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.