiana Jones Stunt show was doing shows out on New York street not far from Pocahontas. (I think they were rehabbing the stage or something). The Stunt show audio kept bleeding over into the Poca stage. In fact at one point John Smith said his line, "This is how we say Hello". This was followed by gun shots from the stunt show. . . Nothing like some brutal honesty here at Disney World. It was said that the Poca cast was getting a bit aggravated at intrusions and talked about forming a War Party to invade the stunt show. . . Yeah, that never happened.
Goosebumps was a show who's popularity was affected by the fact that there was no seating, no shade and it was hot a blue blazes out there. It also didn't help that to end the show, kids from the audience had to say particular lines. If they got stage fright and didn't say the lines. . . in theory, we'd all be doomed and evil would rule the world. Translation: The cast members had to improvise at times. As part of the area, they also had a haunted maze. The characters loved that part of their job because the could scare the bejesus out little kids and get paid for it.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
AHhhh the things people say
Kids . . . and adults, say the darnedest things. While at work on the concierge floor one night, a father and his young preschool daughter came to the desk. The child had a mangled bag of Doritos in her hand. She pointed it at one of cast members and said "I going to dissappear you with my magic bag of Doritos." She waved the now rolled up bag of Dorito crumbs at the cashier. The cashier dropped behind the desk. The little child burst out into laughter. They did this several times and each time it had the same results. There's not too many jobs where you get paid to play with kids.
We had a guest who had lost the in-room safe key. We informed him that it was $35 to replace it since we'd have to re-key the safe. The guest remembered that he was sitting on one of the couches by the fire place the night before and went to check there. He came back a few minutes later and said, "I found the key in the cousions of the couch, along with five dollars and a handful of gold fish crackers."
When you say, " Have a great day", the natural response is, "you too." So i try messing with people's minds and say things like, "Have a Great Vacation". "You tooo. . . I mean, Uhm. Thank you" Although I have to admit, it did backfire on me one day. While checking in a guest, I said, "We'll get this done, so you can get out of here. . . and start your vacation." I caught myself in mid sentence, but it still sounded bad. . . oops!
Its always fun to see people getting into the moment. A front office cast member came back stage the other day and said he saw some one wearing a shirt that said, "Unattended children will be given Expresso and a Free Puppy."
Sometime you hear snipets of comments as a person walks passed that sound funny when taken out of context. Like the 30-something man who I heard say, "STUPID GRANDMA!" as he stormed passed the desk out the front door. One of our cast members who used to work at a Disney Store realized that certian things we say on property could get you arrested if said out side of Disney like, "Come here Princess, I have something for you." We give out stickers and coloring books, but outside of Disney. . .Eeek!
We have guests that are just so clueless. I had some one who wanted to cancel dining reservations. The conversation went something like this.
"I need to cancel my reservation."
"What name is it under ?"
"I don't which name we put it in."
"Do you know what restaurant it's at ?"
"I'm not sure."
"Do you know what time it was at?"
"I, uh . . . I'll be right back."
Being the 'Happiest Place on Earth', I've had people ask me if we ever get angery people. The answer is "Yes, YES and yes.".
There was a guest late one night that I was trying to get checked in and she was pissed that there was problems with her reservation. While the back office was fixing it, I was doing damage control and tried to calm her down. Every new round of ranting, was usually followed by "Where can i buy cigarettes?" or "they took my lighter at the airport. Can I get a new one?" or " I haven't had a cigarette since this morning". I realize that it was the nicotine takling and I'm sure she could be a very nice person. . . after a pack or two of cigarettes. I vow, I will never start smoking.
When certian extreme political conservatives get to their rooms and realize that Disney does not carry FOXnews on the cable net work, they feel it's a plot by Disney for some kind of political something or another. A Gentleman, I use this term loosely, was literally in my face screaming at me the night of one the Obama / McCain debates. "Why don't you have FOXnews ?! This is not acceptible. I will never stay at Disney again!" I walked back stage and said "Can someone tell me what just happened ?" It was then that I realized that Fox is ultra conservative. That happened around the 2008 elections. It was a pretty heated time. I understand that, but jump forward a to 2010 it happened a couiple of times again. Come on people, get over it.
I have some friends that work in the call center and guest correspondence. With out the face to face interaction, they get a whole different kind of response from our guests. One friend said she had a call from a guest who was miffed that they did not get thier free Disney ticket from the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day promotion. No matter how many times she tried to explain to this person that you had to have an account with Disney in order to be counted in the one million people volunteering (which this guest failed to do), this person kept demanding a ticket. Finally in a fit rage, the guest screamed " If you don't give me a ticket, I'm going to call the President of the United States." The call center cast member's first thought was, "Oh really ? If you have Obama's blackberry number, Can I get it from you ?" Obviously she couldn't say that, but she reeeeaaallly wanted to.
A Guest sent an email about a concern and didn't like the answer he got. (Yes, we do say no at times) In his reply letter he said, " This leaves a bad taste in my mouth." The cast member receiving the letter wanted to write back, "You may want to stop eating your email, then"
Guest correspondnce has lost track of how many times some one has said, "Because of (yadayada) Walt is rolling over in his grave." If he's buried in California, it was probaly just an earthquake. One of the best speachless moments i heard about was when a guest clicked on a disney link in her computer and it took her to a porn site. The Call Center cast member assured her that is was NOT something Disney did. Hmmm, makes you wonder what kind of recreational internet surfing they. . .No, I won't go there.
During the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day volunteer promotion, a call center cast member was calling back guests once thier ticket issues had been cleared up to give them the good news. On one particular call, a preschooler answered the phone. Her father was heard in the back ground, "Ask Who It Is?" The cast member gave their name and said they were from Disney. The toddler only gave her father a piece of the information, and since the father did know any one by that name he told her to hang up the phone. So to Mr. Lazy, who refused to get up and answer the phone, you just hung up on your free tickets to Disney World, don't you feel Stupid.
In parting i want to leave you with a clever, yet profound thought that a guest said one day after ending an excercise in futility.
'It's one of those things where you chase your tail and catch you nose'
We had a guest who had lost the in-room safe key. We informed him that it was $35 to replace it since we'd have to re-key the safe. The guest remembered that he was sitting on one of the couches by the fire place the night before and went to check there. He came back a few minutes later and said, "I found the key in the cousions of the couch, along with five dollars and a handful of gold fish crackers."
When you say, " Have a great day", the natural response is, "you too." So i try messing with people's minds and say things like, "Have a Great Vacation". "You tooo. . . I mean, Uhm. Thank you" Although I have to admit, it did backfire on me one day. While checking in a guest, I said, "We'll get this done, so you can get out of here. . . and start your vacation." I caught myself in mid sentence, but it still sounded bad. . . oops!
Its always fun to see people getting into the moment. A front office cast member came back stage the other day and said he saw some one wearing a shirt that said, "Unattended children will be given Expresso and a Free Puppy."
Sometime you hear snipets of comments as a person walks passed that sound funny when taken out of context. Like the 30-something man who I heard say, "STUPID GRANDMA!" as he stormed passed the desk out the front door. One of our cast members who used to work at a Disney Store realized that certian things we say on property could get you arrested if said out side of Disney like, "Come here Princess, I have something for you." We give out stickers and coloring books, but outside of Disney. . .Eeek!
We have guests that are just so clueless. I had some one who wanted to cancel dining reservations. The conversation went something like this.
"I need to cancel my reservation."
"What name is it under ?"
"I don't which name we put it in."
"Do you know what restaurant it's at ?"
"I'm not sure."
"Do you know what time it was at?"
"I, uh . . . I'll be right back."
Being the 'Happiest Place on Earth', I've had people ask me if we ever get angery people. The answer is "Yes, YES and yes.".
There was a guest late one night that I was trying to get checked in and she was pissed that there was problems with her reservation. While the back office was fixing it, I was doing damage control and tried to calm her down. Every new round of ranting, was usually followed by "Where can i buy cigarettes?" or "they took my lighter at the airport. Can I get a new one?" or " I haven't had a cigarette since this morning". I realize that it was the nicotine takling and I'm sure she could be a very nice person. . . after a pack or two of cigarettes. I vow, I will never start smoking.
When certian extreme political conservatives get to their rooms and realize that Disney does not carry FOXnews on the cable net work, they feel it's a plot by Disney for some kind of political something or another. A Gentleman, I use this term loosely, was literally in my face screaming at me the night of one the Obama / McCain debates. "Why don't you have FOXnews ?! This is not acceptible. I will never stay at Disney again!" I walked back stage and said "Can someone tell me what just happened ?" It was then that I realized that Fox is ultra conservative. That happened around the 2008 elections. It was a pretty heated time. I understand that, but jump forward a to 2010 it happened a couiple of times again. Come on people, get over it.
I have some friends that work in the call center and guest correspondence. With out the face to face interaction, they get a whole different kind of response from our guests. One friend said she had a call from a guest who was miffed that they did not get thier free Disney ticket from the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day promotion. No matter how many times she tried to explain to this person that you had to have an account with Disney in order to be counted in the one million people volunteering (which this guest failed to do), this person kept demanding a ticket. Finally in a fit rage, the guest screamed " If you don't give me a ticket, I'm going to call the President of the United States." The call center cast member's first thought was, "Oh really ? If you have Obama's blackberry number, Can I get it from you ?" Obviously she couldn't say that, but she reeeeaaallly wanted to.
A Guest sent an email about a concern and didn't like the answer he got. (Yes, we do say no at times) In his reply letter he said, " This leaves a bad taste in my mouth." The cast member receiving the letter wanted to write back, "You may want to stop eating your email, then"
Guest correspondnce has lost track of how many times some one has said, "Because of (yadayada) Walt is rolling over in his grave." If he's buried in California, it was probaly just an earthquake. One of the best speachless moments i heard about was when a guest clicked on a disney link in her computer and it took her to a porn site. The Call Center cast member assured her that is was NOT something Disney did. Hmmm, makes you wonder what kind of recreational internet surfing they. . .No, I won't go there.
During the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day volunteer promotion, a call center cast member was calling back guests once thier ticket issues had been cleared up to give them the good news. On one particular call, a preschooler answered the phone. Her father was heard in the back ground, "Ask Who It Is?" The cast member gave their name and said they were from Disney. The toddler only gave her father a piece of the information, and since the father did know any one by that name he told her to hang up the phone. So to Mr. Lazy, who refused to get up and answer the phone, you just hung up on your free tickets to Disney World, don't you feel Stupid.
In parting i want to leave you with a clever, yet profound thought that a guest said one day after ending an excercise in futility.
'It's one of those things where you chase your tail and catch you nose'
Monday, May 31, 2010
Beauty and the Beast (a.k.a. the Show that Will never Go Away)
Other than the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spetacular, Beauty and the Beast is the second longest running show at the Studios. We like to think of it as the Grandmother of the Broadway show. Whether that's true or not, who knows.
As the Broadway show was opening, we saw an interview with one of the performers from New York and he commented on how hot the costumes and make up were. You should have heard the moans and groans in our green room. The general consencus was, " They have an air conditioned theater, they should come to Florida in near 100 degree August and do the show, then you'll know what heat is."
One of my all time favorite bloopers came from B&B. If you remember the mob scene from the show when Gaston comes out and yells, "Kill the Beast before he Kills Your Children !!" This particular time the tech didn't get his mic on in time and all the audience heard was Gaston yelling, "Kill your Children".
Side note, in light of all of the pop star, "did they sing life, or didn't they". I can assure you that yes, our performers sing live. I won't say they're never tracked, sometimes there is a techincal glitch or hicup and the tech has to run the tracked music to get through the show, but it is very, very rare. For a while, we never had to buy AA batteries for ipods, cd players, ect. The lav mic's batteries were changed every two to three shows, but the batteries still had some life to them. They just didn't have enough to trust an entire show on them. So at several of the stages, the techs would have box of half dead batteries free for the taking. Ahhh the good ole' days.
For a while each of the shows had some kind of pre-show entertainment. For B&B it was and acapella group called Four 4 A Dollar. Over time they had aquired a huge fan following. Te four guys even when on to compete in international competitions. At one time the placed third against performers from around the world. But cut backs came in 2008 and they ended thier over ten year run at the mouse. They continue perform under thier non-Disney name of Return to Zero.
Backstage, as with most theaters, they had thier fare share of shananigans. The ballgowns are preset on the floor so that the dancer can just step into it. Belle's dress sets up higher that the pink ones. One day one of the guys crawled up under the dress and hid. As Belle was ready to step into it, all she sees is this face coming up out of it. She screamed and about had a heart attack. It took her a few moments to recover, but being the trooper that she was, she didn't miss her enterance.
At Disney there are wedding proposals practically everyday. My favorite one to date is the one between two cast members at B&B. The soon to be Bride was a dancer and the future Groom was a performer at the show. His fiance's dance partner taught the future groom the Waltz and wardobe did some hasty alternations to a Ballroom jumpsuit. The techs gave him a mic and the animal handler held back a cage of pigeons from the show's finale. During the Waltz, the soon-to-be bride's dance partner disappeared off into the wings and the future groom stepped out onto stage. The bride knew what was going on for the first time and she started to cry. After everyone's bows, the two stepped down stage center, he knelt on one knee and proposed. Of course she said yes. The birds were released and the entire audience gave them a standing ovation. There was not a dry eye in the house. I wasn't there, but i saw it on video in the Hunchback of notre dame greenroom the next day and I still teared up.
So I guess dreams do come true for cast members. . . .
As the Broadway show was opening, we saw an interview with one of the performers from New York and he commented on how hot the costumes and make up were. You should have heard the moans and groans in our green room. The general consencus was, " They have an air conditioned theater, they should come to Florida in near 100 degree August and do the show, then you'll know what heat is."
One of my all time favorite bloopers came from B&B. If you remember the mob scene from the show when Gaston comes out and yells, "Kill the Beast before he Kills Your Children !!" This particular time the tech didn't get his mic on in time and all the audience heard was Gaston yelling, "Kill your Children".
Side note, in light of all of the pop star, "did they sing life, or didn't they". I can assure you that yes, our performers sing live. I won't say they're never tracked, sometimes there is a techincal glitch or hicup and the tech has to run the tracked music to get through the show, but it is very, very rare. For a while, we never had to buy AA batteries for ipods, cd players, ect. The lav mic's batteries were changed every two to three shows, but the batteries still had some life to them. They just didn't have enough to trust an entire show on them. So at several of the stages, the techs would have box of half dead batteries free for the taking. Ahhh the good ole' days.
For a while each of the shows had some kind of pre-show entertainment. For B&B it was and acapella group called Four 4 A Dollar. Over time they had aquired a huge fan following. Te four guys even when on to compete in international competitions. At one time the placed third against performers from around the world. But cut backs came in 2008 and they ended thier over ten year run at the mouse. They continue perform under thier non-Disney name of Return to Zero.
Backstage, as with most theaters, they had thier fare share of shananigans. The ballgowns are preset on the floor so that the dancer can just step into it. Belle's dress sets up higher that the pink ones. One day one of the guys crawled up under the dress and hid. As Belle was ready to step into it, all she sees is this face coming up out of it. She screamed and about had a heart attack. It took her a few moments to recover, but being the trooper that she was, she didn't miss her enterance.
At Disney there are wedding proposals practically everyday. My favorite one to date is the one between two cast members at B&B. The soon to be Bride was a dancer and the future Groom was a performer at the show. His fiance's dance partner taught the future groom the Waltz and wardobe did some hasty alternations to a Ballroom jumpsuit. The techs gave him a mic and the animal handler held back a cage of pigeons from the show's finale. During the Waltz, the soon-to-be bride's dance partner disappeared off into the wings and the future groom stepped out onto stage. The bride knew what was going on for the first time and she started to cry. After everyone's bows, the two stepped down stage center, he knelt on one knee and proposed. Of course she said yes. The birds were released and the entire audience gave them a standing ovation. There was not a dry eye in the house. I wasn't there, but i saw it on video in the Hunchback of notre dame greenroom the next day and I still teared up.
So I guess dreams do come true for cast members. . . .
Saturday, April 24, 2010
SNIPPETS OF LIFE BACKSTAGE
When you work in close proximty with the same group of people for many years, you become a family. Albiet a disfunctional and often warped family, but still a family.
During Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure, the Gypsies / characters took being a gypsy to heart. In fact one of the openning crew wardrobe dressers quit Disney soon after the show opened and became a gypsy in real live. Now, that's a bit extreme, I'll admit it.
Backstage, we were always pulling pranks on each other. Snowball, the lifesize horse puppet, was used in the first scene, then after that it was more or less a dressing table. The stilt walking gypsy undressed in that corner and we learned early on that his dew rag (head wrap), was easily mis-placed, kicked up under things, or in other ways simply lost. So Snowball's ear was 'the official costume preset space for the dew rag' during the entire 7 year run of the show. I loved hiding out under the puppet and when the dresser would stop to preset the performer's costume, i'd reach out from under the puppet and throw the shoes across the floor. She'd reset them. I'd toss them in different direction. The poor lady would get so confused. Then I'd reach out and grab her leg, she'd scream and run. Usually after the fact i'd get threatened with some form of retaliation. . . It never came.
We had one person who was very jumpy. The cast knew that and they were always reaching through the clothes rack and grabbing her. She'd scream every time. (You would think after a while, she'd learn.) It was fun messing with the Equity cast members too. One of the gargoyle's lines during a song was 'I ask for FAME'. This cast member was getting ready to step out on stage and a fellow cast member casually walked passed and said, 'I ask for PAIN.' Sure enough, the gargoyle went out and during his solo sang, 'I ask for pain.' When he got back stage, he was cussing up a storm. He said he felt the word come out, but by then it was too late.
During the big Riverdance craze, they had a 'Riverdance show' where when anyone had to move across stage, they did like they were in Riverdance. I don't think the stage manager ever caught on. One of the gypsy's got a new hat. We nicknamed it the misfit elf hat. It would fall off his head every time he went on stage. When the rest of the cast decided to play keep away and kicked the hat all over stage one show, the stage manager made our costumer bring back his dew rag.
The Muppets have had many incarnations over the years. The very first one was Here Comes the Muppets. It was a stage show located where the Voyage of the Little Mermaid is now. One of the giant props / set pieces they had was the front of a monorail (as if they had ran it into the theater.) Apperantly there was quite a bit of room in the nose of the prop, because I was for warned that they loved kidnapping costumers and making them ride out on the stage hidden in the monorail prop.
Story has it that one of the precious children (characters) frantically called for the dresser to help him. The Dresser we'll call 'M' ran to help and came face to face with YODA. It scared to pee out of her. The performer had a rubber Yoda mask and when 'M' saw it she went to the floor in the fetal postion in an full blown anxiety attack. She laughs about it now, so we can look back and laugh with her. When you aren't expecting to see a freaky green shriveled up old man, it can really mess with your head.
I remember the first time i saw Chewbacca. I hate to admit it, but the first words that came to mind wher was What the Hell is That and why is IT walking toward me. Later me and Chewy would become great friends, but that first inmpression will always stay with me.
Muppets 3D movie has Sweetums. A big furry rag-a-muffin that comes out in the theater to look for Bean Bunny. One night, a Sweetums costume was laid out on the couch in the greenroom in such a way that is looked like some one was inside. They took a metal bucket put some water into with chunks of bread - instant fake vomit. And they left it for the morning cast to find. Early the next morning, Dresser 'M' came to set up for the day and saw this. thinking there was someone inside that had gotten sick and passed out. She called the paramedics. Let's just say, they failed to see the humor in it and she ended up getting a reprimend on her record.
Summers are brutal in Florida and during the Muppets on Location show there came an era of experimenting with personal cooling units. One was a shirt and pants with tubing sewn to it so that ice water could be pumped through it. Sounds doable, until the moment you realize the titty bitty connector that joins the shirt tubing with the pants tubing has just came disconnected. Let's just say, after seeing Kermit 'peeing' on stage, the tubing cooling units were soon scrapped.
I believe in giving fair and equal time to other areas of the park as well. Way back in the beginning days of the Studios, the Wicked Witch at GMR (the Great Movie Ride)broke a hydraulic line and it looked like she was peeing too. I was also told that during Tarzan's swing over the tram, he lost his loin cloth. When asked if he was anatomically correct, we never got an answer. Hmmmm, I wonder why?
Voyage of the Little Mermaid is a show has seen it's fair share of train wrecks. . . Literally. On ocassion a puppeteer will trip or miss a step and all of a sudden the entire fish puppet scene turns into on big jumble of neon colored foam as the other puppeteers run into and over each other.
There is a scene change where (for years) a costume dresser would go out on stage and take Ariel's shells. . . except the time when Ariel's hair got tangle up in the string tie. The dresser tried deperately to untangle it, but as the curtian was about to go back up, she shoved the shell bra into the back of Ariel's dress and ran off stage. The whole last scene Ariel had to stand facing the audience to hide the shells. The whole cast was cracking up.
When you leave the Mermaid show (or at least it used to be this way), the leavee would get kidnapped, tapped to a chair and place under the rain curtian on stage. At other stages, the going away send off usually included an entire container of baby power and getting thrown in the shower. Leaving Fantasmic! used to meant getting thrown in the moat, until we realized what all was in that water. Epic (Indiana Jones). . . you never really truly leave that show so it doesn't count. People who get 'fired' come back six months later and get rehired all the time. An now with Light Motors Action at the other end of the park, when you get too beak up to play at Indy, you can transfer down there and drive cars for awhile. (fyi, I did not say that, one of the Indy's told me that. I'm just repeating it.)
The Boys of Epic loved to play. . . all the time. And heaven forbid a thunderstorm prevent them from doing a show. I've seen indoor base ball games using a duct taped towel for a ball, full contact ping pong matches (I'll explain in a future blog), hangers flying through the air and an occasional frisbee. However, the last time I saw a frisbee in there a custodial cast member got hit by it and reported it to her management. The Epic boys got in deep trouble over that.
I have to admit, when (back in the early 80's) when I first heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of. Little did I know that a few short years later that I'd be dressing Leo, Micheal, Rapheal and Donatello. The cotume for the turtles included a small piece of fabric we called the 'happy strap'. It held the front and back together. . . think about it for Just a moment and you'll figure out where the term came from. When the turtles were feeling a bit onry, they could easily embarras a dresser by making certian noises and jestures. And we did have one or two dresser who refused to go back to that stage or just flat out quit.
Did I mention that the rules of personal space and the human body are forever skewed once you work in costuming? In normal society, the average personal space it about three to five feet. In the world of a dresser, it's inches, or as in the case of Lights Motors Actions stunt show, it's suck it up and get over it. . .okay that was Really bad choice of works.
At LMA there is a motorcycle rider that drives through a wall of flames. Costuming's job is to put the flame retardant on his entire body, including the nether regions. I was told that a deeply religious dresser saw that and refused to work the show again.
I often thought 'I have the wierdest job in the world'. Then I'd watch the show, or see the audience's reaction and think 'I have one awesome job'. I guess that's why i was there all of those years.
until next time,
Live Long and Prosper, no wait, There Is No Try, Only Do. . . Snakes, Why'd It Have to Be Snakes. . . . I give up, That's A Wrap.
During Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure, the Gypsies / characters took being a gypsy to heart. In fact one of the openning crew wardrobe dressers quit Disney soon after the show opened and became a gypsy in real live. Now, that's a bit extreme, I'll admit it.
Backstage, we were always pulling pranks on each other. Snowball, the lifesize horse puppet, was used in the first scene, then after that it was more or less a dressing table. The stilt walking gypsy undressed in that corner and we learned early on that his dew rag (head wrap), was easily mis-placed, kicked up under things, or in other ways simply lost. So Snowball's ear was 'the official costume preset space for the dew rag' during the entire 7 year run of the show. I loved hiding out under the puppet and when the dresser would stop to preset the performer's costume, i'd reach out from under the puppet and throw the shoes across the floor. She'd reset them. I'd toss them in different direction. The poor lady would get so confused. Then I'd reach out and grab her leg, she'd scream and run. Usually after the fact i'd get threatened with some form of retaliation. . . It never came.
We had one person who was very jumpy. The cast knew that and they were always reaching through the clothes rack and grabbing her. She'd scream every time. (You would think after a while, she'd learn.) It was fun messing with the Equity cast members too. One of the gargoyle's lines during a song was 'I ask for FAME'. This cast member was getting ready to step out on stage and a fellow cast member casually walked passed and said, 'I ask for PAIN.' Sure enough, the gargoyle went out and during his solo sang, 'I ask for pain.' When he got back stage, he was cussing up a storm. He said he felt the word come out, but by then it was too late.
During the big Riverdance craze, they had a 'Riverdance show' where when anyone had to move across stage, they did like they were in Riverdance. I don't think the stage manager ever caught on. One of the gypsy's got a new hat. We nicknamed it the misfit elf hat. It would fall off his head every time he went on stage. When the rest of the cast decided to play keep away and kicked the hat all over stage one show, the stage manager made our costumer bring back his dew rag.
The Muppets have had many incarnations over the years. The very first one was Here Comes the Muppets. It was a stage show located where the Voyage of the Little Mermaid is now. One of the giant props / set pieces they had was the front of a monorail (as if they had ran it into the theater.) Apperantly there was quite a bit of room in the nose of the prop, because I was for warned that they loved kidnapping costumers and making them ride out on the stage hidden in the monorail prop.
Story has it that one of the precious children (characters) frantically called for the dresser to help him. The Dresser we'll call 'M' ran to help and came face to face with YODA. It scared to pee out of her. The performer had a rubber Yoda mask and when 'M' saw it she went to the floor in the fetal postion in an full blown anxiety attack. She laughs about it now, so we can look back and laugh with her. When you aren't expecting to see a freaky green shriveled up old man, it can really mess with your head.
I remember the first time i saw Chewbacca. I hate to admit it, but the first words that came to mind wher was What the Hell is That and why is IT walking toward me. Later me and Chewy would become great friends, but that first inmpression will always stay with me.
Muppets 3D movie has Sweetums. A big furry rag-a-muffin that comes out in the theater to look for Bean Bunny. One night, a Sweetums costume was laid out on the couch in the greenroom in such a way that is looked like some one was inside. They took a metal bucket put some water into with chunks of bread - instant fake vomit. And they left it for the morning cast to find. Early the next morning, Dresser 'M' came to set up for the day and saw this. thinking there was someone inside that had gotten sick and passed out. She called the paramedics. Let's just say, they failed to see the humor in it and she ended up getting a reprimend on her record.
Summers are brutal in Florida and during the Muppets on Location show there came an era of experimenting with personal cooling units. One was a shirt and pants with tubing sewn to it so that ice water could be pumped through it. Sounds doable, until the moment you realize the titty bitty connector that joins the shirt tubing with the pants tubing has just came disconnected. Let's just say, after seeing Kermit 'peeing' on stage, the tubing cooling units were soon scrapped.
I believe in giving fair and equal time to other areas of the park as well. Way back in the beginning days of the Studios, the Wicked Witch at GMR (the Great Movie Ride)broke a hydraulic line and it looked like she was peeing too. I was also told that during Tarzan's swing over the tram, he lost his loin cloth. When asked if he was anatomically correct, we never got an answer. Hmmmm, I wonder why?
Voyage of the Little Mermaid is a show has seen it's fair share of train wrecks. . . Literally. On ocassion a puppeteer will trip or miss a step and all of a sudden the entire fish puppet scene turns into on big jumble of neon colored foam as the other puppeteers run into and over each other.
There is a scene change where (for years) a costume dresser would go out on stage and take Ariel's shells. . . except the time when Ariel's hair got tangle up in the string tie. The dresser tried deperately to untangle it, but as the curtian was about to go back up, she shoved the shell bra into the back of Ariel's dress and ran off stage. The whole last scene Ariel had to stand facing the audience to hide the shells. The whole cast was cracking up.
When you leave the Mermaid show (or at least it used to be this way), the leavee would get kidnapped, tapped to a chair and place under the rain curtian on stage. At other stages, the going away send off usually included an entire container of baby power and getting thrown in the shower. Leaving Fantasmic! used to meant getting thrown in the moat, until we realized what all was in that water. Epic (Indiana Jones). . . you never really truly leave that show so it doesn't count. People who get 'fired' come back six months later and get rehired all the time. An now with Light Motors Action at the other end of the park, when you get too beak up to play at Indy, you can transfer down there and drive cars for awhile. (fyi, I did not say that, one of the Indy's told me that. I'm just repeating it.)
The Boys of Epic loved to play. . . all the time. And heaven forbid a thunderstorm prevent them from doing a show. I've seen indoor base ball games using a duct taped towel for a ball, full contact ping pong matches (I'll explain in a future blog), hangers flying through the air and an occasional frisbee. However, the last time I saw a frisbee in there a custodial cast member got hit by it and reported it to her management. The Epic boys got in deep trouble over that.
I have to admit, when (back in the early 80's) when I first heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of. Little did I know that a few short years later that I'd be dressing Leo, Micheal, Rapheal and Donatello. The cotume for the turtles included a small piece of fabric we called the 'happy strap'. It held the front and back together. . . think about it for Just a moment and you'll figure out where the term came from. When the turtles were feeling a bit onry, they could easily embarras a dresser by making certian noises and jestures. And we did have one or two dresser who refused to go back to that stage or just flat out quit.
Did I mention that the rules of personal space and the human body are forever skewed once you work in costuming? In normal society, the average personal space it about three to five feet. In the world of a dresser, it's inches, or as in the case of Lights Motors Actions stunt show, it's suck it up and get over it. . .okay that was Really bad choice of works.
At LMA there is a motorcycle rider that drives through a wall of flames. Costuming's job is to put the flame retardant on his entire body, including the nether regions. I was told that a deeply religious dresser saw that and refused to work the show again.
I often thought 'I have the wierdest job in the world'. Then I'd watch the show, or see the audience's reaction and think 'I have one awesome job'. I guess that's why i was there all of those years.
until next time,
Live Long and Prosper, no wait, There Is No Try, Only Do. . . Snakes, Why'd It Have to Be Snakes. . . . I give up, That's A Wrap.
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