Before becoming a successful Certified Professional Master of Ceremonies, I played in some bands and did some theatrical work. I still do both occasionally. Last week, a good friend of mine asked me to help her out. She had hired a lighting person to program and operate the lights for her clients’ show, but unfortunately, that person flaked on her a few days before the production. Fortunately, I was available on February 13 and agreed to help her with the event.
The show turned out to be a jazz show entitled A Tiger Roundup, produced by the McKinley High School Alumni Association to benefit the McKinley High School Band Program. It was a great night of jazz and fabulous music featuring Gabe Baltazar, Noel Okimoto, The Royal Drifters, and many of the state’s jazz music legends. Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro was the surprise guest of the night, showcasing his talents in two numbers.
It was a pleasure working with Brandon and his crew at Manpro Audio, who provided the audiovisual and backline (the keyboards, drums, and guitar amplifiers) for the show. Warren Masui was the show director. And special thanks to Tina Shibata, who did an awesome job operating the followspot (spotlight) throughout the show.
Here’s the view of my “desk” for the night. For you lighting techies out there, the board is a Strand LBX running Strand Genius software. It controlled about 75 channels of various Strand Leko ellipsoidals, fresnels, and other theatrical lighting instruments.
Here’s an image of the audience settling in before the show started.
It was nice to be working behind the scenes rather than behind the microphone for once!