When I remember how basically I did what I did yesterday every day for a month and a half last summer in Paris it puts into perspective the fact that I really needed to stop today.
I’m match fit for theatre at the moment, in that I’m breathing clearly and I’m listening to my body. That’s how I caught the shoe thing in time to get my trainers couriered to me. But match fit for events is a different thing and my body is surprised after a working day that wasn’t even 20 hours. I remember one night in Paris when I had to just pull the van up and go into a tiny little knocking shop, book a room for a night, collapse on a single bed, wake up four hours later and go into another 20 hour day. I love the challenge of it thankfully. It’s like when the temperature was -20 in South Bend I was enervated by the newness. I love Al vs Environment stuff.
This year the conference was really smooth. The team knows each other now and we can quickly distribute jobs and cover all angles without overlapping or annoying each other. It’s really nice to be part of it. Some are military types, others lifelong event types, the skillsets overlap and come together nicely.
Things outside of our control come from the venue. This venue insisted on their own security and a very expensive man to be a loading bay presence. The loading bay man was an investment, in terms of positive energy and helpfulness. Too much money considering we had it covered, but to his absolute credit he read the situation and understood that we had it covered anyway, and responded by upping his game and making himself really useful to justify the amount he was getting. I credit him highly.
Security were generally great but there was one guy who absolutely couldn’t take orders from a woman, so he spent most of the evening subverting and patronising Shimmy. People like him contributed to the first Trump term. He didn’t do it openly, just when he thought he could get away with it. He tried to recruit me at one point after she left. “Does she tell you all how to suck eggs like that?” he asked after she asked him to try and do his job better. “Do you have any idea how much she’s carrying on this job?” I asked him. “Just do what she asks, she’s not asking you randomly ” and he knew he couldn’t play manboy with me. She’s fucking great at her job. He’s a little sad douche. If she tells me to do something I know she needs it done and even if it seems logically complicated it’s likely because she’s managing someone up the chain. I’ll just do it. We all know how it works, and we shouldn’t need to have it explained. I can flash back to various deserts: “Make the lines of posts in the desert exactly perfect and evenly spaced because JT is a posh boy who is OCD to fuckery and has no perspective on anything outside his own crap.” Logic is only an accessory in events. You also have to manage the clients / the people up the chain, and everyone has their own completely different structure of what is important. I look for practicality and immediacy and solutions but I’ve learnt that many people need to have the process laid out before they can trust a solution. Society is difficult. An event or a show is society in microcosm, and compromise and open communication makes for smoother running across the board. She busted me bringing my car on site late last night. “It would have been fine if you hadn’t noticed,” I tried. “No, Al, the plat is already too crowded.” I looked with her eyes, agreed with her, and took him back off site.
But … I’m tired out and just in my head today. I took home an open bottle of lovely red wine. It had to be finished tonight you see? The cork had been popped. Thankfully Maddy is home too.
AlBarclay 