#272 - Mark Fetto

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You're going to want to check
out episode #272 with Mark Fedo.

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So Mark is one of these guys who
happened to be there at the

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front end of so many things
early in Verilite Morpheus.

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He has spent time at the OB
company.

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He was actually with the OR at
the video shoot where Michael

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Jackson got his hair caught on
fire from some pyro.

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And then he was brought in to
start a lighting division with

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OSA.
And so Mark is a great guy first

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and foremost.
He's been around since the late

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70s in our industry.
He's taught and been taught some

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very valuable lessons and it's
just a really good guy, very

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interesting guy.
So I hope you love this episode.

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I think it's a good one and
enjoy.

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Today's podcast episode #272 is
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Mark, how are you?
Hi.

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Marcel.
What's happening, man?

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How are you doing?
You know, it's been a weird

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couple of weeks.
So we were up in Canada at my

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house in the Canadian Rockies,
and these hurricanes kept

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blowing through Florida and
North Carolina and Georgia and

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all that stuff.
And so there was one about to

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hit Florida, Milton and I live
in in Palm Beach.

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And so it was like Palm Beach
down here.

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It was hitting up here and on
the West Coast, Tampa.

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So no worries.
You know, none of my neighbors

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put up hurricane shutters or
anything.

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We weren't here.
My girlfriend's son was here at

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the house.
And so he was actually, she had

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him on the phone and she was
like, OK, make sure you pull in

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the little planters that are
outside the door and stuff

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because.
All the loose stuff.

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Although the storm isn't going
to hit us, you know, it'll get a

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bit windy.
Pull in some of that loose.

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So he goes outside the front
door and he sees a funnel cloud

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in front of him and he's like,
holy shit.

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So then he's like pulling to try
and close the front door to get

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back in the house and he
literally ran into the laundry

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room and just kind of ducked
down as it was going, you know,

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and that's insane.
So yeah, we lost us screened in

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patio.
We we lost almost all of our

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trees, our garage door, one
window smashed in.

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Wow.
And we would have thought in

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Florida, I mean.
Part of our roof, part of our

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roof is gone, you know, so we've
got a blue tarp over our roof

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now.
The the standard Florida attire.

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And yeah, I mean, I've been here
3132 years and never anything

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like this at all.
Like I've been hit by some

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hurricanes sort of indirectly,
but never anything like this.

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It's just bizarre.
So the the.

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Weather's just been insane.
Yeah.

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So, I mean, everywhere.
I mean, here this summer in Las

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Vegas was, yeah, brutally hot
for a brutally long time.

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No, I mean, it really it, it not
like it was this year.

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We had something like 110 days
in a row over 100°.

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And yeah, some 30, some of them
over 110.

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It was.
Yeah, yeah.

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The weather's gone wacky
everywhere.

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Yeah, I, I, I think at the end
of the day, like every time

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friends of mine will bring up,
you know, global warming or

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whatever, without getting
political, I just say, you know

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what?
We're flying around space on a

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rock lit by a gas ball and, you
know, what could possibly go

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wrong?
You know, I mean, every once in

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a while there's a little wiggle,
a little wobble, and that could

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be an earthquake, a hurricane,
that could be all kinds of

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things, you know.
And so, you know, be happy we're

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here for however long we're here
until, you know, a big enough

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rock hits US or something.
Exactly.

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Exactly.
So yeah, it's been a weird

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couple weeks dealing with
adjusters and insurance

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companies.
Like, one thing I didn't know,

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my girlfriend and I were talking
about this, 25 years I paid

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insurance and never filed a
claim.

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And same with her, 25 years,
she's paid insurance, never

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filed a claim.
And so we don't even know what

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the process is like.
We don't know anything about it.

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So the insurance company sends
an adjuster out who was

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basically 100% useless, didn't
look at the roof.

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So meanwhile it's raining into
our attic for two weeks because

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this adjuster didn't look at the
roof and, you know, barely took

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pictures and stuff.
So then they sent another

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adjuster out because the
insurance company went, well, we

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don't have enough information
here.

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And so the other adjuster came
out and went, wow, you have

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holes in your roof.
We need to put a DARP up there

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and and then all these private
adjusters hang these door

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hangers on your door saying,
hey, call us, we'll get you more

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money.
Hey, call us, we'll get you more

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money.
So I called a friend of mine

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who's actually in the disaster
recovery business and I said,

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what should we do?
And he said, let me give you a

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name.
And he gave me a guy who's a

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builder and who is going to do
all of our work for us.

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And that guy gave us a private
adjuster.

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And he said deal with no one but
this person.

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He will sue your insurance
company.

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He'll fight with your insurance
company because what happens is

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they'll they'll write you a
check for 50 grand and send you

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on your way.
And you go out and try and hire

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contractors and it's 125.
Right.

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Yeah.
So then you're, yeah, don't

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settle, don't sign anything.
You know, and so we've just,

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we've just hired this this
independent contractor or

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private or private adjuster and,
and the contractor and stuff.

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So yeah, it's just been a pain
in the ass.

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It's been a pain natural.
Disasters one after the other

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like that.
It is crazy.

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Yeah, they'll.
Hire whoever they can to come

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in.
And so they got a body.

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That's all they need.
Yeah, well, and there's just a

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lot of ambulance chasers, you
know, because like the, the, the

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way the tornado cut through our
neighborhood, it's really

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bizarre.
But there's probably, I don't

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know, about 1516 houses that got
hammered and then nobody else,

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like their garbage can didn't
even tip over.

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My BBQ went from the backyard to
the front yard.

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You know, I mean, I was like,
where's the BBQ?

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Because they sent me a bunch of
pictures.

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And he goes, oh, it's over here
in the front yard.

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I'm like, what?
So yeah, it was pretty crazy.

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So anyways, thank you for doing
this, Mark.

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I appreciate it.
It's pleasure.

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I've been finally got the
opportunity to do it.

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I've been trying since pre
COVID, yeah, yeah.

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That's sort of like, you know,
BC and AD, yeah.

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Exactly, it's before COVID
years.

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It just went away.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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But it, but it's like it's a
line drawn in the sand.

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What was before COVID, what was
since COVID, you know, Yeah.

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And our industry is, is a
contrast of that for sure.

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Oh, absolutely.
How you handled things before

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COVID and how you're handling it
since very, very different, very

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different business.
It is.

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Things have changed.
You've been doing this for a

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while.
A little, little while, about 45

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years.
Oh, that's it.

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Yeah.
I thought it was longer.

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Actually, I think it's longer
than that.

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You said 1970, You sent me some
notes and you said 1970.

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Oh, no, yeah, no, no, no.
I don't know where that note

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came.
From specifically it was 79 was

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the.
First year of the day.

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That I got involved.
And.

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You know, back then, you didn't
have to know a whole lot.

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You more had to know somebody.
Yeah, which is how I wound up,

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you know, get involved in this.
I've had AI, graduated from

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college with my degree in in my
associate's degree in electrical

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technology.
Moved to California, started

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fixing CB radios at the end of a
production line at ACB radio

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factory in in California Harbor
City.

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Yeah, you know you're old when,
Yeah, you worked on CB radios.

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And that was at the height of
the CB craze.

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Yeah, and I wanted one so bad
when I was 16.

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I didn't know why.
Like I would have just had, I

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would have just had old trucker
guys pervin out on me or

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something, you know, because I
was like 6 or 7 going.

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I want a CB radio.
Yeah, I want.

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It was.
So my supervisor brings the guy

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in one day, says, hey, he's
because I'm originally from

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Buffalo, NY Yeah, He says, hey,
this guy's from Buffalo, too,

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you know?
And we start talking and we wind

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up.
We know mutual people, but we've

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never met.
Our fathers knew each other back

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in the old neighborhood, you
know, the old telling

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neighborhood in Buffalo.
So we started running.

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He didn't have a car.
His name is Jim, Jim Pace, and

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he didn't have a car.
So I pick him up on my

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motorcycle every morning and
take us into work.

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And then every Friday afternoon
I would take him to audio

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company called Tycho Bray.
He was into bands and, and that

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kind of thing.
And he wanted to get into this.

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I've never done so much as a
high school play.

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Yeah.
And every Friday I'd drop him

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off a Tycho Bray so he could,
you know, work on them to get a,

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get a gig, which he finally did.
He went out and did a, he quit

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the radio, CB radio fixing
business and went and did a, he

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got hired by Tycho Bray, went
out and did a Black Sabbath tour

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and threw him through that.
I got to meet other people, one

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of them being Dave Olbermann of
the Fighting production, and

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they used to have what they
called the South Bay Roadie

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Association.
So on Sunday afternoons they'd

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lay out string for a the outline
of a football field and we'd

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play football down in Hermosa
Beach.

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So I got to know OB in that
through that and got bored with

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what I was doing.
Told him that, you know, hey,

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00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,880
you know, I'm I, I could never
figure out what Jim was doing

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00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,240
because we want to be in
roommates and I'm like, you

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00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:24,000
never know when you're working,
you're never sure what's going

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on, you know, and to me that was
just weird, you know, I didn't.

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00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:30,000
And but then I see he's
traveling all over the place.

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I'm like, man, I ain't doing
nothing else.

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I'm 22 years old.
I'm like, you know, so I hey, if

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you got a spot, you know, I'd be
interested, so.

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About a month.
Later, Obie gives me a call and

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so I go and give my notice and I
go in and on a Monday morning,

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8:00 AM, and I'm working in the
shop helping a guy restring a

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00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:56,920
cable on a on a super tower.
I've never seen any of this, but

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00:12:57,160 --> 00:12:58,600
pretty mechanical.
Yeah.

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00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:02,280
And helping him do that in about
two hours in we finish this and

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00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:05,920
Obie calls me over the PA.
Hey, that'll come up to my

226
00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:07,000
office.
Yeah.

227
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:08,280
So go upstairs.
Hey, what's up?

228
00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,600
He says.
Wanna go do a tour?

229
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,200
Two hours in your first day in
the industry.

230
00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:22,040
Two hours of of you know, doing
hilarious my shop duty.

231
00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,280
Here I'm quite experienced.
Next day I was up in.

232
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,280
Yeah.
Next day I was up in in

233
00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:32,440
Hollywood at Gino Vinelli
rehearsals and went out and did

234
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,880
that tour.
Bob Gordon was the lighting

235
00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,040
designer for that.
No way.

236
00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:40,240
Yeah.
So my first tour was with Bob

237
00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:43,400
Gordon, first crew chief that I
had.

238
00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:47,840
I was the third man on the crew
and Steve Jackson was the he who

239
00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:50,400
was with Cat Forever.
Of course, yeah.

240
00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:55,080
And you know, he's the one that
taught me about how that how

241
00:13:55,080 --> 00:14:00,040
those cables needed to look like
a like water flowing, everything

242
00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,960
need to be neat and tidy.
And you know, and that's how I

243
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:07,000
did once it was not too long
before I was crew chief in my

244
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:08,160
own stuff.
And so.

245
00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:10,920
You were in rehearsals in
Hollywood for how long?

246
00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:13,040
Like.
A couple of weeks, you know, so.

247
00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:17,160
That was your entire sort of
indoctrination into the

248
00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:18,960
industry.
Was that two weeks?

249
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:21,040
Yeah.
And then and then you're on a

250
00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:22,360
bus.
Yeah.

251
00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:27,200
And what was that like?
You know, again, 22 years old,

252
00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:28,400
that was.
Yeah.

253
00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:33,920
Let's go.
You know, so you know, I think

254
00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,760
it was about the fourth show
into the tour.

255
00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:42,800
We're doing a show and it's a
like A7 camera shoot in New

256
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:50,520
Orleans and and all of a sudden
during the during the shoot, Bob

257
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,560
Gordon's yelling, the foul spots
aren't reacting.

258
00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,320
The foul spots aren't you know,
something's wrong with the

259
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,760
communication and Steve runs up
into the booth and you know,

260
00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:00,760
every all of a sudden, you hear,
you know, the rattle, rattle,

261
00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:06,920
rattle a headset and Steve comes
on goes well, the foul spot

262
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:08,880
operators aren't here is why
they're not reacting.

263
00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:10,840
What's called this.
Meanwhile, the show is still

264
00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:11,880
happening.
What?

265
00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,920
Well, they're being arrested.
They've been selling drugs out

266
00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:17,880
of the follow spot booth before
the.

267
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:19,920
Show.
And the cops came and busted

268
00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:23,240
them during the show, so we had
to run the follow spots for the

269
00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:25,720
rest of the video shoot or.
Actually, I think it was.

270
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:29,680
Filmed back then, so that was
like one of my indoctrinations

271
00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:31,560
into.
That is the.

272
00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,600
Business, you know, on my first
week out on the road so.

273
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:37,400
Did you have to go run follow
spots?

274
00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,240
Yeah, I don't think I actually
did because I don't know how.

275
00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:45,560
Again, Yeah, and the other two
guys did, but it was.

276
00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:47,520
Crazy.
That's a funny.

277
00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:49,680
Story.
Bob still brings that story up

278
00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:51,600
every time I see him at LDI.
Yeah.

279
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,120
So yeah.
That's a crazy story.

280
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,200
I love that one.
You're going to see Bob by the

281
00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,160
way, cuz you're, by the way,
everyone, Mark Fetto is

282
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,920
officially a dinosaur.
So you're doing this dining with

283
00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:08,360
dinosaurs thing that we're doing
at LDI and Bob is also there.

284
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:11,120
He'll be there, so.
I'm sure he'll tell the story

285
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:13,600
then, too.
Yeah, he hasn't told me that

286
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:15,160
one.
He's told me some good stories,

287
00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:18,800
but not that one.
You know, Bob, here's a funny

288
00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,040
story for you.
Bob was supposed to record last

289
00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,200
week and you have to have
Chrome.

290
00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:28,320
And man, I became an IT guy for
about 3 days with Bob.

291
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,040
He kept texting me and saying
how do I do this?

292
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:33,760
How do I do this?
And so I finally convinced him,

293
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:35,920
showed him how to download
Chrome.

294
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:43,400
And because his operating system
on his Mac was so old, it

295
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:45,480
couldn't work.
The version of Chrome that he

296
00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:48,080
downloaded, it wouldn't, it
wouldn't work.

297
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,640
It wouldn't open.
And so he's like, So what do I

298
00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:52,080
do?
And I'm like, well, you gotta

299
00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,480
upgrade your operating system.
You gotta bring it up to date.

300
00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:57,040
And he goes, so how do I do
that?

301
00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,040
I'm like, I'm like, Bob, have
you got a cell phone?

302
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:01,840
And he goes, yeah, I go, what
kind of phone?

303
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:05,640
It's an iPhone.
Tell you what Download the app

304
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:09,880
for our podcast and we'll do it
on your phone so he downloads

305
00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:12,640
the app and then of course he
can't figure out how to log into

306
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,720
the thing.
And so I just said, you know

307
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,160
what, Bob, let's just talk at
the show.

308
00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:24,839
We'll just do this later cuz I
just ran out of time and I love

309
00:17:24,839 --> 00:17:26,520
Bob.
I love his stories, I love his

310
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:31,440
spirit, But but you know, he's,
he's now behaving like an old

311
00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:33,920
guy and, and not knowing how to
work his.

312
00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,120
How do you work these damn
things, these kids, these.

313
00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:38,640
Days.
Yeah, that sounds familiar.

314
00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:40,000
I mean from the guy, you know
that.

315
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,800
From the guy who sold some of
the most complicated lighting

316
00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:44,920
consoles on earth for a long
time.

317
00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:46,960
He couldn't run 1 today.
I mean, that's like me.

318
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,440
I you know, I used to be a
hotshot programmer for Verilite,

319
00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:52,800
you know, Now I can barely turn
on a console.

320
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:56,160
It's just, you know.
You know it, It gets away from

321
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,440
you.
The technology is has changed so

322
00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:00,640
much.
But you know, the other thing is

323
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:04,760
Bob, similar to me I guess, is a
relationship guy where it's more

324
00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,760
about the network and the
communication and all that stuff

325
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:09,680
than it is about my technical
skills.

326
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:12,560
Because if I had to make a
career on technical skills, you

327
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:14,480
know, I'd be living in a
cardboard box.

328
00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:15,920
That's what they build kids for
now.

329
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:20,200
Yeah, yeah, it's true.
Yeah, it's it's Robert.

330
00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:22,600
Mockery, Robert, Mockery used to
always Tell me, Marcel, you

331
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:26,440
really should learn more about
the technology and the what's,

332
00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:27,920
what's in these lights and
stuff.

333
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:30,080
And I'm like, what for?
You know, I sell more of them

334
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,240
than you do.
So I'm good, man.

335
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:34,160
I'm fine.
I can sell a lot of lights.

336
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:36,160
You know, I don't have to know
what's in them.

337
00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:40,200
I just need to know, like, what
was John Wiseman's famous line

338
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,560
when somebody said, were you
there?

339
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:46,680
I've been I've been on the
receiving end of some of those

340
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:48,760
when I was programming.
Go ahead.

341
00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:49,600
What is?
What is this?

342
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:53,120
One, he was on a pan, he was on
a panel and I, I can't remember

343
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:57,720
if it was LDI or what it was,
but they asked him John, what's

344
00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:00,840
what's the difference between
the VL 5 and the VL 6 and he

345
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:10,080
goes about 50 bucks well.
I used to be, you know, program

346
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:15,600
when I was program, you know, I
started after, you know, Bennett

347
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:22,440
always for a while and that I, I
did a tour with Toto and Zeb

348
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,040
Cochran.
They had verilights and Zeb

349
00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:31,760
Cochran was the operator and he,
you know, was one of the that

350
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,600
was really responsible for me
getting hired by Verilite.

351
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:38,280
I got hired over the phone by
Verilite and that never

352
00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:40,840
happened, but it was on Zeb's
recommendation.

353
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:44,080
But what?
So you'd be, you know, program

354
00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:48,560
John and Cela show with V, you
know, this is the days of VL

355
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:51,600
ones, you know, and this is
that's pretty rudimentary stuff

356
00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,200
for moving light, you know, for
what you have now.

357
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,800
Yeah.
And, and the, you know, the

358
00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:59,720
client would say, well, John
said you could make these things

359
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,560
sing and dance and and perform a
pirouette.

360
00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:06,080
And I'm like, well, then John
better get over here and tell me

361
00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:09,240
how to do it because I can't
make these lights do that.

362
00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:11,760
Yeah, that's, you know, he had,
he had no idea what they could

363
00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:12,920
do.
No, of course not.

364
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,160
Still doesn't.
Still doesn't then we would.

365
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,480
But who sold more lights?
Fill them out, make it look

366
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,120
good, you know, and move on to
another in another show.

367
00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:24,240
So true, so true.
How long did you stay at Obie's?

368
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:33,480
Till about well, it was kind of,
I guess I started doing stuff

369
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:41,360
for verilite around 84.
Mike Swinford, another, you

370
00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:46,040
know, original OB guy.
Yeah, he had given me my first.

371
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:49,840
I had, you know, my whole thing
was every, no matter what I was

372
00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:53,160
doing and wanted to take the
next step and and what, you

373
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:57,280
know, even, you know, third guy
start, third guy cable crew

374
00:20:57,640 --> 00:20:59,040
humping cable.
Yeah.

375
00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:01,920
I couldn't wait to get my hand.
Sorry.

376
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:04,680
Timed lighting.
Yeah.

377
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:06,840
In the motion sensor.
Yeah.

378
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,920
But I couldn't.
I loved that watching the guys

379
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:13,520
run the show and that's what I
want to do.

380
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:17,280
So any opportunity I had, I I
would run a board for an opening

381
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,400
act do that, you know, didn't
care if they paid you or not,

382
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:23,480
Just I just wanted, wanted to
learn that stuff.

383
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:30,000
And Swinford wound up giving me
my first LD gig, which was Kenny

384
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,800
Loggins.
So I had taken that out.

385
00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:39,080
So that was like an 8485 when I
started doing that.

386
00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,640
And then I wound up becoming
the, I turned into the lighting

387
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,240
designer for The Moody Blues and
did did them for, you know, till

388
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,280
I think it was like 1990.
I turned it over to Zeb, but.

389
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:54,320
You moved up the.
Racks pretty quickly I did I

390
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,520
think you know, had the aptitude
whatever, whatever.

391
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:03,480
And during that time I was kind
of working for both, you know,

392
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:08,480
is independent working for both
Verilite and, and OB, you know,

393
00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:11,880
and then, well, actually when I
did the movies, I was, you know,

394
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:13,960
they paid me there.
It was independent, but that was

395
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:19,600
through OB and wound up in guess
it was 89.

396
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:27,800
Verilite was going to open the
office in LA and they moved me

397
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:29,560
at is the time I was living in
Denver.

398
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:33,840
I lived in LA originally and
then moved to to Boulder,

399
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:37,080
actually Colorado for a while.
Yeah, 6-7 years.

400
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:39,640
What a great place to be when
you're not touring.

401
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:40,400
It was.
Perfect.

402
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:41,400
No kidding.
And.

403
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:47,280
The Moody's were they were that,
you know, the European take off

404
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:51,480
3 weeks in in August for their
holiday Yeah.

405
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:53,880
So in the middle of summer
touring boom.

406
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:55,640
I got three weeks off paid at
home.

407
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:57,360
That was nice.
You know you couldn't ask for.

408
00:22:57,360 --> 00:23:02,720
Better than that, yeah.
But anyway, so Verilite was

409
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,840
going to open the LA office and
they moved me to LA to help with

410
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,000
that and open that office.
So that's when I start.

411
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,000
That's when I became a full time
employee.

412
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,400
And and that was, that was in
8089.

413
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:21,480
Well, actually 88 was.
When they moved me to LA to help

414
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,800
open up that and then I was in
LA for I think it was one year,

415
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:32,120
three months, four days, 12
hours, 27 minutes, 30 seconds.

416
00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:34,520
I couldn't stand being back
after being in Colorado.

417
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,640
I had to be back in LA and I was
doing so much work up in in

418
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:41,440
Vegas.
I come on, man.

419
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,360
Got Openoffice, got open out and
they and Verilite wound up

420
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:49,280
making me the manager and we
open up the, the Verilite office

421
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:54,640
in, in Las Vegas in 89.
But in 88, when I'd moved out

422
00:23:54,640 --> 00:24:00,880
there, you know, Tom Duncan
owned Stage Stage Call and they

423
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,080
Stage Call pretty much
exclusively moved the Verilight

424
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,960
gear around because you couldn't
move that stuff in anything but

425
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,680
air ride, you know, and that was
a rare thing back then and, and

426
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,160
all that.
So the original warehouse for

427
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,080
Verilight in LA was Tom Duncan's
warehouse.

428
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,320
And I used to have to go out
there and tech lights and I

429
00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:24,720
would have to wait for his son
Phillip to get off of high

430
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,080
school to come and help me flip
down cases.

431
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:28,880
So.
That I could.

432
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:29,920
Take.
Lights out.

433
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:32,120
That's wow.
And then.

434
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:39,240
Eventually they open up.
They brought in Jimmy Barnett to

435
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,960
be the Manage the LA office.
And so I did a lot of television

436
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:46,720
stuff and that, you know, for
that year and a half, I was out

437
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,000
there, did a lot of work with
Karen Healy.

438
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,760
I did American Bandstand with
Lee Rose, did Top of the Pops

439
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:59,240
with Kieran Healey.
And you know, Kieran was kind of

440
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:04,160
grooming me just to become a
television LD, same thing you do

441
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:07,560
with Tommy back.
And and that was the point where

442
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:13,520
I had I made the decision of
moving to Vegas and becoming a

443
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:18,840
management instead of staying.
Why was that doing doing shows

444
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,040
just, you know, I've been
traveling and doing so much, you

445
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:24,320
know, for so many years.
It was just time.

446
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,560
I got married in 88.
Yeah.

447
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:27,920
You know, so it was just kind of
time.

448
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:33,800
Priorities changed, yeah.
And then as it turned out, you

449
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,680
know, it opening up the office
in Vegas was was a lot of fun.

450
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,360
And it was, yeah, me and one
other guy basically.

451
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:43,920
And we did all the shows and
teched all the lights and did

452
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:48,880
everything.
And, and then I wound up moving

453
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:57,480
up to the ranks at Verilite and
becoming the, that was the the

454
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:03,120
dealer manager and we're on the
product development committee

455
00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:09,840
and couple other things.
And, and I wound up turning that

456
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:15,400
office, the Vegas office to Todd
Mertzl, OK And I became the

457
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,640
general manager in North
American operations for

458
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,360
Verilite.
Oh wow, and that's a big total.

459
00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:24,280
Yeah, I mean, I apparently Rusty
Boucher and Lauren Haas saw

460
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,160
something in me that, yeah, I
didn't know because I want to be

461
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:30,240
about the number three guy at
Verilite for a for a time.

462
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,440
Damn, damn.
And that.

463
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,320
Was when that was now the 90s,
right?

464
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,960
Sometime early 90s, early to mid
90s and.

465
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:41,880
Yeah, I can't remember.
We were supposed to move to

466
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:46,480
Dallas and some things changed
and wound up year and a half

467
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,520
later, I was no longer there.
And that was 2001.

468
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,200
Was.
Just before, so I went

469
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:57,720
independent back to doing, you
know, whatever program and

470
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:06,880
project manager and whatever
and, and just before 911, which

471
00:27:07,360 --> 00:27:10,960
you know had its own set of
repercussions for our business.

472
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:16,720
It certainly did, yeah.
But, you know, so it was, I

473
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,600
don't know, it wound up, you
know, I'd still thank Rusty

474
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,440
Boucher for, you know, I mean,
taking that turn and getting

475
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,600
away from, I mean, I was still
programming stuff when I went

476
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,240
moved to Vegas, but they they
moved me up to the, you know, in

477
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:33,680
the management team there.
And that's very cool.

478
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,800
You know, that was yeah, that
was, you know, like I said, he

479
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,520
and Lauren Haas, you know, I've
got done to thank for as far as

480
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:42,840
I've.
Gotten well and that was that

481
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,000
was when verilite was still
verilite too, like you know,

482
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:50,240
that was before they became part
of the Phillips organization and

483
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,320
and it was the.
Best job you could possibly have

484
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,520
at the time.
Yeah, it was you.

485
00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,240
It was, you know, everybody that
was the Rolex.

486
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:01,280
Yeah.
Very light.

487
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:03,360
You know, everybody was chasing
us.

488
00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:04,840
Everybody.
Yeah.

489
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,560
You know, and it was shit.
I mean, you know, it was, it was

490
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,000
fantastic.
And until it went public, yeah.

491
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,680
And then the whole character of
the company changed.

492
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:18,720
Then you're just chasing
quarters and, you know, chasing

493
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,440
sales and, well.
At that point, that's when I was

494
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,480
a general manager in North
American operations and I went

495
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:28,320
from, you know, I was, I was
basically managing the eight US

496
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:33,800
offices and my job turned into
every two weeks I was turning

497
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:38,480
in, you know, sales reports for
the bank.

498
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,360
Yeah.
And PNLS, we went from yeah, we,

499
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,480
I mean, we went from being a
having a one year, three-year,

500
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,720
five year plan to all that
matters with the quarterly

501
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,280
reports.
Yeah, quarterly's were all that

502
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:52,560
stuff.
And, and it, you know, it just

503
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:54,480
changed.
It completely changed the

504
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,040
complexion of the company.
Yeah.

505
00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:02,000
You know, I mean, they had to
get, you know, it was, it was

506
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,400
just a lot of fun being there
during the whole growth period,

507
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:10,480
you know, and then during that
time also we, we developed VLPS

508
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:16,920
as a yeah.
Oh sorry, you were frozen on my

509
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,240
screen there.
Yeah, you were on mine as well,

510
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,920
so we'll edit that part.
Make a note, Sarah.

511
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,440
Yeah, Well, you know, The thing
is when when companies go public

512
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:29,800
and when companies bring in
private equity and all of those

513
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,320
things like it's easy to to beat
everybody up for doing it.

514
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,000
There are different reasons to
do it.

515
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:44,600
But one thing I would guess is
that verilite today, you know,

516
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:48,400
if, if we had the sort of
financial situations today that

517
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,640
we that we didn't have back
then, but you know, they would

518
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:54,840
have been a different company
because, you know, they would

519
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,160
have had access to incredible
amounts of capital.

520
00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:01,000
And they may not have had to or
wanted to go public and they may

521
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,400
have just done a completely
different deal for a different

522
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:04,760
reason.
But you know.

523
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,120
Well, I mean, I think that was
mainly there was a a number of

524
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:14,520
owners that it got in very on
the on the ground floor Genesis

525
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,320
basically.
Yeah, that, you know, we're

526
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:22,120
looking for cashing out and that
was really the only way cuz it

527
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,920
had grown so much and become so,
so much bigger than when it

528
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,240
started.
Yeah, yeah, that was done on 1/2

529
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,000
on a handshake and a half
$1,000,000 deal.

530
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,880
Yeah.
So it started it, but you know,

531
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:37,880
and.
But you're right, though, it

532
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:41,440
was, it was the cat's meow.
Like it was, it was, you know,

533
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:46,320
the verilite business card
probably got you, you know, into

534
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:49,960
a lot of places that, you know,
my shitty Martin business card

535
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,920
wouldn't have got you into, you
know, it was so.

536
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:55,120
It was fun.
I mean, we, you know, like I

537
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:57,840
said, you know, we were, it was
great.

538
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,680
We worked our asses off, but it
was the greatest place to work.

539
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,440
It was, you know, like I said,
I'm not exactly sure how I got

540
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:09,080
where I got.
Thank you, Rusty, but I'm really

541
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:11,400
grateful for the opportunities
they prevented me.

542
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,200
And yeah.
And where it's gone?

543
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,800
Yeah.
So where, where'd you go when

544
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,000
that ended?
So that was 2001, you said?

545
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,200
Yeah.
And then independent for a

546
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:28,200
couple of years and then I went
to work for Rocky Pulse and it's

547
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:32,560
stage rigging as the national
sales manager and.

548
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,600
Interesting.
Yeah, and I mean, it was good,

549
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,200
but it was a Freeman, you know,
it was owned by Freeman at the

550
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:44,480
time.
I was the only stage person in

551
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:47,440
in Las Vegas.
Everything else is in

552
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:48,800
California.
Yeah.

553
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:51,400
And I mean, it's fine.
You know, it was just a little

554
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:56,240
too much convention work for me.
Yeah, But you know, and it was,

555
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,000
you know, half ton, one ton, 12
inch, 20 1/2 inch, you know, it

556
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,920
just and then so I did that for
a couple of years and and Paul

557
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:12,680
Weller came and recruited me to
help him revive Morpheus.

558
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,040
Yeah, which is really
interesting.

559
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:19,240
Like that's, that was, that was
an interesting play because

560
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:23,880
Morpheus, you know, obviously
had several lives And and so

561
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,920
this was sort of, I don't know
if you call it the last life or

562
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:31,600
the second last one or whatever
it was, but this was near the

563
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,520
end, but sort of a rebirth,
right?

564
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:39,600
And and so were you there during
the whole Ayrton thing, like

565
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,840
when Ayrton happened there and
you were a part of that?

566
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:48,440
Oh yeah, we were, you know, they
were still looking to

567
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:51,560
manufacture some stuff and we
were doing like a color changer

568
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:57,560
for, I can't remember the name
of the, IT was a arc source

569
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,440
ellipsoidal, can't remember the
name of it.

570
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,520
Anyway, we're, you know,
building stuff like that.

571
00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:10,520
Bob Fry had finished the Pana
Beam XL or whatever we called

572
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:12,320
it.
But it was a Washington light

573
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:15,920
that continuously panned and
tilted with a 1200 Watt source,

574
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:22,840
you know, and but the
manufacturing it was, you know,

575
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:26,600
that was pretty much it for.
I think I remember you guys were

576
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:30,320
showing that in like a little
black box at LDI or something

577
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,720
and, and hey, come over here and
look at this thing, you know one

578
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:35,360
of those.
Still still selling color

579
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:37,360
changers.
Those were still at the time.

580
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:39,480
I know.
You know, there were still

581
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:41,840
plenty of theaters and cruise
ships that needed them.

582
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,080
Well, Morpheus was on top of
that world.

583
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,880
I mean, like, you know, they
definitely did that one right,

584
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,120
you know?
You know, and that's the thing

585
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:53,400
when I, you know, having worked
for both the companies, if, if

586
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:58,000
Morpheus would have had
Verilite's management early on,

587
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:00,880
yeah, they would have been world
beaters.

588
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,080
They had better technology.
Yeah, they had better

589
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,640
technology.
Morpheus brilliant on the

590
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:08,440
technology side but just didn't
know how.

591
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:12,199
To run first rotating gobo and
all that you know all the

592
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:14,960
everything mount.
How do we do everything today

593
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:19,360
mounted in GT Morpheus was about
that in the 80s, you know,

594
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,800
packaging, doing that whole
packaging thing, you know, and,

595
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,920
and that's for touring now.
I mean, that's the main, you

596
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,480
know, that's, that's one of the
main things you got to do is how

597
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,520
small can you fit that big rig
into?

598
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:33,760
Yeah, a few.
Trucks well even shops like I'm

599
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:36,639
starting to see shops without
Rd. cases in them now you know I

600
00:34:36,639 --> 00:34:40,560
don't know what you guys do but
I've seen so many shops recently

601
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:45,880
where lights are mounted in
either racks or trusses Well so.

602
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:51,800
OSA, we have a case company
called Mt Cases in Chicago.

603
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:55,960
So Mt, we're still using, we're
still using Cases, Yeah.

604
00:34:56,159 --> 00:35:00,800
Yeah, cases are good cases.
Cases are not bad, cases good.

605
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:02,640
Yeah, that's funny.
Yeah.

606
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:06,240
But no, I've seen like, I never
in my life thought I would see

607
00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:09,320
lighting companies that have no
cases, you know, but I've seen a

608
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,240
few of them.
Like, who did I see recently?

609
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:13,560
Was it Volt, who has no flight
cases at all?

610
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:15,320
Yeah, Yeah.
They're, well, they have some,

611
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:17,960
but I mean a lot of barely,
yeah, barely travels.

612
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,560
And that yeah, it it's just a
whole, you know, that's another

613
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:22,800
way how the whole thing has
changed.

614
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:26,840
Yeah.
Back at Obie's we used to put 6

615
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:32,120
lamp par bars into Rd. cases,
two par bars into a road case.

616
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:40,480
I mean they were massive right?
7 foot long and probably 3 or 4

617
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,920
feet wide.
Just huge cases to protect the

618
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,320
park hands.
Now you wouldn't even think

619
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:48,480
twice.
Throw them in a rack and be

620
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:50,920
done.
The economics of all of it have

621
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,840
changed so much because now you
like, back then you didn't have

622
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:57,160
1000 moving lights on a show,
you know, whereas now that's

623
00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:59,480
pretty common, 1000 moving
lights on a show.

624
00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:03,120
And so you know.
That was one of the things we

625
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:08,040
did at you know, that we did at
Morpheus was tried to re

626
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:15,440
repurpose the the flipbox Truss,
you know, the swing wing to for

627
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:20,200
modern because it was it was
built specifically for the pana

628
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:24,640
beam and pana spot fixtures.
We wound up redoing it and

629
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:28,840
retooling it so that it you
could hang a center pipe in it

630
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,440
and you know, and use put hang
modern fixtures in it.

631
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:37,000
Yeah, it still work pretty good,
but that's the square Truss just

632
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:41,560
made made difficult, you know?
Yeah, you had to have all the

633
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:45,760
specialty stuff to put a You
just don't grab a cheeseburger

634
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,080
and stick something on it, you
know?

635
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:50,240
Well, plus when you're a
competitive lighting company and

636
00:36:50,240 --> 00:36:53,480
you're trying to sell trusts as
well or whatever, like, I don't

637
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:57,720
know that, you know, GT Trust
seems to have done very well or

638
00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:02,120
Tyler Trust, but you know,
they've done very well and, and

639
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,560
they've created, they've
basically done what people have

640
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:06,320
asked them to do.
They've built products that

641
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:11,080
people wanted, you know, Yeah.
And so, but Morpheus was always

642
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:15,040
like that, like the company
before and during you were were

643
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:19,080
innovators.
So who or how did the whole

644
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,560
Airton thing happened?
So.

645
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:26,400
Paul Weller was at.
So the manufacturing thing,

646
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:29,400
we're looking for something
else, right, Because we needed

647
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:35,000
to boost sales and that and we
didn't have a lot of modern

648
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,040
equipment.
You know, first thing I did when

649
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:42,240
I got there was bought like 24
VL, 25 hundreds or wherever they

650
00:37:42,240 --> 00:37:44,680
were.
And because they had no modern,

651
00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:47,600
all they had was Pana beam and
Pana spots.

652
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:51,840
Yeah, and, and they were garbage
by that point, you know, just.

653
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,480
Old your general thought was,
you know, we got to focus on

654
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:58,480
being a rental company and worry
a little bit less about whose

655
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,800
brand is on the fixtures.
Yeah, yeah.

656
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:06,760
And Paul found this, a company
called Air 10 over at Pro Light

657
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:10,240
and Sound in Frankfurt had a
little boost set up.

658
00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:13,960
And they were interesting
because they were the first one

659
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:18,880
that that we saw that didn't
have, you know, the Skittles LED

660
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:21,160
lights.
Yeah, they they actually had,

661
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:22,840
you know, the diode.
Kind of, yeah.

662
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:29,560
It's a 500CVA500C Wild, Wild Sun
500.

663
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:36,160
Yeah, I think it was a fixture
and their sales guy at the time

664
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:40,320
they're, you know that he
brought over a a number of

665
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:43,840
fixtures of different things
that they had to show us because

666
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,680
they had no US representation at
the time, right.

667
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,400
Yeah.
And they he pour Val Aire, who

668
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,920
is unfortunately not not with us
anymore.

669
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:59,320
But yeah, he came to Las Vegas
in July to show his wares.

670
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,240
And about melted, Yeah.
I don't want to do business

671
00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:03,360
here, yeah.
Yeah.

672
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:07,360
But you know, and we like what
we saw and we we showed it to

673
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:09,880
Jeff rabbits and rabbits liked
it.

674
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:12,160
So we wound up buying them
because of Springsteen was

675
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:16,200
getting ready to go back out and
we wound up getting those

676
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:20,280
specified first, you know, the
Springsteen rig for the wash

677
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,800
lights and replacing the fader
beams.

678
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:27,360
I guess it was Yeah.
And and so that was the start.

679
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:32,920
And then shortly and within the
next year or two is when they

680
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,240
came out with the magic panel.
Yeah.

681
00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:38,520
And that just.
That thing was a rock star.

682
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:42,560
That made yeah, I mean that was
A and it was kind of like being

683
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:46,160
at Verilight again, right?
It was everybody wanted them.

684
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,240
Everybody.
It was so new and interesting in

685
00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:52,400
the rotation and all the stuff
that it did, you know, everybody

686
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,760
had to have them.
So it was, you know, it was

687
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:57,880
cool.
It was, and I think we were kind

688
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,120
of responsible because like at
LDI, everybody had gotten away

689
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:05,080
from doing the big show and the,
the, you know, the, the demos

690
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,560
and that and just here, here it
is on the on the stand.

691
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,000
If you want it, I'll bring it to
your shop in three weeks.

692
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:16,200
Yeah, we did a wall of the.
I remember.

693
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:20,160
It of the of the.
Magic Panel.

694
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:25,000
And it forced everybody to start
doing shows again.

695
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:26,280
Yeah.
Every.

696
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,200
You could not get near that
booth.

697
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,120
Yeah.
I mean, right, You know, So it

698
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:32,520
was a.
That was fun.

699
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:34,440
That had to be fun for a minute.
It was.

700
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:35,560
Great.
I mean, I was like, I was

701
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:37,720
reborn, you know?
Yeah.

702
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:42,440
And, and it was just Paul Keith
Bennett and myself selling those

703
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:44,680
things.
We sold a bunch of them.

704
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,160
Yeah.
We were the basically the ones

705
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,720
pitching it all over the US And
you know, fortunately because of

706
00:40:49,720 --> 00:40:53,560
my TV, you know, the stuff I've
done for television, I had, I

707
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,440
knew a bunch of TVLDS and, and
we, you know, we were able to

708
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:01,680
get them in front of a lot of
important eyes and on television

709
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:05,400
and that and as as the Ayrton
brand grew, you know, we kept

710
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:08,240
sorry.
It's all good.

711
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:14,360
We kept, you know, introducing
the the new the more stuff they

712
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:20,360
came out with.
You know there's and every year

713
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:21,880
ACT it would be pitching.
Yeah, it.

714
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,840
Would be.
A real air tin to take the the

715
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:28,920
distributorship and and they
finally got it.

716
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,240
Yeah, yeah, it was inevitable.
You know, when you got it, it

717
00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:36,960
was just a $200 million
distributor on one side and, you

718
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:40,280
know, a rock'n'roll lighting
company on the other side at

719
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,560
some point.
Well, and I think probably being

720
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,640
bought by Golden Sea and
becoming more corporate and all

721
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:49,160
of those things.
Well, they had, you know, there

722
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:55,200
was a, I can't remember his last
name, Michael.

723
00:41:55,200 --> 00:42:04,120
He used to be the the Rep for MA
and went to work for for Ayrton.

724
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:09,120
So then that was a natural, you
know, bridge makes sense.

725
00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:12,200
So that that went away and that
was that hurt.

726
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,280
Yeah, you know, that hurt.
That hurt bad.

727
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:17,320
And they're still, we're still
doing stuff.

728
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,480
But it was just, you know,
struggling a bit.

729
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:25,480
And then they put Morpheus up
for sale.

730
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:31,360
And I was not wild about what
was going on.

731
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:39,480
And at that point, this was in
2019.

732
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:43,320
You know, I've been there since
2005.

733
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:45,560
So I'd spent 14.
Years there.

734
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:52,720
Yeah, that's a long time.
And then OSA the International

735
00:42:52,720 --> 00:42:56,600
was the rest of the building
that Morpheus was in.

736
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:58,320
We were the first two Swedes.
Oh, really?

737
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,600
OSA had the rest of it.
I had no idea that's how that

738
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:03,320
worked.
Yeah, yeah.

739
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,080
And as a matter of fact, when
one of the verilite offices we

740
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:11,120
had early on was at the other
end of the building from OSA,

741
00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:12,880
that's crazy.
In a different location.

742
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:15,520
You must like that building,
Mark, I guess.

743
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:25,960
Yeah, but so then Mario made me
an offer and I literally took my

744
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:31,000
my little refrigerator and and
stuff in my office, a box of

745
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,040
stuff on a 2 Wheeler went out in
my office and down the sidewalk

746
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,360
and into my new office and they
went to work for.

747
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,200
A wholesale that is wild.
That's crazy.

748
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:45,400
And I I start because of LDI.
I was planning on taking a

749
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:50,760
couple of weeks relax, blah,
blah, but LDI So I I started

750
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:54,840
sooner than I wanted so that
Mario and I could because OSA

751
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:59,680
had no lighting.
Now a couple of you know, they

752
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:03,640
had like a dozen movers and some
parts and leak goes and one guy

753
00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:07,040
you know, for a corporate event
stuff, but and it.

754
00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:10,840
Was an audio company.
Total Audio Company, it's it's

755
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,600
now almost 40 years old.
It's an audio company started in

756
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:14,800
Chicago.
Yeah.

757
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,880
And then I don't know, it's
maybe, I don't know, it's 15

758
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:20,560
years ago or something.
I remember the exact date that

759
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:27,560
Mario bought Media Solutions,
which is a video company here in

760
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:29,200
Las Vegas.
Yeah.

761
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:35,120
And brought that in and then so
they were they he needed the the

762
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:39,440
lighting portion and.
So the plan was you were going

763
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,080
to go to LDI and build a
lighting company basically?

764
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:43,760
And that that's what we did,
huh.

765
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,600
You know, that's awesome.
And we went out and bought

766
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:51,320
whatever a lot of stuff, dollars
worth of gear because, you know,

767
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:54,520
I told them you can buy a
company or you can start from

768
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:56,200
scratch.
When you start from scratch,

769
00:44:56,400 --> 00:45:00,240
every nut, bolt, shackle you got
to buy, you know.

770
00:45:00,240 --> 00:45:02,680
Yeah.
So the good part is everything

771
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:04,880
we own is new.
Yeah.

772
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,240
Especially with the two year
hiatus.

773
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,480
It happened, right?
That was bought.

774
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:12,680
That was pretty screwed up
timing, wasn't it?

775
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:16,160
Like, buy all that shit, it's
not even delivered yet and

776
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,200
you're shut down.
It was.

777
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:21,680
It was brutal.
I mean, that was that was rough.

778
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:28,840
And you know, fortunately we do.
We, the LED and the video team

779
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:38,280
came up with a, a virtual, you
know, studio that it wasn't like

780
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:40,040
the VR stuff that some people
built.

781
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:42,560
This is, this is more like ATV
studio.

782
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:47,800
And we did a bunch of of, you
know, virtual shows where we

783
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,560
would send out, you know,
because nobody wanted to touch

784
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:54,800
anything, you know, so we'd send
a laptop to or you didn't want

785
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:56,240
anybody in their house or
something.

786
00:45:56,440 --> 00:46:00,600
So we'd send a laptop with a
headset and A and a light to the

787
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:06,160
CEO of whatever company and with
label, corporate meeting or

788
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:07,920
whatever plug.
Yeah.

789
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:09,920
And then here's a box with a
label.

790
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:12,880
Send us back the laptop, keep
the keep the light in the

791
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,000
headset and.
You know that was.

792
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:17,680
Going through all that and it
was busy.

793
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:22,840
It's called Concertata.
That was what, you know, helped

794
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,560
keep the the company floating.
Yeah, that time.

795
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:29,440
Period, because that had to hurt
him, though the the owner, Mario

796
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:31,560
is it?
Yeah, Mario that had that had to

797
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:35,440
hurt, you know, because you
spend all that money, the bills

798
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:39,560
probably coming due at the same
time that your food supplies

799
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:41,120
shutting off, you know?
Yeah.

800
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:45,320
Oh my God, He what a shit show.
That whole COVID thing.

801
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,840
I'm still angry.
I'm still angry.

802
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:51,720
Well, it's like you think, and I
think back it's like next month

803
00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:53,960
I'll be here five years.
Yeah.

804
00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:57,440
And and you know, a year and a
half of that was basically.

805
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:01,040
Yeah, nothing sitting on your
thumbs talking to me every

806
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:03,280
Wednesday.
Yeah, talking to you and, and

807
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:05,560
just calling people and making
sure that, you know, they're

808
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,480
still alive and stuff.
You know, it was, Yeah, it was.

809
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:09,760
It was rough, it.
Sucked.

810
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,600
And then you know, and we had
had unfortunately we had had a

811
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,640
record first quarter.
That year.

812
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:19,480
And then it just.
It went nothing and then a

813
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:22,640
record second quarter, yeah.
Worst quarter.

814
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:26,120
Best quarter, worst quarter.
Yeah, Yeah, that's nice.

815
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,040
You know, it's funny that the
whole buying a whole new

816
00:47:29,240 --> 00:47:33,720
department sort of thing before,
like when they were in their

817
00:47:33,720 --> 00:47:38,080
temporary business or building,
I went up and visited Haskell

818
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:44,080
and and Cosmo at at Gateway and
walking through their building

819
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,200
was eerie because it was just
like everything was new.

820
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:50,240
Like half the light fixtures
didn't have plugs on the ends.

821
00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:53,160
And yeah, you know, everything
smelled like a new road case

822
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:56,000
because it was all the cable was
brand new.

823
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:58,160
I was like, you gotta say, I've
never seen them.

824
00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:01,280
From us, you get that new car
smell, Yeah, you know well.

825
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:03,000
And that was what Gateway was,
too.

826
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:06,960
Like literally everything in
their building was brand new.

827
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,080
Sound, lighting, video, all of
it.

828
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:09,800
Right.
Yeah.

829
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:15,200
And yeah, so, but fun as hell
because you've got all brand new

830
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:18,520
gear, but, you know, obviously
not something you could do every

831
00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:20,040
day.
It's very expensive.

832
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:26,320
It's yeah, it's, but it's tough.
You know, we've, we have the,

833
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:30,600
the nice thing is, well, the
good and the bad, you know, you

834
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,200
get so many.
Just give me some, some beat up

835
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,280
stuff.
I want to, you know, just take

836
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:38,880
this out for three weeks and
that, you know, I got nothing

837
00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:41,040
for you.
Everything I got is new and

838
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:44,280
shiny and and the way Mario
wanted to build the company.

839
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:46,960
It's all high end.
It's not there's.

840
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,200
Did you even?
We don't own any junk.

841
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:52,520
Did you have any situations
where you bought something and

842
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:55,560
then it sat still for a year and
a half and then you went, wait a

843
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:57,920
second, you're launching a new
version and we haven't even

844
00:48:57,920 --> 00:48:59,400
taken this out-of-the-box?
Yet.

845
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:03,960
Well, yeah, kinda.
We, we actually had a situation

846
00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:06,880
and I give Roby credit for, for
taking care of this.

847
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:10,360
They had, we had bought all this
stuff.

848
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:18,480
All we, you know, we bought
Spiders, Esprit and Megapoints.

849
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:21,920
That was the the start, you know
the the basic start of the.

850
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:25,600
Good package, yeah, although
there's now an eye spider and an

851
00:49:25,720 --> 00:49:28,360
eye Esprit.
Everything, yeah, eye

852
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:34,120
everything, yeah.
But the, the foam, the injected

853
00:49:34,120 --> 00:49:39,360
foam for the cases, it wasn't
just us.

854
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:43,480
Other people discovered that
apparently they had done an

855
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,400
improper mix of the stuff that
fills the filler for the foam

856
00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:57,440
and it was out gassing and the
out gassing was was like making

857
00:49:57,440 --> 00:50:00,000
like we had.
People were sick or what?

858
00:50:00,200 --> 00:50:02,920
Well, no, no, the the well, the
lights got sick.

859
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,000
We had like spiders that look
like they've been sitting out in

860
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,360
the sun for all summer.
Wow.

861
00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:11,160
They've like turned kind of
white in that and you could see

862
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:13,680
degradation in the LE DS and
everything.

863
00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:19,760
And, and to to Robbie's credit,
they replace the entire

864
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,480
inventory because we had just
bought it.

865
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:26,080
I mean, it barely had any hours
on it.

866
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:28,280
Yeah.
And because of that, they, they

867
00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:30,080
wound up replacing all of the
gear.

868
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:34,160
So kudos to Roby for that.
Yeah, but yeah, that's cool.

869
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:40,120
That's cool.
So, so now you're there.

870
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:46,440
Now you're at OSA.
And So what was what was the

871
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:49,440
desire to build a lighting
company on to OSA?

872
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:54,600
Was it because clients are
packaging more and clients want

873
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:58,240
a single source more?
Is was that what drove it or was

874
00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:01,320
it just wanting to go wider and
bigger or?

875
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:05,360
Well, yes.
Yeah, all of that.

876
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:07,040
You know I.
Mean they like people like

877
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:13,000
writing one check and but the
you know, I think honestly,

878
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:19,600
Mario was tired of sub renting
packages from companies and

879
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:23,360
writing that check.
So you know, and and you can

880
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:26,080
control it better this way.
You know, you have your own

881
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:27,800
people.
We have, you know, your own

882
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:29,720
gear.
We know what it is.

883
00:51:29,720 --> 00:51:32,240
We know.
And, and you know, to his

884
00:51:32,240 --> 00:51:34,840
credit, man, we've, we've got a
bad ass lighting department.

885
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:38,080
Yeah, the the people.
That we have and the and the

886
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:40,440
gear that we have is has been
really good.

887
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:43,000
So is the majority.
Is the majority of your

888
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:48,880
clientele there?
Corporate, yeah, we do quite a

889
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:53,080
bit of corporate, but we've done
a lot more touring now, really

890
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:56,200
since I came in.
Of course, I had touring clients

891
00:51:56,200 --> 00:51:59,080
that I brought in.
You know, it's kind of funny.

892
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:02,200
They've had for years.
They had like Paul Anka and

893
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:05,680
David Foster, and then the first
tour I put out was corn.

894
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:08,800
So when you're touring.
Little bit different clients.

895
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:12,080
Are yeah, David Foster.
We need more Subs decor.

896
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:15,360
Yeah, we're going to need more
Subs.

897
00:52:15,640 --> 00:52:17,880
Yeah, that's funny.
But corn?

898
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:23,800
And then we have, you know,
we've brought on Bobby Allen is

899
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:27,960
now part of the team here.
And so, you know, more touring

900
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:29,440
for that.
We're doing very cool these

901
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:31,240
days.
We're doing Bocelli and.

902
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:33,560
Wow, we.
Do Limp Bizkit.

903
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:38,320
Who else do we do this summer?
Oh, we did, pre Peter Frampton.

904
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:43,240
Which was that'd be a blast.
Man, I went and saw the last

905
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:48,360
this past tour.
He wasn't going to go out again.

906
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:51,520
Then he went out for like 3 or 4
more weeks and called it the

907
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:54,960
Positively Thankful Tour.
So I went to the last show in

908
00:52:54,960 --> 00:53:00,120
Cleveland then and that was the
last show they were doing before

909
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:02,840
he came back for his Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame induction.

910
00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:08,680
And I don't know if it was that
the crowd, him, whatever it was

911
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:13,200
musically one of the best shows
I had I had seen in a very, very

912
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:15,720
long time.
You know, he's got he's got some

913
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:19,040
health issues now and he has to
he has to sit down and play.

914
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:22,400
He can't stand out, you know,
but the whole band sits.

915
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:27,920
And but they were just, I mean,
the playing that night from

916
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:30,640
everyone was just unbelievable.
I mean, you know, I've seen a

917
00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:33,920
few of the shows, the tour and
that it was just just knocked my

918
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:35,920
socks off.
Last time I saw something like

919
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:37,920
that.
This was, you know, one of the

920
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:41,080
best bands I ever musically went
out with was Toto.

921
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:44,720
Yeah, Toto.
I mean, Steve Lukather is a

922
00:53:44,720 --> 00:53:47,960
musical genius and, and he's
like the musical director of

923
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:49,920
Toto and OK, you're going to do
this.

924
00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:53,720
And I mean, yeah, he's such a
perfectionist and stuff.

925
00:53:53,720 --> 00:53:57,720
Like I've seen seen some of that
stuff happen and he's amazing.

926
00:53:57,720 --> 00:53:59,920
Back when Jeff Picaro was still
alive and.

927
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:02,240
Yeah.
And they were just great guys.

928
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:05,800
It was.
He was Speaking of Picaro, I

929
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:09,720
mean, Lukather, we're.
I got to go to Japan with them.

930
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:13,480
Yeah.
And we were sitting in some bar

931
00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:15,480
just getting hammered 1.
Night When was this?

932
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:19,560
Oh, this has been like 85
something like that.

933
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:20,440
Yeah.
Yeah.

934
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:24,080
And they were huge and they were
bigger in Japan than they are

935
00:54:24,080 --> 00:54:25,000
here.
Yeah.

936
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:26,240
It was.
It was, I mean.

937
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:28,200
We get off the train.
Because we traveled with the

938
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:31,720
band, we'd get off a train and
they're people at the train

939
00:54:31,720 --> 00:54:34,840
station waiting for that stuff.
It was, it was, it was a lot of

940
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:36,560
fun.
But we're sitting there one

941
00:54:36,560 --> 00:54:39,120
night and, and he had messed up
a lick.

942
00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:41,560
You know, these guys, they're
all stitched, great studio

943
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:43,640
musicians.
Every night was like listening

944
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:47,560
to the album and, and he had
screwed up a lick.

945
00:54:47,720 --> 00:54:52,400
And what?
So what do you do when you screw

946
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:54,480
up a lick like that?
What how he goes?

947
00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:57,000
I do it twice.
And then they think I meant it.

948
00:54:57,000 --> 00:55:01,160
And I went home.
Man, that's words to live by.

949
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:04,000
That's awesome.
Yeah, that is so good.

950
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:09,480
Yeah, he was so work with a lot
of cool bands and stuff, but.

951
00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:13,680
So the touring thing, was that
all you like when you went in

952
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:15,840
there or you said they were
already doing?

953
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:18,760
Yeah, they had.
But I mean I I.

954
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:21,800
That's not real touring, No.
Well, that's not real.

955
00:55:21,800 --> 00:55:24,600
But it's it's consistent.
It's been going on for years.

956
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:26,680
That's true.
You know, we, we actually at

957
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:31,080
Verilite, we had a anchor rig of
this set of lights that were

958
00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:36,400
only used for Paul Anka.
It was just 24 prototype lights

959
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:40,440
that that was the anchor rig.
And that's that's what they got

960
00:55:40,440 --> 00:55:42,760
saved for.
Yeah, probably game for a deal

961
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,360
because that's, you know.
So you'd rather have you'd

962
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:48,200
rather have one Paulinka than 10
Nickelbacks, right?

963
00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:50,440
Yeah, Well, I'm.
Just kidding, I don't think.

964
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:52,000
Nickelbacks had a pretty good
run, too.

965
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:55,520
Yeah, wrong choice of words, but
you know what I mean.

966
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:58,920
Yeah, yeah, Bands that are hot
today and not around for a

967
00:55:58,920 --> 00:56:01,920
while.
But so our, our, the touring

968
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:08,280
presence has expanded and, and
you know, we have it's, it's a,

969
00:56:08,720 --> 00:56:14,960
you know, anytime you have a, a
business that is rental.

970
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:19,560
Yeah.
As this man, it is a it is not

971
00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:24,680
for the faint part because it is
a cash eating monster.

972
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:28,960
It really is everything you
know, especially when you got

973
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:34,480
audio and video, you know,
lighting you can get some some

974
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:37,080
length out of, but you know, as
soon as that next best widget

975
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:40,840
comes along, video or the next
best thing brought, you know.

976
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:44,880
Well, NVIDIA just keeps going
like we're at what now .9 mil or

977
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:48,360
something?
Yeah, but and audio, like every

978
00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:51,080
time I turn around, I'm sure
that, you know, they're

979
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:53,720
announcing now the L rig or
whatever, right?

980
00:56:53,720 --> 00:56:57,400
And it's like, come on guys,
like I'm not even done paying

981
00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:00,720
for the J and now you're up to L
and what the hell are you doing?

982
00:57:01,120 --> 00:57:04,040
Like they're in, in a sense,
they've become worse than

983
00:57:04,040 --> 00:57:07,240
lighting, you know, where
everybody's ragging on Elation

984
00:57:07,240 --> 00:57:10,800
or Ayrton for coming out with
new fixtures, but at least

985
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:14,400
they're sensitive to the issue
that this fixture cost you 8 or

986
00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:17,000
9 grand.
You need some time to make that

987
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:18,840
money.
Back little ROI the.

988
00:57:18,840 --> 00:57:21,760
Sound systems, two and a half
million or whatever.

989
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:23,400
Yeah.
And and, you know, they're

990
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:26,840
coming out with a a newer model
a year later and the hot shows

991
00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:29,000
are going to want that newer
model, you know.

992
00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:32,080
Well, we we now own PK.
Audio.

993
00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:33,840
Oh yeah.
Which is sound, yeah.

994
00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:37,120
From Calgary, my hometown, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

995
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:41,200
And it's got the it's automated.
Yeah, yeah, I saw the demo in

996
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:46,040
the showroom and yeah, so to me,
it almost felt like being a

997
00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:50,000
verilite guy standing in that
showroom when the lights moved

998
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,880
and going like everything
changed.

999
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:55,400
You're never going to want
stationary lights anymore.

1000
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:59,640
And I got that same feeling when
I saw the PK system in the

1001
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:03,560
showroom in Calgary with Jeremy
the the CEO, because I have a

1002
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:07,440
house up there.
I have a house in bed and so I

1003
00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:11,640
last year, two years ago, he
invited me into their their

1004
00:58:11,640 --> 00:58:15,400
showroom to come see this stuff.
And I was actually the one who

1005
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:18,120
connected them to to Bennett
act.

1006
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:22,520
So the fact that Act is their
distributor now is is my fault?

1007
00:58:23,360 --> 00:58:24,200
Damn.
Well, there you go.

1008
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:28,640
Yeah, so, but yeah, I, my mind
was blown instantly when I saw

1009
00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:30,920
that.
It for me as soon as I saw the

1010
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:35,000
system move like that I was like
yeah why would you want a system

1011
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:39,200
that you can't do that with yeah
you know exactly but we we put

1012
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:42,240
our engineers are special yeah
last.

1013
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:45,080
Year and I mean it went up
lightning fast.

1014
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:47,080
Yeah right.
You hang it.

1015
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:49,520
None of the jacking around that
they got to do.

1016
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:52,240
Yeah.
All done from the from the pad,

1017
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:54,320
you know, from the iPad.
It's incredible.

1018
00:58:54,640 --> 00:58:57,960
It's incredible.
Well, and I can see a day and I

1019
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:00,520
was talking with Jeremy about
this last year.

1020
00:59:01,040 --> 00:59:04,600
I can see, and I'm sure they're
planning this where, you know,

1021
00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:07,320
you don't do any calculations
ahead of time.

1022
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:10,440
You just hang the same rig in
every situation.

1023
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,240
And once you're in the room, you
just say calibrate the room,

1024
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:19,320
boom, go, you know, and it does
it all using AI and some

1025
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:21,440
automation and stuff and and
there you go.

1026
00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:26,040
But yeah, that stuff is cool.
I forgot you guys are like the

1027
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:28,480
big PK guys right now in the
country.

1028
00:59:29,040 --> 00:59:32,960
Yeah, plus we got L acoustics.
Yeah, it's.

1029
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:38,080
Yeah.
And he's Mario's big on keeping

1030
00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:42,480
the having the good stuff.
Yeah, that's.

1031
00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:46,320
Well, hey, we're not gonna be
the cheapest guys on the block,

1032
00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:48,480
but we're gonna have the coolest
toys.

1033
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:50,840
You know what though?
You get known for that.

1034
00:59:50,840 --> 00:59:53,520
Like you get known for being the
coolest toys.

1035
00:59:53,520 --> 00:59:56,480
You know, everyone knows who's
got the junk and who's got the

1036
00:59:56,480 --> 00:59:59,120
real stuff.
And you know when you got a junk

1037
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:01,360
budget, sometimes you got to go
to the junk guys.

1038
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:03,880
When you got when you got a good
budget, you go to the ones you

1039
01:00:03,880 --> 01:00:05,560
really want.
That's what I'm saying.

1040
01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:06,920
I've had people come to me like
that.

1041
01:00:06,920 --> 01:00:09,400
I'm like, I'm sorry.
I can't.

1042
01:00:09,720 --> 01:00:12,760
Yeah, I don't have it, you know,
we're, we're too new.

1043
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:14,640
I don't have any old stuff to
give you.

1044
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:16,960
Yeah.
So that makes sense.

1045
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:18,080
Yeah.
I mean, you know, when we

1046
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:21,800
started this process, you know,
sat down with Mario, how do you

1047
01:00:21,800 --> 01:00:24,320
want to do this?
Do you want to, you know, we

1048
01:00:24,320 --> 01:00:29,160
could do the elation Chauvet,
you know, lower end stuff.

1049
01:00:29,160 --> 01:00:31,480
You know, their stuff's fine.
Nothing wrong with it, yeah.

1050
01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:34,920
No, I said maybe get 2 to one.
Yeah.

1051
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:37,440
Or do you want to stay at the
high end and the name brand

1052
01:00:37,440 --> 01:00:38,840
stuff?
Yeah, Name brand.

1053
01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:42,880
Yeah, we want the name brand and
that's, you know, that's where

1054
01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:44,840
he's built the company.
So it's it's cool.

1055
01:00:44,880 --> 01:00:47,440
It's funny that you're saying
Elation and Chauvet are not the

1056
01:00:47,440 --> 01:00:51,600
name brand stuff.
When when if you go to LDI, Like

1057
01:00:51,600 --> 01:00:55,520
I remember my days at LDI in the
early 90s and stuff.

1058
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,800
Martin and High End were the two
big companies there.

1059
01:00:58,880 --> 01:01:01,680
It was obviously big, but they
didn't do big booths at LDI.

1060
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:05,320
But Martin and High End we were
battling like maniacs and

1061
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:09,080
spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars on these booths and

1062
01:01:09,840 --> 01:01:13,280
elation and Chauvet were tiny
little, you know, these these

1063
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:16,920
tiny sort of offshore companies
over in the corner, right.

1064
01:01:17,400 --> 01:01:21,280
And now it's the opposite.
You know, now they're massive

1065
01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:22,720
Chauvet.
And I mean, you know.

1066
01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:25,600
We own, we own something, some
of each of it.

1067
01:01:25,720 --> 01:01:28,520
You know, there are certain
things that we bought into in

1068
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:29,160
that.
Yeah.

1069
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:33,160
But you know, and like I said,
not, no, not knocking anybody's

1070
01:01:33,160 --> 01:01:34,160
product.
It's just.

1071
01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:37,520
Everybody's stuff is good these
days, you know, it's the the

1072
01:01:37,520 --> 01:01:39,320
gear.
I mean, look, I came from the

1073
01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:42,240
days of the Verilite hospital.
Yeah.

1074
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:43,440
OK.
Where?

1075
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:46,880
You know, it's funny how well
they hid that stuff, though.

1076
01:01:46,880 --> 01:01:50,360
Unless you were on the inside,
you didn't know, like what you

1077
01:01:50,360 --> 01:01:53,760
didn't know, right?
And I've, I've had so many

1078
01:01:53,760 --> 01:01:57,920
verilite guys on here who have
told me stories about, you know,

1079
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,480
rebuilding fixtures in the
middle of shows and stuff.

1080
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:04,080
Yeah.
It, it was, I mean, when I

1081
01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:06,520
started there, I mean, that was
one of the reasons I got hired

1082
01:02:06,520 --> 01:02:10,720
because I was, you know, I had
my electrical technology degree.

1083
01:02:10,720 --> 01:02:14,440
I could actually fix stuff.
And back then, like when you had

1084
01:02:14,440 --> 01:02:20,160
AVL one rig out, you had to like
solder things and, you know,

1085
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:23,320
replace components and that to
fix your gear.

1086
01:02:23,320 --> 01:02:25,640
So you had to know kind of what
you were doing.

1087
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:29,080
And, you know, now it's just
swapped the boards, even even

1088
01:02:29,080 --> 01:02:32,120
the newer, you know, once I went
to the series 200 stuff, all

1089
01:02:32,120 --> 01:02:33,760
that went out the out the window
here.

1090
01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:36,120
Swap a new board, send it back.
We'll fix it.

1091
01:02:36,480 --> 01:02:38,480
Yeah.
So, you know, but I mean, that's

1092
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:42,880
how it is evolved, you know,
from well, when you had to be a

1093
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:47,240
real technician to now. 100%
Well, now, I mean, so Speaking

1094
01:02:47,240 --> 01:02:50,640
of Ayrton, I was at the Ayrton
factory, or not the factory,

1095
01:02:50,640 --> 01:02:53,920
their office in in France a
couple of years ago.

1096
01:02:54,480 --> 01:02:57,800
And I was talking to one of
their engineers and I hadn't

1097
01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:02,160
seen the inside of a moving
light since probably I left, I

1098
01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:05,360
don't know, Komar or something
when we had Komar.

1099
01:03:06,840 --> 01:03:09,840
But it's been a while.
It's been 15 years or something

1100
01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:13,000
more maybe since I saw the
inside of a moving light.

1101
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:16,600
And so he opened up a fixture
and I was blown away by, first

1102
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:18,840
of all, how much shit they're
putting in there now.

1103
01:03:18,840 --> 01:03:23,040
Yeah, Oh my God, They pack a lot
into these little fixtures.

1104
01:03:23,080 --> 01:03:26,400
Yeah.
And I said, OK, So what breaks?

1105
01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:29,600
And this French engineer looks
at me and goes, excuse me?

1106
01:03:30,240 --> 01:03:34,360
And I said, what breaks?
And he goes, but what do you

1107
01:03:34,360 --> 01:03:36,720
mean?
And I said, well, something

1108
01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:39,720
breaks in this thing.
And let's say I live on a

1109
01:03:39,720 --> 01:03:43,520
remote, I'm taking them to a
remote island and I want enough

1110
01:03:43,520 --> 01:03:46,840
stuff to keep the shit working
for six months or whatever.

1111
01:03:47,160 --> 01:03:50,680
What do I need to bring with me?
And he goes, ah, I see what

1112
01:03:50,680 --> 01:03:53,240
breaks.
Yes, nothing.

1113
01:03:54,560 --> 01:03:58,840
It's funny you say that because,
you know, and the Morpheus to

1114
01:03:58,840 --> 01:04:01,360
bring in, you know, they
introduce a new light.

1115
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:04,160
Yeah, Right.
OK, OK.

1116
01:04:04,160 --> 01:04:06,600
We're going to take a hundred of
them, whatever we're doing.

1117
01:04:06,640 --> 01:04:07,160
All right?
Yeah.

1118
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:10,320
And then we want so much spare
parts.

1119
01:04:11,320 --> 01:04:12,760
What do you mean?
What parts?

1120
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:16,520
Well, you know, for.
No inflation.

1121
01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:19,320
That's what I'm saying, yeah.
Yeah, and and they they were.

1122
01:04:19,480 --> 01:04:24,640
This is a foreign concept to
them and because especially when

1123
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:28,720
you're building in China, if
you're building 500 units, they

1124
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:32,360
build 500.
They don't build 500 with a 10%

1125
01:04:32,680 --> 01:04:35,240
overrun for spare.
Parts true, yeah.

1126
01:04:35,240 --> 01:04:37,800
You get 500 lights and there
aren't.

1127
01:04:37,800 --> 01:04:41,240
We used to have to gut new
lights to replace parts under

1128
01:04:41,240 --> 01:04:42,800
warranty.
True, yeah.

1129
01:04:43,560 --> 01:04:47,200
So that was just not a concept
that they understood.

1130
01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:51,720
He basically finally told me,
you know, a main board and, and

1131
01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:55,280
maybe a couple of motors and,
but that's about it.

1132
01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:57,920
Like, you know, you don't really
need much more than that, you

1133
01:04:57,920 --> 01:05:01,720
know, and but my point that I'm
making is, is, and I've said

1134
01:05:01,720 --> 01:05:06,320
this 1000 times on this podcast,
but young kids these days don't

1135
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:09,160
know how good they have it
because everything is good.

1136
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:11,800
I don't care what fixtures are
showing up at a show.

1137
01:05:12,040 --> 01:05:15,200
They're 100 times better than
the VLS or Morpheus stuff that

1138
01:05:15,200 --> 01:05:18,600
you used to work on or the
Martin stuff that I used to sell

1139
01:05:18,600 --> 01:05:20,800
or even the high end stuff I
used to sell.

1140
01:05:21,600 --> 01:05:25,320
It was good at the time.
But if you compare any old high

1141
01:05:25,320 --> 01:05:29,120
end fixture, a studio color
studio spot to anything from

1142
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:32,200
Airton or anything from Robe or
anything from any of the

1143
01:05:32,200 --> 01:05:34,560
companies, even Elation and
Chauvet and all of these

1144
01:05:34,560 --> 01:05:38,680
companies today, no comparison,
you know, it's just so much

1145
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:41,400
better.
The the, the manufacturing

1146
01:05:41,400 --> 01:05:47,040
processes have become so good.
Yeah, that you know, it's.

1147
01:05:47,400 --> 01:05:48,960
Well, it's also.
I mean, it's what it needed to

1148
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:51,600
happen though.
It's LEDs too, you know, Because

1149
01:05:51,600 --> 01:05:55,160
absolutely remove the heat.
You remove 80% of the problems

1150
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:57,360
you know.
But you know, that's the thing

1151
01:05:57,360 --> 01:05:58,920
there.
That's a fallacy now.

1152
01:05:59,200 --> 01:06:03,760
I mean, we're looking at a light
the other day, 1800 Watt LED.

1153
01:06:04,040 --> 01:06:07,360
That's 1800 watts. 1800 Watts
Physics.

1154
01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:08,640
Is.
Physics, yeah.

1155
01:06:08,760 --> 01:06:10,560
You still got to get rid of that
heat.

1156
01:06:10,680 --> 01:06:14,880
It's still got to do a process
to generate that kind of output.

1157
01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:18,760
Well, these things are drawn 989
amps now, so.

1158
01:06:18,760 --> 01:06:20,880
Much.
Yeah, this is the thing that

1159
01:06:20,880 --> 01:06:25,000
some people don't seem to
understand is one Watt equals

1160
01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:27,240
one Watt.
So I don't care how bright it

1161
01:06:27,240 --> 01:06:28,840
is, I don't care any of those
things.

1162
01:06:29,040 --> 01:06:32,560
One Watt of energy equals X
amount of amount of heat.

1163
01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:36,680
Whether that Watt is coming from
a light bulb or an LED, it's

1164
01:06:36,680 --> 01:06:39,280
still gonna.
And the problem with LE DS is LE

1165
01:06:39,280 --> 01:06:43,360
DS don't like the heat coming
back to the, you know, to the,

1166
01:06:43,440 --> 01:06:44,400
to the.
Chip, the chip.

1167
01:06:44,640 --> 01:06:50,080
Yeah, to to the what do they
call it the where the chip is on

1168
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:52,960
mounted to the board, you know,
the the contact point or

1169
01:06:52,960 --> 01:06:54,320
whatever the contact
temperature.

1170
01:06:54,320 --> 01:06:58,080
They don't like to be more than
whatever it is 70° C or

1171
01:06:58,080 --> 01:07:01,360
something, right.
But yeah, I mean, but The thing

1172
01:07:01,360 --> 01:07:05,120
is again, like you've got
companies like this B Topper and

1173
01:07:05,120 --> 01:07:08,320
all these companies that I see
on Facebook selling on Facebook

1174
01:07:08,320 --> 01:07:15,240
marketplace and stuff that, you
know, is it's pretty low end non

1175
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:18,600
brand kind of Amazon lighting,
right, right.

1176
01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:21,840
But that stuff's good.
You know, I mean to use once or

1177
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:24,360
twice it's great.
You know, it might not last very

1178
01:07:24,360 --> 01:07:25,440
long.
You wouldn't want to take it on

1179
01:07:25,440 --> 01:07:28,440
tour, but it's good.
You know, for your bar band,

1180
01:07:28,440 --> 01:07:30,520
it's going to be fine, Yeah, You
know.

1181
01:07:31,080 --> 01:07:34,720
So on the topic of an
interesting story, I remember

1182
01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:38,280
you telling me once that you
were actually at the at the

1183
01:07:38,280 --> 01:07:42,880
Pepsi commercial shoot that MJ
did.

1184
01:07:43,320 --> 01:07:45,880
Yeah, where his his head caught
on fire.

1185
01:07:46,320 --> 01:07:50,920
Yeah, Yeah, that was it was
8082.

1186
01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:54,320
I can remember exactly what year
it was, but yeah, I was

1187
01:07:54,320 --> 01:07:57,480
actually, I was working for OB.
That's the first time I ever met

1188
01:07:57,800 --> 01:07:59,440
Zeb.
Oh wow.

1189
01:07:59,520 --> 01:08:02,760
Was he was doing scientist?
That he is or was?

1190
01:08:02,800 --> 01:08:07,200
Sorry, yeah.
He was I think he was doing what

1191
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:17,439
was it is one of those tube kind
of moving lights mirror.

1192
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,279
I can't remember the OH.
The Telescans.

1193
01:08:20,880 --> 01:08:24,800
Yeah, he was running telescans
on that and.

1194
01:08:25,800 --> 01:08:28,319
Or Z scans one of the two.
Oh yeah, it may have been Z

1195
01:08:28,319 --> 01:08:30,200
scan.
Yeah, yeah, I was talking to

1196
01:08:30,200 --> 01:08:32,080
Brickman yesterday about the Z
scans.

1197
01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:35,680
Yeah, one one of the another
Pioneer light.

1198
01:08:36,160 --> 01:08:40,520
Yeah, but we I was running,
there was the staircase that he

1199
01:08:40,520 --> 01:08:44,600
was on and I was on the side of
the stage running the lights as

1200
01:08:44,600 --> 01:08:47,520
he would come down the stairs.
I would have to, you know, bring

1201
01:08:47,520 --> 01:08:49,600
up the lights as he's coming
down the stairs.

1202
01:08:50,399 --> 01:08:56,720
And they had done a couple of
takes and it's like done like 5

1203
01:08:56,720 --> 01:08:57,680
takes.
Yeah, fine.

1204
01:08:57,760 --> 01:09:05,680
And they're the big, there's a
through of of pyro at the top,

1205
01:09:05,680 --> 01:09:08,800
you know, big flame at the top
of this.

1206
01:09:08,800 --> 01:09:10,160
It was like a stairway to
nowhere.

1207
01:09:10,160 --> 01:09:11,960
It was that was it.
It would have fallen off the

1208
01:09:11,960 --> 01:09:13,479
back if you would have went any
farther.

1209
01:09:13,960 --> 01:09:18,720
And I think director had changed
the choreography a little bit

1210
01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:22,040
and we didn't know it.
So he had made his, Michael had

1211
01:09:22,040 --> 01:09:24,439
made his move like he was coming
down the stairs like he had in

1212
01:09:24,439 --> 01:09:26,880
the other takes.
But he told him to hold up there

1213
01:09:27,359 --> 01:09:30,800
and the pyro guy fired the
flash, you know, big through of

1214
01:09:30,800 --> 01:09:33,319
flash powder and he was just in
it.

1215
01:09:34,479 --> 01:09:36,399
When?
Just came and I just saw this

1216
01:09:36,399 --> 01:09:38,800
from the side, right.
Went right up, right up his

1217
01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:40,760
back.
And when he came out of it, the

1218
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:43,279
Jheri curl or whatever, the
stuff that was in his hair

1219
01:09:44,200 --> 01:09:45,880
caught fire.
And by the time he got to the

1220
01:09:45,880 --> 01:09:48,680
bottom of the stairs, you know,
his head's on fire and they hit

1221
01:09:48,680 --> 01:09:53,920
the brothers, you know, attack
in the and the security guys

1222
01:09:53,920 --> 01:09:56,760
were on up on stage, you know,
and I've been talking to Michael

1223
01:09:56,760 --> 01:09:59,440
just before that happened, just
before that take.

1224
01:09:59,720 --> 01:10:04,680
But anyway, so it wasn't as bad
as they made it to be.

1225
01:10:04,680 --> 01:10:07,680
Apparently it was like a, you
know, maybe half dollar size

1226
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:09,320
burn on the top of his head and
that.

1227
01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:12,880
But, you know, he was he was OK.
Yeah.

1228
01:10:12,880 --> 01:10:18,280
But the interesting part about
that was George Travis was the

1229
01:10:18,280 --> 01:10:26,160
production manager on that and
Michael's security team comes

1230
01:10:26,160 --> 01:10:29,640
charging into the production
office.

1231
01:10:31,080 --> 01:10:34,800
Where is the pyro man at?
Oh no.

1232
01:10:35,480 --> 01:10:38,000
Because that was Jackson was, I
mean, he was the hottest thing

1233
01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:40,480
literally on the planet right
then, right?

1234
01:10:40,480 --> 01:10:42,680
Yeah.
And George, as soon as it

1235
01:10:42,680 --> 01:10:47,160
happened, George had taken the
pyro guy and put him in a closet

1236
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:50,920
and said don't come out of here
until I come and get you.

1237
01:10:52,400 --> 01:10:57,440
So the three, there's like 3
security guys are combing the

1238
01:10:57,440 --> 01:10:59,360
building looking for the pyro
guy.

1239
01:10:59,440 --> 01:11:01,520
Oh no.
And there's there's no doubt in

1240
01:11:01,520 --> 01:11:04,840
my mind that George shaves his
life that day because these they

1241
01:11:04,840 --> 01:11:05,880
would have killed him.
Wow.

1242
01:11:06,360 --> 01:11:08,600
There's no doubt in my mind they
would at least beat the shit out

1243
01:11:08,600 --> 01:11:09,040
of it.
Hopes.

1244
01:11:09,160 --> 01:11:10,880
Wow.
But you can.

1245
01:11:10,960 --> 01:11:14,560
You can say shit, we've had much
worse on here.

1246
01:11:14,560 --> 01:11:17,480
Trust me, I'm sure.
I have had wise it went on here

1247
01:11:17,480 --> 01:11:23,000
like three times or something.
So yeah, yeah, no filter, John.

1248
01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:26,200
No, that's a crazy story.
Did you know at the time like

1249
01:11:26,200 --> 01:11:28,800
this is going to be something
that I'm going to be talking

1250
01:11:28,800 --> 01:11:30,000
about 40 years from now.
I.

1251
01:11:30,640 --> 01:11:33,360
Mean, you know it's.
You know how things happen on a

1252
01:11:33,360 --> 01:11:34,640
set.
You know you don't.

1253
01:11:35,160 --> 01:11:37,520
You know, and you're part of it.
You don't really think about it.

1254
01:11:37,680 --> 01:11:40,360
There was 3000 people in the
audience that saw it happen.

1255
01:11:40,480 --> 01:11:41,280
Yeah.
Right.

1256
01:11:41,280 --> 01:11:43,040
So it wasn't like a closed set
or anything.

1257
01:11:43,040 --> 01:11:45,840
So it was kind of weird, but
yeah, yeah.

1258
01:11:45,840 --> 01:11:50,040
I mean, you know, you at the
time, you know, and that that's,

1259
01:11:50,120 --> 01:11:52,720
I guess that's the thing.
I've always, I've always, this

1260
01:11:52,720 --> 01:11:56,080
is a job.
I I never really collected, you

1261
01:11:56,720 --> 01:12:01,360
know, you know, a bunch of, of
memorabilia or autographs or any

1262
01:12:01,360 --> 01:12:04,000
of that stuff because to me, it
was always a job.

1263
01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:07,160
And I was, I was just working.
This was, that was just part of

1264
01:12:07,160 --> 01:12:08,000
it.
Yeah.

1265
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:11,440
And so I never really thought
about, you know, I never really

1266
01:12:11,440 --> 01:12:13,240
thought about it.
And then you hear people talk

1267
01:12:13,240 --> 01:12:16,120
about it now like it's this
thing that happened.

1268
01:12:16,120 --> 01:12:20,040
And I guess it was, you know,
when you set the the biggest pop

1269
01:12:20,040 --> 01:12:22,400
star on the planet at the time
on fire.

1270
01:12:23,160 --> 01:12:25,440
That's.
Yeah, that's significant.

1271
01:12:25,440 --> 01:12:27,200
That's newsworthy.
Yeah.

1272
01:12:27,880 --> 01:12:29,880
Yeah.
I mean, imagine how he felt.

1273
01:12:29,880 --> 01:12:32,360
You know, the the Biro guy,
right?

1274
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:36,240
Like I did e-mail.
Yeah, but it, it wasn't, it

1275
01:12:36,240 --> 01:12:39,000
wasn't his fault.
Like I said, there was a there

1276
01:12:39,000 --> 01:12:42,680
was a change of direction that
we never heard.

1277
01:12:42,960 --> 01:12:46,360
Yeah.
So we just did because I I hit

1278
01:12:46,360 --> 01:12:49,600
my queue, He hit his queue, you
know, everybody else, all the

1279
01:12:49,600 --> 01:12:52,080
other lighting, you know,
because he was making his move

1280
01:12:52,080 --> 01:12:53,680
down that stair.
And then he stopped.

1281
01:12:54,240 --> 01:12:56,400
And that's, that's what the
thing.

1282
01:12:56,400 --> 01:12:58,680
Yeah.
If he would have just kept going

1283
01:12:58,680 --> 01:13:01,560
like he had, the other takes
would never happen.

1284
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:04,800
But he had asked him for more.
I want a bigger flame, bigger

1285
01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:06,560
flame for that.
So they.

1286
01:13:06,800 --> 01:13:09,200
You got it.
Yeah, you got the bigger flame.

1287
01:13:09,680 --> 01:13:13,320
Wow, that is a crazy story.
I don't know if you noticed, but

1288
01:13:13,320 --> 01:13:15,160
my internet's going crazy, so I
just.

1289
01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:20,600
I had to share with you, I just
did a speed test.

1290
01:13:20,600 --> 01:13:24,360
So I've got 4 megabits per
second when I normally have like

1291
01:13:24,360 --> 01:13:25,920
a Gigabit.
So yeah.

1292
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:28,040
Yeah, it's, that's what I was
telling you earlier.

1293
01:13:28,040 --> 01:13:31,840
You go from a Gigabit to like 0
to a Gigabit to four.

1294
01:13:32,360 --> 01:13:35,200
So, yeah, we've had some
struggles on this podcast

1295
01:13:35,200 --> 01:13:37,040
because of it.
But because of the way we

1296
01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:38,920
recorded, it's going to be all
smooth at the end.

1297
01:13:38,920 --> 01:13:40,440
Yeah.
Here you go.

1298
01:13:41,240 --> 01:13:45,080
So you're married still?
Presumably, Yeah.

1299
01:13:45,520 --> 01:13:49,040
And you, you have kids and I
think grandkids now.

1300
01:13:49,480 --> 01:13:52,120
Oh, yeah, they're fun.
Yeah.

1301
01:13:52,120 --> 01:13:56,480
I have three daughters and, you
know, raised three daughters in

1302
01:13:56,480 --> 01:13:58,440
Las Vegas and.
Oh boy.

1303
01:13:58,560 --> 01:14:01,960
Have you heard that Chris Rock
routine about your duty as a

1304
01:14:01,960 --> 01:14:04,880
father is to keep?
Your daughter off the pole.

1305
01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:09,240
Yeah, we kept ours off the pole.
Good for you in Las Vegas.

1306
01:14:09,400 --> 01:14:12,400
In Las Vegas, none the less.
Yeah, all of them got advanced

1307
01:14:12,400 --> 01:14:14,200
degrees.
They're all teachers of Wow

1308
01:14:14,840 --> 01:14:19,240
elementary one's APHD teaching
up in Reno and the others

1309
01:14:19,240 --> 01:14:22,360
teaching nursing.
She was a she's an MP who's now

1310
01:14:22,360 --> 01:14:25,760
teaching nursing.
And then two of them have I got

1311
01:14:25,760 --> 01:14:29,360
a three-year old granddaughter
and a 2 year old granddaughter.

1312
01:14:29,840 --> 01:14:33,720
And then we got expecting a
grandson here within the next

1313
01:14:33,720 --> 01:14:36,400
couple weeks.
Is there no male DNA in you

1314
01:14:36,440 --> 01:14:38,320
anywhere or what the hell is the
deal?

1315
01:14:38,360 --> 01:14:41,080
Here, Mark, that's punishment
for being on the road.

1316
01:14:42,680 --> 01:14:45,040
Yes, you will have all girls.
That's.

1317
01:14:45,120 --> 01:14:47,720
Right.
Yeah, but I was, I was in a rock

1318
01:14:47,720 --> 01:14:52,320
band for a number of years and
so I probably didn't deserve the

1319
01:14:52,320 --> 01:14:55,600
one son that I got, so.
Oh, but he's a race car driver

1320
01:14:55,760 --> 01:14:58,240
and if I can come back, that is
what I would do.

1321
01:14:58,480 --> 01:15:01,280
Yeah, that's what I would do
too, if I could afford two of

1322
01:15:01,280 --> 01:15:05,160
us.
Yeah, I can hardly afford one of

1323
01:15:05,160 --> 01:15:08,080
us, trust me.
Yeah, I had Donnie Ladico on the

1324
01:15:08,080 --> 01:15:10,640
podcast a few weeks ago and we
were comparing notes because

1325
01:15:10,640 --> 01:15:14,640
he's got his kid in go karts and
I'm like, hold my beer, man.

1326
01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:17,440
Wait till you move up from go
karts to cars, Donnie.

1327
01:15:17,440 --> 01:15:18,560
Yeah.
Oh, no, we're not going to do

1328
01:15:18,560 --> 01:15:20,720
that.
Neither will we, but we did.

1329
01:15:21,280 --> 01:15:22,360
So.
But next.

1330
01:15:22,400 --> 01:15:23,040
Yeah.
But wait.

1331
01:15:23,160 --> 01:15:24,800
There's more.
It happens.

1332
01:15:24,960 --> 01:15:27,920
It just happens.
So we got two more on the way.

1333
01:15:27,920 --> 01:15:30,160
So fun.
You know they're you are 5

1334
01:15:30,160 --> 01:15:34,600
grandkids.
No 422 daughters now will have

1335
01:15:34,600 --> 01:15:37,840
another son and AI mean a
grandson and a granddaughter

1336
01:15:37,840 --> 01:15:40,840
within the next two months.
Oh, so you do have a boy coming.

1337
01:15:41,280 --> 01:15:44,480
Yeah, There you go, final.
He's due within the next couple

1338
01:15:44,480 --> 01:15:46,160
weeks.
Well, he's going to be spoiled

1339
01:15:46,160 --> 01:15:48,120
by Granddad Mark.
You think?

1340
01:15:48,440 --> 01:15:50,600
Yeah, grand.
Happy Mark.

1341
01:15:52,200 --> 01:15:54,920
There's I don't know if the
girls will want the Corvette,

1342
01:15:54,920 --> 01:16:00,040
but there'll be a shiny 2001 06
waiting for him when he turned

1343
01:16:00,040 --> 01:16:02,080
16.
So there you go.

1344
01:16:02,080 --> 01:16:05,160
We'll see how that works.
There you go my my son had take

1345
01:16:05,160 --> 01:16:07,840
that car from you.
He'd scrub your floors for the

1346
01:16:07,840 --> 01:16:11,760
next 5 years for that.
He doesn't like the C8, he likes

1347
01:16:11,760 --> 01:16:15,520
the C6.
Yeah, he's the C5, but yeah.

1348
01:16:15,600 --> 01:16:20,120
I know, but he, he just, he'd
love AC 506 if it was clean

1349
01:16:20,120 --> 01:16:21,720
enough.
You know, he goes C6.

1350
01:16:22,040 --> 01:16:25,480
He goes C6 just because, you
know, most of the C fives.

1351
01:16:25,560 --> 01:16:27,480
He prefers the C5 actually,
yeah.

1352
01:16:28,400 --> 01:16:30,840
It was the first one with modern
technology.

1353
01:16:30,840 --> 01:16:33,160
Really.
Yeah, yeah, I had it's, I had

1354
01:16:33,160 --> 01:16:35,160
Corvettes right up until C
sixes.

1355
01:16:35,160 --> 01:16:39,240
I never bought AC 7.
By then I had moved on to like

1356
01:16:39,280 --> 01:16:43,240
Audis and stuff and I just
noticed that they didn't rattle

1357
01:16:43,240 --> 01:16:46,280
as much and they didn't make as
many funny noises and stuff.

1358
01:16:46,920 --> 01:16:49,960
I'll be at a little bit more
expensive, but yeah.

1359
01:16:50,280 --> 01:16:52,720
But you know, I, I still keep
saying I'm gonna go back to

1360
01:16:52,720 --> 01:16:54,200
another vet.
I've had like 10 of them.

1361
01:16:54,280 --> 01:16:57,080
I've had 10 vets I think.
This is the only one this was

1362
01:16:57,800 --> 01:17:03,640
That vet was my gift to me for
getting the three girls through

1363
01:17:03,640 --> 01:17:06,760
college.
I took care of their undergrad

1364
01:17:06,760 --> 01:17:12,040
stuff, any of the grad stuff
they did, but I went OK and once

1365
01:17:12,040 --> 01:17:15,400
the last one moved out of the
house about a month later the

1366
01:17:15,600 --> 01:17:18,320
the vet moved in.
So you you probably thought,

1367
01:17:18,320 --> 01:17:21,640
holy shit I got money left, I
better spend it quick before

1368
01:17:21,640 --> 01:17:23,360
somebody has a kid.
Yeah, really.

1369
01:17:24,520 --> 01:17:27,080
Yeah, raising three daughters
and putting them all through

1370
01:17:27,080 --> 01:17:29,640
college and stuff, you know,
good on you.

1371
01:17:29,640 --> 01:17:32,280
God bless you.
That's that's a big, big

1372
01:17:32,280 --> 01:17:33,760
accomplishment.
So.

1373
01:17:33,880 --> 01:17:36,440
They're and they're great.
They're yeah, I love them.

1374
01:17:36,440 --> 01:17:39,480
They're they're, they're really
good kids.

1375
01:17:39,680 --> 01:17:41,240
Yeah.
It's all you can hope for,

1376
01:17:41,240 --> 01:17:43,360
really.
We mentioned it earlier, but

1377
01:17:43,880 --> 01:17:46,800
Mark is going to be doing this
thing that we're calling Dining

1378
01:17:46,800 --> 01:17:52,600
with Dinosaurs at LDI and it's
on the 9th, on Monday, the 9th

1379
01:17:52,600 --> 01:17:57,520
between 12:30 and 2:00, and it
includes lunch and stuff.

1380
01:17:57,520 --> 01:18:02,960
You can get to it by registering
at ldishow.com, I believe, and

1381
01:18:02,960 --> 01:18:05,320
it's going to be cool.
It's basically guys like Mark

1382
01:18:05,320 --> 01:18:08,480
who have been in the business a
long time and who have a lot of

1383
01:18:08,480 --> 01:18:12,960
great stories to tell and who
have wisdom to pass on, which is

1384
01:18:12,960 --> 01:18:15,440
a big, big deal.
And that's what was the start of

1385
01:18:15,440 --> 01:18:18,880
all of this, is we just did
things differently back in the

1386
01:18:18,880 --> 01:18:21,240
day.
Then it's done today.

1387
01:18:21,240 --> 01:18:24,600
And and some of those lessons
probably don't need to be passed

1388
01:18:24,600 --> 01:18:26,520
on because they were dangerous
or whatever.

1389
01:18:26,960 --> 01:18:30,800
But some of those lessons, what?
Yeah, some of those lessons do

1390
01:18:30,800 --> 01:18:34,160
need to be passed on.
So Mark is going to be part of

1391
01:18:34,160 --> 01:18:35,840
that event.
And we're very grateful to you

1392
01:18:35,840 --> 01:18:38,520
coming and doing that.
That'll be fun.

1393
01:18:38,560 --> 01:18:40,560
It'll be, it'll be a fun group
of people too.

1394
01:18:40,560 --> 01:18:45,040
You'll recognize everyone there.
So yeah, we're getting new

1395
01:18:45,040 --> 01:18:48,320
confirmations every day.
One of them is a designer that

1396
01:18:48,320 --> 01:18:51,200
you just brought up, Mr.
Rabbits, Who's coming?

1397
01:18:51,920 --> 01:18:53,120
Yeah, he's awesome.
Great guy.

1398
01:18:53,120 --> 01:18:56,600
Well, he was very good to
Morpheus for so long, too.

1399
01:18:56,600 --> 01:18:58,920
I mean, talk about loyalty,
Jesus.

1400
01:18:59,360 --> 01:19:02,920
Against all odds, loyalty, you
know, that maybe wasn't even

1401
01:19:02,920 --> 01:19:07,400
deserved at sometimes you know.
But but you know, he he and and

1402
01:19:07,560 --> 01:19:09,520
again, George Travis, you know,
they're very loyal to the

1403
01:19:09,520 --> 01:19:12,640
people.
You know, that was they wanted

1404
01:19:13,200 --> 01:19:15,840
Todd Ritchie out there as the
board up and you know.

1405
01:19:16,400 --> 01:19:20,920
Yeah, Brad, and it's very cool.
It's very cool how long that run

1406
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:23,600
was with Jeff and Morpheus.
It's.

1407
01:19:23,640 --> 01:19:26,520
It was 20 some years.
Yeah, it's amazing.

1408
01:19:26,560 --> 01:19:29,680
That just blows my mind how
loyal that guy is.

1409
01:19:29,680 --> 01:19:31,600
And I love Jeff.
He's such a nice guy.

1410
01:19:31,640 --> 01:19:35,320
So I look forward to seeing him
in a few weeks, months, two

1411
01:19:35,320 --> 01:19:36,160
months.
I don't know how.

1412
01:19:36,160 --> 01:19:37,240
Far it is.
That's great.

1413
01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:39,520
I'm glad he'll be there.
Yeah, he'll be there.

1414
01:19:40,240 --> 01:19:43,400
Well, I think I'm gonna have to
say goodbye to you just because

1415
01:19:43,400 --> 01:19:46,320
I know my internet's gonna die
at some point completely.

1416
01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:48,120
And then, and then we've got a
problem.

1417
01:19:48,120 --> 01:19:51,000
So yeah, while I've actually got
Internet, I should end this

1418
01:19:51,000 --> 01:19:51,560
thing.
And.

1419
01:19:51,560 --> 01:19:54,640
And I appreciate you coming and
doing this though, Mark, It's.

1420
01:19:54,720 --> 01:19:57,640
Fun.
Super cool to get to know you a

1421
01:19:57,640 --> 01:19:59,760
little better and certainly your
company.

1422
01:20:00,880 --> 01:20:04,080
Yeah, so.
It's just building another

1423
01:20:04,080 --> 01:20:05,640
lighting company.
It's kind of what I do.

1424
01:20:07,000 --> 01:20:09,520
Yeah, well, hopefully you're
slowing down now and you found a

1425
01:20:09,520 --> 01:20:11,640
home and and you're stuck there
forever.

1426
01:20:12,040 --> 01:20:13,160
Yeah.
So yeah.

1427
01:20:13,640 --> 01:20:15,760
At least a few more years, Yeah.
So.

1428
01:20:16,000 --> 01:20:17,360
Yeah.
All right, Mark.

1429
01:20:17,360 --> 01:20:20,240
Well, I'll see you at LDI and
and thanks for everything.

1430
01:20:20,640 --> 01:20:22,000
Hey Marshall, thanks for having
me on.

1431
01:20:22,000 --> 01:20:23,520
I really appreciate it.
This is a lot of.

1432
01:20:23,520 --> 01:20:25,200
Fun.
All right, Enjoy it.

1433
01:20:25,240 --> 01:20:25,840
Cheers.
All right, bye.

1434
01:20:25,840 --> 01:20:25,960
Bye.