The Cake Is Not A Lie
Feb. 25th, 2008 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedusorHands-down best moment of being a production assistant for Jonathan Coulton on Friday: carrying one of four cakes in a procession with Jonathan, Paul, and Storm. I think Storm got part of it on video- I hope it makes it onto the DVD. I thought four cakes wasn't going to be enough for the sold-out show, but there was actually quite a bit left over.
For those of you wondering who the heck this Jonathan Coulton guy is, here's his website, and here's an article about him that appeared on the Yahoo! main page on Friday. You may have heard "Code Monkey," "Still Alive" (from Portal), or "Re: Your Brains." He posted a while back about needing PAs for this show, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
otherwise_nyc pointed me toward it. He'd already gotten the people he needed by the time I e-mailed him, but he contacted me a few days before the show to see if I was still available. (I wasn't, but I damn well made myself available. You don't pass up something like this.)
Other highlights from the day:
-I stuck a mini-flashlight and a Leatherman in my pocket before I left, figuring they might come in handy. Sure enough, I used both of them within fifteen minutes of stepping inside the theater.
-At one point, Jonathan handed me eight twenty-dollar bills and asked me to get fives. I went to several stores before I managed to break them all, and realized after I had succeeded that the three places I'd gone to were a smoke shop, a liquor store, and a porn theater.
-Part of the concert involved Jonathan playing "Still Alive" on a version of Rock Band that hasn't come out yet, so earlier in the day, I got to hang out with one of the Harmonix people who actually created Rock Band.
-JoCo and Co. failed "Still Alive" at 99% during the show. The Harmonix dude said that that's practically impossible to do.
-When I opened a bag of yellow polypropylene rope to use for blocking off areas for the cameras, I discovered a priceless little booklet entitled, "Proper Use And Care Of Rope." The first page begins, "CAUTION! IMPORTANT ROPE KNOWLEDGE."
-The camera script included some amusing bits, including "***JIB: swivel, scan the audience (wide lens); swoop and hunt, scare people," "The next song is his 'last song' (not really though)," and "Shoot people eating cake." (When I read that last, my immediate reaction was, "Cake AND death!")
-Jonathan thanked his PAs onstage, and several clusters of friends of mine hollered when he said my name. Thanks, guys. :P
Most of what I actually spent my time doing was grunt work- taping down cables, hauling furniture around, fetching things from across the building, etc. But it was fun. I got to watch the camera guys doing their thing, and all the other behind-the-scenes activity necessary for something like this, which was fascinating. Gaff tape is now my bitch, after a lot of trial and error. My muscles certainly got a good workout. Nearly everyone I met was nice and polite and fun to be around, including Jonathan, with whom I got to chat a bit. I got free food, and got to watch the concert for free too. All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the DVD.
For those of you wondering who the heck this Jonathan Coulton guy is, here's his website, and here's an article about him that appeared on the Yahoo! main page on Friday. You may have heard "Code Monkey," "Still Alive" (from Portal), or "Re: Your Brains." He posted a while back about needing PAs for this show, and
otherwise_nyc pointed me toward it. He'd already gotten the people he needed by the time I e-mailed him, but he contacted me a few days before the show to see if I was still available. (I wasn't, but I damn well made myself available. You don't pass up something like this.)Other highlights from the day:
-I stuck a mini-flashlight and a Leatherman in my pocket before I left, figuring they might come in handy. Sure enough, I used both of them within fifteen minutes of stepping inside the theater.
-At one point, Jonathan handed me eight twenty-dollar bills and asked me to get fives. I went to several stores before I managed to break them all, and realized after I had succeeded that the three places I'd gone to were a smoke shop, a liquor store, and a porn theater.
-Part of the concert involved Jonathan playing "Still Alive" on a version of Rock Band that hasn't come out yet, so earlier in the day, I got to hang out with one of the Harmonix people who actually created Rock Band.
-JoCo and Co. failed "Still Alive" at 99% during the show. The Harmonix dude said that that's practically impossible to do.
-When I opened a bag of yellow polypropylene rope to use for blocking off areas for the cameras, I discovered a priceless little booklet entitled, "Proper Use And Care Of Rope." The first page begins, "CAUTION! IMPORTANT ROPE KNOWLEDGE."
-The camera script included some amusing bits, including "***JIB: swivel, scan the audience (wide lens); swoop and hunt, scare people," "The next song is his 'last song' (not really though)," and "Shoot people eating cake." (When I read that last, my immediate reaction was, "Cake AND death!")
-Jonathan thanked his PAs onstage, and several clusters of friends of mine hollered when he said my name. Thanks, guys. :P
Most of what I actually spent my time doing was grunt work- taping down cables, hauling furniture around, fetching things from across the building, etc. But it was fun. I got to watch the camera guys doing their thing, and all the other behind-the-scenes activity necessary for something like this, which was fascinating. Gaff tape is now my bitch, after a lot of trial and error. My muscles certainly got a good workout. Nearly everyone I met was nice and polite and fun to be around, including Jonathan, with whom I got to chat a bit. I got free food, and got to watch the concert for free too. All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the DVD.
