Brian: So here’s what I want to know: You’re already all set up and you are in the rehearsal, and everything goes downhill from the word go. And none of it is your fault — it’s the client. They are beyond unorganized. You realize that you really don’t want to do the show. It’s going to be a disaster, but you’re already in too deep. What do you do?
Ken: As a person who loves to make mountains out of molehills, this is a great question! I think all sound engineers are perfectionists to a certain extent, and nothing gets the blood going like someone on the gig with too much ego backed by too little experience. I used to really enjoy verbally thrashing these people back into submission with a little public humiliation. But that was an error of youth.
The new Zen Ken will suggest things for issues that can be corrected, and for those that can’t, I now realize in two to six hours, I will never have to deal with this person again!
Brian: That works great for a one-day gig. I had a nightmare on a show where I was hired as an engineer by another company that was looking to get more work from the same venue. While the future work won’t be with the same event producers and performers, I had to tread lightly so as to not turn off the venue people. I had to keep my cool and explain to the client why some things were the way they were, and in the end, I left the venue without chewing anyone’s head off.
Ken: I’ve heard you’re the “Master of Your Domain,” and the principle of patience says that all bad things will end. Sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel seems a long way off. Sometimes it appears as just a sad pinprick of hope. I think it’s how you handle the adversity that will de-fine you as a person. When you find yourself in that Dr. Seussian world where even logic is turned on a slant, you can be the pin holding things to-gether, or you can be the prick! It really is your choice.
Brian: I think I’d rather be the former than the latter, if given that option.
It would seem to me that I always strive to hold things together on a show — doing what it takes to make the show as successful as it can be through the support I provide. And maybe sometimes that means holding the hand of the client, as you gently explain why a CD player wasn’t part of the original price quote on their variety show. All the while, the back of your mind wants to go back to the office and tell the guy who sold the job how it really is — and how ignorant he is.
Ken: You know Brian, it seems that we only recall the negatives when doing the post mortem of a gig. And I know that it has to be done; it’s part of the learning and correcting process. But the mistakes or errors or whatever you want to call them, while not fun in the moment, are the most memo-rable part of a gig, whoever was at fault. And I think, at least I hope, that no matter whose fault the mistake, if it didn’t hurt people or damage gear, it will eventually be fondly remembered! I think the same can be said of people — no matter how hard they peg the suczk meter, they can make the gig at least memorable. Do I sound like I have inhaled too much cable cleaner solvent?
Brian: You know, we do tend to highlight the rough spots. But I think that’s human nature. It’s just like the news: The most horrific event of the day leads off the evening news. Just the same, we gripe about the worst gigs and let the others fall to the wayside of our memory. Maybe we’d all be happier if we took a more jovial view of the disasters that we work through and enjoy the fun gigs that go off without a hitch.
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