#283 - LDI Review with Marcel and Sarah

0:00 Welcome to episode #283 And so today Sarah and I are doing a bit of a review on the LDI trade show. We just got back from it. Well, I just got back from it. She's still in Las Vegas having a party and it was fun. It was a blast. We're going to talk a bit about dining with dinosaurs, little bit about some of the things that I saw or she saw that were great, just some of the fun times and it was a blast. Man, I I missed not going to it last year for the first time, I think in 30 something years. And so this year I was really happy to be back. It was a good show. It was crowded, lots of cool product, great friends and some stories to tell as well.

0:42 So I hope you enjoy it. Have fun. Hello and thank you for joining me today. Geez of Gear episode #203 Today's podcast is brought to you by Main Light, a national dry hire rental provider specializing in supplying the latest lighting technology and stage equipment. Their extensive rental inventory includes moving lights, Trust solutions, control consoles, LE DS and a selection of weather resistant IP65 rated fixtures perfect for outdoor venues. Committed to quality and reliability, Main Light also provide a robust selection of you sales options to their clients. Each item is meticulously maintained, owned by Main Light and comes with a 60 day depot warranty providing you with confidence in your purchase. Strategically located across the US, their four key locations are Teterboro, NJ, Wilmington, DE, Nashville, TN, and Las Vegas, NV.

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3:31 What happened? What happened, Marcel? You left me. Yeah, in Vegas. A minute ago we were having breakfast at the hotel at the Renaissance. The lovely Renaissance. Yeah. Yep. So it was funny because Sarah was staying at a different hotel, but I had a $50 a day credit and I won't tell you why because it's embarrassing, but I had a $50 a day credit for the restaurant and and so Sarah came over and had breakfast every. Day yeah me and my husband we we gate crashed hotel and had breakfast and it was yummy every. Day, Yeah. What was your favorite? What was your favorite? Which? Which breakfast was your favorite? Oh, avocado toast, of course. I don't know, it was a little weird though. The avocado toast was weird.

4:15 I. Kind of like the. The eggs Benny that your husband liked. So much, yeah. He loved that. It's funny because you don't think there's anyone on earth who's never had eggs Benedict, but in comes Minoli and he's like. What is that? What did you do? Is this Crocodile Dundee in Vegas? Crocodile Dundee, Minoli and the The other funny thing was the first day we got there, when we faked your birthday in the restaurant and we got Bloody Mary's and he's like, what is this Bloody Mary? He didn't like it so much. He's like tomato juice with vodka. Yeah. He hates it. But then the worst thing was that then two days later we turned up and it actually was his birthday. It is his birthday.

4:57 I think they think we're bullshitting even though we weren't. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's OK, everyone. 'S so The funny thing is like really, because so for those of you that don't know my husband's Greek and really, you know, he's not left the island boy. He hasn't, you know, couple of places in Europe, Europe, but you know, never as far as America. And he's never been a Mexican meal, like apart from my cookie, which doesn't count. So last night we went for a Mexican and he's like wow. Saw God and then today he's been on the toilet all day. Yeah, that's usually how Mexican gets you, you know? Oh, this tastes good. Let me have more. All those Gabenos, they're amazing. Yeah. And then Jeremy, Jeremy says, you know, we really burns on the way out too. Yeah.

5:44 So this was what like your second industry trade show, right for our industry? 3rd actually third. 3rd What was the other one? What was it? Because I know you had Plaza. Plaza was my very first and prolite. Yeah, Prolite. I forgot about Prolite. Yeah. And then and now here. So what was if I was to ask you your grand view of how did you like it? What'd you think like overall? Overall, it was overwhelming. That's the first thing. Like it's, you know, it's so intense. It's so busy. And I suppose being there for the three days, I mean, we were there for the grand opening, the clapping, you know, coming into LDRI, that was, you know, that that was just, that was just great. And then coming in and it was so busy everywhere. Yeah.

6:31 I think my brain kind of went to mush and everything I wanted to be there for. I was like, oh, you know, like, yeah. And of course, walking around with you, you knew everybody. And, you know, it was it was just like, OK. And I mean both of us by the end of it. I mean, my back, my legs, my I was like, Oh my goodness. This is just insane. Well, the concrete floors too. Like standing around on concrete floors. I remember when they used to have carpet in the aisles too. From an axe, go start an axe and just like spring around. Yeah, ACT has like this much padding on their floor. You can tell who's selling the real MA consoles and who's selling the fake ones.

7:12 Yeah, seriously, that was like, I just went back there just to stand on their carpet. I know. I know it was so relaxing standing on that carpet, you know, Speaking of act, it was pretty freaky on the first day running into Ben. And you've met Ben before or no? No, I don't believe so, no. So I'm good friends with Ben from ACT and I like he walked by me, didn't even notice him walks up And first of all, he's wearing a friggin cowboy hat. So, you know, a a New York Jew in a cowboy hat just doesn't really catch me instantly, you know. So then I took a second take and I'm like Ben and he goes, yeah, what's happening? That's. Some like. He's literally like AI don't know half of what he was last time I saw him, which wasn't that long ago and you know it. It's remarkable.

8:01 Like I was blown away. Good on him. And that probably just added 20 years to his life, you know, plus he. Looks great photos but really I I mean you doubled took but and I was like oh wow yeah that's Ben that's you know I. Mean. He's skinny, he's little, he's small, like and. Like like you said, you know, eating healthy, exercising, it works well. That's what he said. I, I said to him, Ben, how did you do it? And I'm expecting Ozempic and this and that drug and this doctor. And he goes, you know, it's amazing. And I said what? And he goes. Apparently eating good and exercising is a thing, you know. But I feel like I've got on like 2 kilos just from being here. You know, it's funny, I weighed myself when I got back and I was the same, so I might have even lost a pound just from The Walking around.

8:52 And stuff. Walking around? Yeah, too. But I mean, I'm used to eating like a pig when it comes to living in the United States, you know, because everything's so big here. It's hard here. Really. It's it's hard, you know, like I come from a, you know, a rich land full of natural vegetables and, you know, all the rest of it. And every meal comes with so many vegetables, even in Tavernos and everything, you know, shelfie lifestyle. Yeah. And he. Yeah. I mean, I said to Manoli last night, I said, what are we gonna eat? You know, and everywhere is like burgers and, you know, all this. And so we opted for Mexican, which, you know, Yeah. I thought that was kind of health. Good choice. That was a good choice. Well, plus, you know, when's the next time he's going to be back in Vegas, You might as well experience as many things as you possibly can while you're here, so. Exactly.

9:39 Yeah. So, but overall the show aside from overwhelming like comparing it to the other two shows that you've been to what, what would you how would you compare? It obviously that was my first one and that, you know, that's a lot smaller, but I felt that was more intimate at Plaza, so I thought one was more intimate. Like was that before or after COVID? I can't remember. Oh, that was after. Yeah, so that's probably why it was more intimate. It was one of the earliest shows right after COVID, and people were still freaked out. So a lot of people wouldn't go because they didn't want to be around crowds and they were nervous and stuff.

10:20 So I. Think I did come back with covered from that life. I think he did, actually. Yeah, I remember that. A lot of people did, actually. I talked to a lot of people. I got freaking coveted at Plaza. Yeah, that's hilarious. Yeah. I think I did. And I was like, felt really strange. Like it's not how I normally feel. And I was like, oh, Oh, yeah, I, I got COVID. So you infected the Greek island of Crete with COVID I. Did we Didn't have it before I turned back. That's funny. A good friend of mine actually in Canmore, the little town where I have my house up in Canada, was patient number one in maybe even Alberta, but certainly in Canmore. He was on a ski trip in France and didn't know he had got it.

11:02 He was on the airplane and started kind of feeling sick and going, I feel like crap, I must have gotten a bug or something. And by the time he got to Alberta, you know, the whole COVID thing had hit and he had it and, and was like patient one, which which is a pretty crazy story. So, So yeah, Plaza smaller. What about Prolite? I mean obviously bigger. It was it was I mean that for me was huge. And even as far as the, you know, everybody's like booths, they were so much bigger than than here. So I remember even robe like they had the like a huge stand and like I like dancers dancing in the rain to their lights. And so that was like really massive for me. And I suppose as well, I was on my own there. Yeah.

11:55 So that was kind of, again, very intimidating walking around a show and especially going to introduce yourself as. Hi, I'm Sarah. And at the time I was like, Gear Source. Hi, I'm Sarah from Gear Source. People were like, who? OK, I. Yeah, right. But you know me, I don't mind doing that. So I actually, you know, walking around there. I mean, that was two days, three days I was there and that was that was really mega. And then coming to this one, obviously we were there the first day where we did so much walking around and he was introducing me to everybody. We had the amazing event that night, which I think we both went upstaging. I think we both, yeah, we'll. Get to that, we'll get to that.

12:36 We will. I know, but we like, we both were like, Oh my goodness. Like so, so, so tired. Come on, we're going to have energy. Let's do it. Yeah. And then of course, we had dining with dinosaurs the next day. Which one are we going to talk about? And that was. A bit of a whirlwind, like it's like you, you hit the ground the morning of the first day and you just keep going and going and going and. Then on the last day when you left, so we had breakfast and I went to, went to, I'm going to say pro light, then went to LDI and oh, it was, it was just, it was dead. Yeah, I knew I would be. I knew like a a. Yeah, I know. But it was like, it was so nice. I got to meet Lori from Behind the Scenes Foundation. Oh, cool.

13:21 Yeah, really. They had a great booth and it's funny because where they were located, I kept on trying to find it throughout when we were walking around, but it it wasn't, it didn't stand out as much. Then when I realised, Oh yeah, that's that's it. So when I went straight, straight to see Lori bought some amazing Christmas cards from them. You know, I love their cards. Yeah. Yeah. So I got some nice Christmas cards for the family when I get back. And their setup was great there, you know, and what they're doing, you know, I spoke to her a lot about this. What they're doing for the industry is so huge because people are on the road so much that they need a safe. They, you know, call it a safe space that you need somewhere to go and to know that you can just talk, just do whatever.

14:09 I mean, I was, she's saying to her, a friend of mine, I don't know, she's doing it so much now. I think it kind of stopped really after COVID. But she was called therapy on tour. So she was a therapist and she went on tour and I believe she was like doing both lighting and the therapy. And she was like, it was such a huge success because they gave her a little room anytime the crew could just come talk to her. And then she also had clients that she would have online that, you know, they could go back to their hotel rooms and then they could also chat like that. And I said to Laurie, like, I think it's a an amazing thing to do to have a therapist on tour, but there's not many tours out there or tour managed tour tour productions.

14:54 They're going to pay for a therapist to come on tour to give them a route, give them a bus to give them all of these things. But then on the flip side, they'll pay pay for a tattoo artist. Well, no, but at the front end of that, you have to 1st give a shit. Like, first of all, you have to be like, you know, mental health is important to this tour and it's important to me. And I wanna make sure that we share that knowledge and, and share some resources and stuff so that people when they are struggling, because sometimes they do, you know, people do struggle. You're away from your family, your spouses, whatever. It is everything. You can just get someone that's just not feeling so good that day when you don't understand.

15:35 I mean, I've been on many a tours and, you know, even for me, you know, I've gone, my God, you're, you're, you're bloody rude, you know, And then also I've, I've taken a step back and I'm like, why is why is that person being rude? Yeah, maybe me. I have approached him at the time or her at a certain time and I've got he knows everything, OK. And then that's it. Boom. No, actually my, my, my mum's really sick or this is happening, this is happening, this is happening. I'm like, OK, I said now you know, you can always come to me, you could talk. You won't go any further. And but you know, Sarah, The funny thing is though, like, yeah, The funny thing is that, or it's not so funny, but being of an older generation, being old like I am, you know, we grew up really where you didn't go to therapists and you didn't, you know, you just dealt with your shit, you know, and, and if you had real problems, you might call a, a sibling or something like that, but you wouldn't even go to your friends and say, Hey, I'm, I'm struggling a bit today because they'd punch you in the arm and go get your, get it together, man. This is going to sound horrible, I think, Harsha said. We we have become.

16:50 Well, we're softer. No, no, we have. We've become softer. I mean you, my goodness, if that's. Good, by the way, there's some real good to that. And you know, a recent guest, Featherstone, John Featherstone, you know, I don't think he's soft. He's, he's a very strong individual, very bright individual, but he celebrates, you know, helping each other and, and taking care of each other and all of those things. And I know I've focused on a lot more because again, I'm not advocating that you need to be tough and just suck it up or whatever. I, I think that's one of the things like I'm not a very woke person, but if you look at the woke crowd, it's one of the things that what I really appreciate is the fact that people do reach out and help each other and people do make that a priority now. And so I agree with you.

17:43 I love what Lori's doing. I love that there's other resources in our industry doing the same thing. There is other resources for me though, I think now with social media. So going back to like, we were like in older days, we were harder. Well, if we did something, say something stupid, you know, maybe on a night out, whatever, you know, on a tour. Yeah. Well, it's forgotten about because it it was done now. People recorded it. It's uploaded onto Facebook. It's uploaded onto here. Yeah. Then the whole world knows. Yeah. So in a way, you know, that's the the saying of, you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well, that's not true anymore. No, I mean, look at when when these pop stars or whatever start coming out with a problem or something and they start getting piled on. Look at all the evidence that comes out against people. It's just unbelievable.

18:34 You know, I'm fortunate that I was a touring musician when there were no cell phones and there was no evidence. There just wasn't like if you had a camera, it was this big, so nobody was sneaking a picture of you. It was a huge camera this big, right? And and nobody carried cameras, you know, now absolutely everyone carries a camera in their pocket, you know, it's called an iPhone or whatever. And yeah, I mean, believe me, I thank God every day that there were no cell phones when I. Was a kid 'cause? You know, I would have either been Instagram famous or you know, much worse than that. You know, something much, much worse. I would have been 1 of this me too movement or something.

19:15 I don't know but. But going back to my my highlight, you know I'm going to say was Dynamie Dinosaurs. Meeting. All of these legends, you know, all in one place and also some of them have been on the podcast. So to actually give them a hug and I love that as well because again, nobody knows me. They've just had an e-mail from me. They've just had, you know, they've seen, if they've been on the podcast, they've seen us like this. And so many people, not just the dinosaurs, but so many people, when we were walking around, it was like, hey, oh, you're Sarah. And it was a big hug, you know? And, and that for me was it. That was that was also overwhelming. That was like, oh, wow, OK. Like speaking.

19:56 Of which, though, what about meeting me? You got to meet me on Saturday. We. Met finally. Let me think about that. The first thing you did to me gave me and my husband a Bloody Mary. Well, hey, that's how we that's how we say hello here in America in. Greece. It's that crap that you. Made me drink. What's that? Crap called that. You made me drink. Oh, Rocky. Yeah, so see, like a Bloody Mary at least has flavor and it even has some nutrition. It's got some fruit in it, tomato juice. You know, you give me this shit that I I could run my BMW off of. It was fire.

20:38 Rocky, it's called. And what I would say is Rocky's wacky and stay away from it. Don't touch it. It's bad for you. It keeps you awake a little bit longer. Man, I don't know what it kept me, but it got me on my toes. It kept me warm, that's for sure. That was frightening. Yeah. So we did finally get to meet on Saturday. That was fun. It was fun, it was it was great. And I gave you a big hug too. I know, I know. And then you kept hugging me. And so anyways, yeah, I mean, walking around meeting people had to be, again, a little bit overwhelming for you because so many of these people, you feel like you knew, like, you know, Scott DeVos, you know, the guy who helped us put together this whole Dining with dinosaurs thing, meeting him.

21:23 And he's such a lovely guy. He's such a nice guy, you know? He has got a heart of gold and doing the events and seeing just how much pleasure I mean we, we've been in contact. Meant so much to him. It meant. So much to him, it really did, yeah. And and to a lot of people, you know, they were like everybody in that room, you know, coming together. It was probably well, you know, that the the highlight, you know, of most and certainly it was for me, you know, even meeting Roy, Roy Bickel, I mean, he's. Yeah, Roy Bickel was awesome. Oh. Guy. I mean, seriously. I mean, if you look at that guy's story, I mean, you know, he literally was the guy who started Rock'n'roll rigging, you know, crazy story, that room. So we're now talking about Dining with Dinosaurs, which was an event where the general idea was we're going to get 14 or 15 people that were calling dinosaurs men and women. And, you know, the only real criteria is that we sort of set an age.

22:30 And yes, we're being ageist and discriminating against young people at this point. Strike me dead. But we set an age at 60. You have to be over 60. And that doesn't mean that everybody over 60 is a dinosaur. So listen to all the disclaimers I'm dropping here because I don't want to offend anyone, but we set a, a sort of limit saying and I, by the way, I think Seth Jackson cheated because I don't think Seth is 60. Not 60. I don't think Seth is 60. So Seth, if you're listening to this, shame on you for cheating. You look absolutely incredible. Good for 60. Yeah, but, and by the way, it was great having Seth there. So I'm not knocking it, but yeah, so I mean, just different people from all kinds of different places and, and walks of life, you know, lighting designers and unfortunately, our token sound guy, Dave, I always pronounce his last name. Wrong.

23:30 Chadon, Dave Chadon from sound image slash Now Claire brothers, I guess, but Dave didn't make it 'cause he was sick. Just like the day of he was coming and just went, guys, I'm really sorry I can't do it. But I mean, so we had the original concept was get these dinosaurs, you know, one at each table and then a bunch of students slash industry people slash whoever wanted to come basically to sit at the table and ask questions and start discussions and hear stories and all kinds of cool things. Cool concept, right? Well, it just became like this crazy free for all of information where you had sometimes three and four dinosaurs congregating at a table, and the six people who got to sit with them were just mind blown.

24:18 Yeah. And I remember I was at one table where John Wiseman was talking to some younger people. So a couple of young ladies, actually. Yeah. And one of the girls said, like John was saying, you know, have you heard of Mötley Crüe? Nope. Have you heard of or? No Mötley Crüe she had heard of, but he was naming a bunch of different bands and she'd never heard of them. And and he said, well, what bands did you listen to, like, growing up and stuff? What music, rock music do you remember? And she goes, oh, I loved Black Sabbath. And he goes, Black Sabbath. Hang on a second. Well, guess who just happens to be in the room is Nick Jackson from Light and Sound Design. And so Nick Jackson comes over and and he's like, OK, so I wasn't in Black Sabbath, but I lived in the same town that they grew up in and, you know, knew them from a very early age, worked with them a ton over their careers.

25:11 And she starts asking him all these questions. And then they get into Mötley Crüe. And John's been with Mötley Crüe since forever. And, you know, just the banter. And John had a blast. Like John told me after he said that was so refreshing. And, you know, Peter Morris loved it, Cosmo loved it, Jake Berry loved it. Like Jake at first was a little bit grumpy and kind of like, I don't know if I'm going to like this thing. And then he wouldn't shut up. I mean, the guy just had a blast and his table was full all the time, right? And yeah, I mean, just such a killer. And the people who were coming in after the fact, like Nick Jackson and, and, you know, production managers and massively famous television lighting people and other lighting people and I.

26:02 Was it was like it was like a party, the beginning always slow, you know, it, it was now looking back, you know, we could have definitely organized the, the start part, you know, a little bit better. You know, we we've already discussed this literally by the end. I mean, the only reason why we left that room was because they'll de rigging it because otherwise everybody was still. So once it was kind of like announced that it was over, you know, and slowly, slowly, please leave, you know, everyone then started getting together again on different tables or standing up and talking like it really could have gone on for there's so much longer. Well, and that's one of the things for next year, you know, next year we've already got a lot of ideas of how we're going to change this.

26:48 So by the way, folks, there is going to be a next year. You know, LDI and most of the people who were there all told me that it was the event of the show. Like it was just, it wasn't the biggest, you know, there were probably a total of 100 people in the room or something. But but it was the quality and the the information that was shared and even in a sense the format. I mean, the fact sitting and casually having lunch with some people while you're having conversation is a pretty cool thing. We are going to add some wrinkles and components to that that'll change it a lot. The. Potential that's there is huge. Yeah, I think that's the thing, you know. As a start, I mean, for the first time ever to have done that with no signage, no swag, no real branding, not much of anything, not much promotion. You know, I think we blew it out of the park. And I will say, and you got a promise. You got a promise not to, to start crying. But I will say that you killed it. You crushed it.

27:49 You. Did a fantastic job. You did all the hard stuff, you know, I just got to show up and be the rock star. But yeah. But you know me too well. Don't say nice things about me. Yeah, I know. That's what I said. You can't start crying again. But but no, you, you did, you killed it. You did such a good job, you know, And again, like people, I don't know if you know this, but Sarah lives in Crete. She lives on an island in Greece. And from there, she's calling lighting designers and, and all these people in America and Canada and wherever and making all these plans and working with Ellen at, at LDII really did nothing. You know, I helped sort of spawn the seed into into a full blown idea and concept and then just handed it back to Sarah, who, you know, definitely. Pulled in Scott DeVos.

28:40 A lot and you guys created it you. Guys made it up, both of you, though, you, you and Scott and Ellen, you all helped me, guided me throughout everything. And it was a pleasure to, to, to, to do it. And it was at the end, I think when you did your little speech and people did clap me. I was like, why? Why me? Yeah. Oh, OK. Thank you. People recognize what you were doing, you know, and, and I think even on this podcast, like people now know that, you know, I'm an idiot. I just show up and talk and you're the one doing all the editing and the promoting and the booking of guests and managing the sponsors and all this stuff. So I get the credit, but you get the the work. And so, yeah, yeah.

29:22 And so, you know, again, I mean, I, I have this problem where I always I'm the first person to volunteer to do things when I think that I can move the sticks, when I think that I can make an impact, I'm the first person to raise my hand and say, yes, I want to do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll jump in, even if it's going to be, you know, sleepless nights and loads of work and all this stuff. And I get paid nothing. And sometimes people go, you're an idiot for doing this. And but I just love it. Like if I can, if I can help, help to move something forward and make an impact, I want to do it. And so, you know, I went to the show thinking, OK, this is probably just a one off thing. And as soon as it I was in that room and I saw people starting to show up and I saw some of the conversations starting and stuff, I went, uh oh, you know, now we've done it. You know, this is going to be big. Like, I think this could be, you know, hundreds of people, hundreds of guests and, you know, 50 or 60 dinosaurs. Not, not 14.

30:25 Yeah, but you know, let's see like next year we're gonna change up the format, add some cool stuff. We'll definitely get some cool swag made and and a lot more promotional materials and stuff so that people know about it. Because I know after it was over, a lot of people went, hey, when is that thing? Somebody just told me about it and I'd say. Yeah, I know. So. Yeah. Talk of the show. As we said we we even need a big dinosaur going around LDI like on the day dressed up. Are you volunteering? Yeah, I am. You know you're. Going to dress in a dinosaur suit and walk around the show. I will do anything. If it gets more people in, I'll do anything. Boy, here we go. You heard it here, although Sarah does the editing. She'll delete it.

31:06 Tiny dinosaurs. Come this way. Come this way. Yeah, I was doing that too. Nah, it was fun, man. It was, it was really fun and pat on our backs, you know, I I think it was a good thing And, and look forward to doing it next year. I think it's going to be really fun. And who knows, maybe at some point we'll grow into a, you know, Dining with Dinosaurs European edition that we do at the Plaza show or at ISE or at, you know, one of the European shows, you know, and do the same thing over there. So that was what day was that? That was on Monday. So Sunday you were saying, yeah, busy, busy, crazy show.

31:46 You know, I know you probably can't talk much about products. Did you see any products that jumped out at you that you can remember what they were? Well, the only one was at Feralite, which I don't think we can talk about, but that, yeah, we. Can talk about that. We didn't sign an NDA. Oh. OK. I thought you couldn't have couldn't do it. That that one for me because it was the talk and basically because Chris Conti had said you got to go there. Yeah, like not for me because obviously, yes, my hands up. You know, I don't know about what product, Yeah, but. You can tell when some when there's something revolutionary happening you. Can tell when something's revolutionary and the fact that you know, we've had Chris Conti on the show. I know all about Chris and how incredible he is.

32:28 So for him to endorse that we both, we all went on straight, headed straight there and that was. So this thing just to fill in some. Blanks cuz. I know that Sarah's running out of information here. It's called the VL Hive and they were showing it in a private room. Couple of highlights. 1 is that it is to be made in the United States, which is a big, bold and very exciting move, I think on their part. I think it's gonna be hard for them to do that cuz as the cost starts creeping up the sort of market starts shrinking so they do need to point.

33:12 As well, it is a huge selling point, but made in made in America, I know it's gonna be, I mean. The point is, if it takes it from being a $6000 light to being a a $15,000 light, it's it's obviously very challenging, but I don't even know how to explain what it is like. A lot of people compared it to the Medusa or the Icon M back in the whatever. It was early 2000s when they came out with that, the Icon M, the Medusa, the M box. It's sort of what that vision was. It's a video based light and everything is a pixel and the way you can control those pixels is really, really interesting.

33:54 Does one of the best fire effects I think I've ever seen. It's bright as hell cuz that was one of the complaints with the Icon M and the Medusa and all of those things is that it was really hard to get intensity because I think at that time they were using LCD technology and you could only get so much light through them because they burn up and stuff. So now they're using LED obviously. And each of the LE DS is a pixel in an array. And the way they manage those arrays, like, you know, basically if you're using part of the light, not the whole array, all of the energy goes to part of the light. So you're still getting the same amount of lumens out of the front of the light it it's cool. Now on the downside, what I would say is I don't think I think it's revolutionary in in in the idea that basically it's a step.

34:44 I think it's a huge step towards digital lighting taking over and getting rid of all the gobos and a color wheels and things like that. I think it's a massive step in the right direction. I don't think it's the destiny, I think it's the journey. It's part of the journey, but it's not the destination yet. Do I think there's applications for it? Absolutely. Do I think they'll sell some? Yes, I do. Do I think it's the gotta have light yet? I don't know. I haven't seen enough yet. And to me it's it's a very positive step though towards digital lighting. And again, it's called the VL Hive. Yeah, that was AVL, Yeah.

35:26 Yeah. And you know, you had to sign a thing to get in there, but there was no NDAI didn't I read it quite. I read it carefully to make sure that I wasn't going to step out of line and talk about the thing. But I think they've actually started doing some promotion on it too, so they're saying it's going to be shipping in like February or something. Yeah, they said February, February, March, which I thought was insane. It's. Pretty wild, because it seems like when you've got new technology like that, it's going to take a heck of a lot longer. But I think they've been developing it for a while, so. And again, the really exciting thing is that it's going to be available soon, you know? Yeah. And it's going to be made in the United States. Another one for me was seeing the Martin MAC1UP close.

36:09 Yeah, yeah, it's a tiny. Yeah, I know. I love it. It's tiny and it's light and you know, people think that they're one of our sponsors or something, but as much as I've tried to shake money out of those bastards at Martin, I can't yet. Friggin Korean Samsung bastards won't pay us. Anything. But maybe they will after this wonderful promotion that I've just done. No calling them bastards and cheap and everything. But you know, people know my history. I think having been part of the foundation of Martin, I was there in the very early years and helped create that brand. But I love seeing them succeed because part of Martin will always be in my blood. You know, I'll always have a little bit of Martin running through my blood and which is another reason they should sponsor us.

36:59 And it's funny as well, because for me, obviously, when I was with Gear Source with you, yeah, someone that I really, really used to love working together with was Ben and your Kim Pain. Yeah. And yeah, Ben pain like and your Kim. And so when I as soon as I saw them, I like went for a beeline just to say hi. Yeah. So that was great. Yeah. No, but the Mac 1 is really like I. People have asked me already, you know, what were your favorite products? And I said, well, for sure, two of them were the smallest and the biggest light there. You know that one. And the GLP big huge sky tracker thing was kind of cool too. You saw that, didn't you, at the GLP booth? German lighting product, the big it was a like this.

37:39 Big around. Sky tracker thing that was just pointed up. At the ceiling and. It had LED lenses like this over each of the LEDs. It was massive, but yeah, that was cool. But for sure the Mac one, I think that thing's gonna be succeeding for for a while yet. It hits a crazy price point that nothing else hits. It's light, it's small. They've come up with all kinds of cool accessories for it, you know, bar 4:00 and all these different things. It's just it's a winner. It's it's a winner If if I owned a. Lighter. Winner. I'd have hundreds of them. Talking to winners, we've got to say congratulations to Elation. Yes, yeah, well, and also well deserved. Like, I don't know, you probably didn't spend much time looking at it, but I checked out that Paragon series and the stuff is nice. It's it's bright, it's small.

38:27 It's. Less no, it's great, but it's looking at everything and. It's IP rated, it's IP rated. It's small, it's light, it's bright. It's it's very, very cool stuff. I think, you know, a lot of times when I see companies coming out with new ranges of light, I go, OK, yeah, they added a gobo or something. This one really was pretty revolutionary and and I think it's going to become a real staple in their lineup. I think they're going to sell a shit ton of these Paragon fixtures and good on them. I mean, that's that's a good thing. And they do sponsor US Martin guys. So see how nice I talk about elation because they actually do sponsor and support us, but they also had an, forgive me, I forget what it's called, but they have the little laser laser sourced fixture as well.

39:18 That is not, and this is going to go over your head a bit here. So you don't require a variance to use it in the United States. You don't need a laser variance to use it. And as far as I know, and correct me if I'm wrong people, I'm sure you will, it is the first laser sourced fixture of all of these. There's a bunch of different ones out there from Claypacki and Airton and other companies, but it's the first one that does not require the variance. So Sarah, what that means is basically the ones that require a variance, anytime you use a laser in the United States, you have to basically this variance thing means that you have to have a technician on hand and and it's got to be a certified laser technician. And yeah, so there it's a pain in the ass basically. You can't just sell them to a company and then they go put them on jobs.

40:09 You have to scan them above people's heads. You can't put them in people's eyes, which is crazy because it's no brighter than any other fixture that you're pointing in people's eyes. So. That was Cynthia that told me that. Wow, she actually learned something in 20 something years working for me. Act, another company that does actually support us. Are they released? So they had the Rivali I think that came out last year at LDI, but they've now got their entire ultimate series and I it's the first time I got to see it first hand and it's beautiful. I mean, those fixtures are beautiful. The ACT booth, I would have to say, was consistently the busiest booth on the show floor. Yeah.

40:54 From sprung as soon as it opened. Right way through the end. Yeah, full right. Really. But I mean, they have MA, they have air too. They have. They've got. PK sound down. They've got PK Sound, they've got Robert Joliet, they've got. Hippo smoke. Factory, one of the big smoke companies, I can't remember which one, but yeah, I mean they have killer product lines so, you know, it's not that shocking that they'd be that busy. But still they were packed like that booth was when I first walked in. I was like, it's full. It's going to look really empty after the first couple hours, but it was packed all the time full. What else did I see that I liked? I told you about the massive fixture from. GLAP the Ala dog.

41:40 So the the IT actually wasn't AI, it was a remote control. It was a remote control, isn't it? Because I thought it was a fully autonomous robot dog at first, which would have been like $100,000 dog standing there, right? But it, it was still really cool. But it was remote control. And so it was one of those like little plasticky, not that little, it was probably this big, but it was a plasticky looking dog and had little laser light eyes or whatever. And but it could jump, it could sit, it could come up and beg, it could bark, it could do all kinds of things. So funny story. Did I show you the gumper? Post just gonna say your friend yeah with. The real ghost, So Andrew Gumper had his, his Frenchie bulldog, I think there and he posted a story on his Instagram, his dog running into that dog in the aisle and them fighting.

42:35 And so the guy controlling the dog, he'd he'd have it go into like attack mode and and all this stuff and the Gumpers dog was just losing his mind going after this dog. It was one of the funniest videos I've seen in weeks. It was absolutely hilarious. The real dog scrapping it out with the the fake robot dog, which I guess we're going to see a lot of that in the future. That stuff's coming, you know, Like they've already got their testing and stuff on on robot guard dogs now, you know? There's a gentleman we met, I can't remember what his name is now. He had the amaze like the I'm going to I'm going to mess this bit up now. And he was talking and he was like, well, when there's a guard dog, you know, I'm going to get the guard, a robot guard dog for sure.

43:21 And then he can go do my quick clean the offices as well at the same time. Well, I think he was just talking about a robot. I don't think he was talking. About a dog, yeah. Yeah, because it can. Well, and that's the thing. Like these robots are basically walking, talking, moving, whatever computers and you can program them to do housework, you can program them to do yard work, you can program them to do warehouse work. You can they. Can do whatever you want with this. Right now I am I in favour, should I say I, I don't think I am. I'm all for certain technologies, AI coming into play. I am. But when it when you are seeing that you're losing, I mean, you know, supermarkets, you have to go check out yourself.

44:04 I hate it. I refuse. I go to the person. Yeah, I don't like that either. Because, you know, you're complaining that we haven't got work and it was a. Robot who was checking out for you as opposed to doing it yourself. You don't like it because you got to figure out how to scan the thing and all that stuff. But if you just put your stuff on a belt just like you do now and instead. Of a human. A robot was talking to you and saying, hey, Sarah, how are you today? Would you like some news? And it's. Yeah, Sarah tells you the news while it's scanning all your groceries. Yeah, but I do it because I don't like to. I like to see a human, not a robot. Well. I'll get used to it because it's coming the. Most I know it's coming. The least desirable. We won't have, we won't have jobs, so we can just do nothing.

44:47 Well, that's not true either, because I'm not going to get a robot host. But you can. I can. I can easily. I can easily replace you, Marcel. You know that I can. I've got your voice. Shut up. No, I mean, I think that the least desirable jobs will be the first ones to be replaced. Obviously cleaning toilets and shoveling shit in the yards and all this stuff like that stuff is going to be replaced first. But I mean, cooking, you know, like if a robot can cook every bit as good as you can and you just input recipes into it and boom, it cooks up a unbelievable meal, oh, stop it. I mean, it's different if you're passionate about cooking.

45:29 I'm not would I have a robot cook? Hell yes, I would, but but and it wouldn't bother me a bit. I wouldn't miss anything. But I know a lot of people who are passionate about cooking who would be like, no, I don't want that and great, then don't get one, you know, so. Well, I'm passionate about cleaning, so I'm not going to get one. Well, just the fact I can avoid it, I'll. Give you a I'll give you a great line here. So at one point in time, people fought using clocks to tell what time it was because they were using the sun. And it took a big argument to get them to stop using the sun and to start using a clock because they said why the sun is very accurate and I'll always know what time it is. You know what?

46:12 Everybody wears a watch now and a clock and whatever, right? Like. I know. So it's just progress, and sometimes progress looks fishy. You know me. I go by the sun, I go by the moon. As soon as it gets dark, I go to sleep. You're always late. For everything you. Don't wake up, but the. Sun was only there. I don't care. It's 330. You're supposed to be here, you know? Yeah. No, I've only got messed up being here in Vegas and I'm just like, oh gosh, my because normally with me and you, we meet like my evening, you know, 5 anytime between 5:00 and 10:00 at night, right? So then when you're messaging me at 7:00 in the morning, are we meeting? No. Yeah, well, it's funny when you're on the when the shoes on the other foot, huh?

46:55 Yeah, it's. Weird because. I'm three hours ahead of you. Now I'm ahead of you, really. I can't wait to go back home. And I like I get everything done and you wake up and you're like this done, Sarah, kiss myself. Kiss myself here. I'm like you're myself no more. So it's only 7:00 in the morning myself. And. See, you know what, I like it the other way. Like I like, I like my house in Canada is on mountain time and all the sports start two hours earlier. Everything starts two hours. Formula One starts at like 7:00 in the morning. It's great. It's fantastic. You know, whereas you know, when you're in Europe or or even on the East Coast, like I love UFC, for example, well, UFC starts at 10:00 at night. By the time the good fight is on, like the final is 1:00 in the morning.

47:43 I can't stay awake for that. I wouldn't stay awake for that. I would, I have, but it's really, really hard and it screws up my next day, you know, but it's a sport that I really love. And so sometimes there's fights I want to see. And so I like being in Canada because that same thing starts at 8:00 and it's over by like one in the morning or sorry, it's over by like 11 as opposed to to 1:00 in the morning. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's whatever. But even here we've you struggled. Being here, I've struggled. Because I was getting up at 2:30 in the morning 3. That's what I mean. But before you arrived, I mean, we literally couldn't keep our eyes open. Seven, 7:00 at night. That was it done, Like really done. Then I was waking up at three, 3:00 in the morning, wide awake, of course, because that's enough sleep. Yeah.

48:32 Really. But finally, we're we're getting into a good, good sleep pattern just as I'm just as I'm leaving. Yeah. Yeah, and then you'll be screwed up when you get back to Europe. But the so The funny thing is like it's not that long ago and people listening will know this and all my friends who I have at LDI will know this. I didn't go to bed till 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. You know, I was out partying with everybody else at LDI. But now, you know, I was. I don't think I lasted till 10:00 one night that I was there. I think I was in bed by 9:30 every night and up at 2:30 or three in the morning. Craziness. Crazy. Yeah.

49:13 Also at the show. So you know, MA like MA 3 consoles, right, Grand MA 3 consoles. You know, they're like 7580 grand, whatever they are. Well, so there's a Chinese brand called Fine or Fine Light, and they're a notorious copier. And one of the big things they did was back in, you know, the 90s or whatever it was. And actually it was the early 2000s, I think the Mac 2000 came out from Martin and was wildly popular. And so they created the Fine 2000 or whatever and it was a complete RIP off of the Mac 2000.

49:58 And you know, Martin fought them like crazy and stuff. And I don't know that they ever won anything. Maybe they did, but you know, it's, it's a problem the the sort of plagiarism or or whatever you want to call it is a problem in our industry. But so anyways, never would you see it on the control side because it's very difficult. It's easy to look at a light fixture and to reverse engineer it, make the same gobo wheels, make the same motors, make the same framing shutters. It's pretty easy to copy a light fixture, but copying a lighting console or any type of control protocol is very difficult. Reverse engineering software is much harder than hardware. Right?

50:41 Well, they've basically copied the MA console, and not only that, they had one on display at their booth at the show. No, I. Didn't see that. Posted a picture on social media of this console. I saw it. I saw it when I was there, but somebody posted a picture and there's all kinds of conversation going on about it, but I'm just blown away by how ballsy they are to put that on their booth. I'm surprised that because I saw it on the second day of the show, I'm surprised it was still there on the second day of the show. Like you would have thought that that MA would have had a cease and desist order in that console and have blankets over it or something, or would be taken right off the show floor. People have told me it's not identical. It's it looks identical, but it's not. There's some slight nuance differences, a little tiny and in the software, the software is more like the MA 2 than the MA 3.

51:37 But I mean, the fact that you're even comparing it tells me it's too damn close and and probably breaks all kinds of laws. But yeah, they sell for like, I don't know how much that exact one sells for, but I know that I've seen them for five or $6000. No. Yeah, yeah, this is how big the problem is. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's and so I've had people trying to sell these and calling them MA 3 consoles on on gear source and we've had to shut them down. We've had to remove those consoles from the from the website. Crazy, right? Yeah, it's. Muddy. Yeah, so, so yeah, Ballsy move by them. What else?

52:20 Another funny story. So when I flew back here to South Florida, the there were a couple of Chauvet people near me and one of them was Dina, who's the sales manager, I don't know, sales Vice President of sales, I'm not sure what her title is from Chauvet. And so we were talking as we were waiting to get off the plane and I said, how was the show? She told me we had a little back and forth on that. And I said, hey, do you know who those guys from Volux are? Volux, I don't know if you remember seeing their booth, but it was a booth, a lighting booth there that I had just never heard of the brand before.

53:00 And they actually had a really nice booth and a really nice show. Don't know anything, if the products are any good or anything. There's another Chinese import that, you know, looked OK, but I don't know. But anyways, the guy across the aisle from me stands up and he goes, Yep, that's me. I'm like, oh, hey, you're the Vollex guy. And he goes, yeah, yeah, that's my company. And so I started talking to him. I talked to him all the way through the airport. And so early on at Martin, I hired a guy named Nick Freed, who went on to become very successful in the industry. He with a couple of other guys started Inner Circle Distribution. And so this guy told me he he worked in inner circle for a long time. And I said, Oh, that's interesting. You know, I've worked with those guys for years and, and really helped one of them get his start. And he said, who?

53:51 And I said, Nick Freed and he goes, Oh man, well, you must know my dad then too, if you're friends with Nick. And I said, who's your dad? And he says, Dan Fallon. And I said, oh, my God, like, I tailgated with Dan at the football games here for, I don't know, 10-12 years or something. I've known him first. I've known him longer than you've been alive to this guy, right? And so it's just really weird. It's a small world. And then I found out that a former guest of Geezers of Gear, Michael Meacham, designed and programmed the booth. Yeah. So not an endorsement for their product. I don't know anything about it. So I'm not telling you it's great. And I'm also not telling you it's bad. The people are nice. I will tell you that.

54:34 And I wish them well. You know, they're a relatively young company. They've done a really nice booth. Hopefully that turns into some business for them. You know, the other thing that I thought was cool was the. And you'll remember it, even though you might not know the name, but the Blizzard booth was the one with the Ferris wheel and the festival, the fair. That was carnival fair. That was totally gone out. I was like, yeah, what's going on here? I don't know if you saw but it won the best booth design. I It won an. Award for that yeah, no kidding. I mean, that was so friggin creative how they did that. Yeah. Like the, the brochure was like a, a menu from the cotton candy stand kind of thing, you know?

55:17 And they had all the little exhibits set up. Really interactive, you know. It really was what a what a cool design. Again, I don't know if the products are any good. I've never really been a big Blizzard guy but do. You think that would? Be very. Creative, A sort of a market point of how people, different brands will change their stand, how it would look to make it more interesting. I interactive, yes, perhaps, but we've gone that direction like when everybody went away from light shows, everyone went to these more interactive booths where you could walk up and hit a touch panel thing and the light would come on and you could change patterns and you could do all these things and then everybody wanted light shows back again.

56:03 So all the big companies, Chauvet and Martin High End and all these companies started switching and doing light shows again. And so, yeah, you know, I I think I think it was cool. Was it the best way to show their lighting? Probably not. Like I don't know anything. Volux. I feel like I know everything about all their products. Blizzard, I don't know anything about any of their products. So there's your answer. You know, like, I think an innovative, smartly designed, well programmed show can be much more beneficial than than, you know, a funky looking, you know, State Fair kind of booth. Yeah.

56:47 But I'm not knocking them because I think it was extremely creative and it got a lot of attention. And we're talking about Blizzard lighting right now. So, you know, that to me is worth it. You know, the fact that you you grabbed some attention and it was cool. And I think they deserved that Best Booth award. Yeah, 5100%. Yeah, I didn't see the drone show because we ended up going out to dinner on. Time you forgot to told me about it. When was it? Was it Sunday or Monday? I can't remember. It was Monday. Monday. Yeah, I think I told you about it. No, you told me after, he said. I'm sorry Sarah, I think I forgot to. Well I did, I completely forgot, but it would have messed with our dinner plans and stuff anyways because it was at like 6:30 or something on Monday.

57:29 So I didn't see it and you had to get in the shower, make yourself look beautiful. Yeah, and I mean, honestly, at the end of the day, if you've seen like in drone shows, you've probably seen 1000. You know, they're all kind of the same at some point. But I still would have liked to see it. It would have been fun. I don't know. I can't think of much else. I mean, there were such great booths there. People are obviously spending money. Companies are spending money because those booths, like some of those big booths were $1,000,000. Yeah, $1,000,000 here, $1,000,000 here, $1,000,000 here, $1,000,000 here. Well, I just want to say how I was very honoured to be invited with you to the upstaging event that that was, that was for me, that was you can't.

58:10 Forget about that. Yeah, no, it was so lovely. And like the the whole event was just to be yeah, to to to be invited to that was was was great. So thank you very much. Yeah, it's. And you've been going since the day one, haven't you? Well, that's what I was just going to say. And Patrick Dearson and I were talking about this because the very first one was probably, I don't know, 20 years ago, ish. And Patrick Dearson and I were both at that one, and it was one table at the win with probably 12 or 15 people at the table. And that's it. It was just a dinner and it was, you know, somehow I got invited and somehow Patrick Dearson got invited. And we're both extremely proud to have been invited. But here, here I am 20 years later and every year I get the e-mail with the invitation saying we'd love for you to come to our our wine tasting party or whatever they call it. And it's just so cool to go to because it's literally a who's who of the touring business.

59:18 You know, lately it's grown to include a lot of suppliers. There's a lot of manufacturer reps and stuff like that that go. And that's not a bad thing. But there's still just. It's a great group of lighting designers and production managers and managers. And last year or the year before, I was hanging out with Sebastian Bach from Skid Row. The singer from Skid Row. Yeah. So, you know, it's, yeah, honestly, like when HUD was at our John Huddleston was at our, at our thing at Dining with Dinosaurs. He, I was talking to him and he said, hey, were you at the party? I didn't even see you.

59:58 I was, you know, busy. And I said, yeah, I, I was there. I didn't actually get over to say hi to him because he always had a stack of people in front of him. I said I was there and, and you know, he said, did you have fun? And I said, John, honestly, I'm just honored to be invited every year because. You know, yes, Gear Source works with upstaging a little bit, but it's not like I'm an important supplier to them like I was in my past life. You know, these days it's more just a friendship than anything so. And yeah, wonderful friendship. Yeah, well, and it is like you said it, it's a cool. Party it's just cool to be when she came up as well to the. Yeah. Robin Shaw. Yeah, Yeah.

1:00:39 Really just a really, really cool down to earth. She's a funny stories again being told. Like you know that for me again, that was one of my highlights, meeting Robin at the at the Dining of Dinosaurs towards the end. Yeah. Yeah, and again, it was so busy at the upstage, we didn't even get to say hello to her. You know that's true. You know it's true. We we, because I'm going to blame it on the jet lag. We did. We left, I think, about Elevenish, I think. No, we left earlier than that. We left at like probably 10-15. We followed. We followed that young Seth Jackson. Don't. Don't say his name. Don't say his name. Who? Seth Seth left earlier than us and, and I remember just going, oh, hey, Seth.

1:01:25 And then ran out the door like I was chasing after him or something. And then, of course, as we're trying to sneak out, we run into Robert Carone, you know, founder of, of Upstaging and. He's like, that was so. Hey, Marcel, are you leaving? And I'm like, I was kind of thinking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and then have a nice long talk with him about life. Yeah, so that's probably why I thought it was 11 because I think we literally was, we was with him for like 45 minutes chatting at the end. Yeah, probably. Yeah. We had a long talk. It was nice. No, I love that event. Every time I go to it, it's one. Actually, the last one that I went to wasn't last year because I didn't go to LDI last year, but the year before Claudette was with me.

1:02:08 Oh, you said that she was at the table drinking wine. Yeah. Yeah, so Claudette is is my sister Slash CFO at Gearsource. And she had never been to something like that. And she's a big wine drinker. She loves wine. And you know, part of the the fun of this event is that Robert Carone is a big wine guy and the wine is always tremendously good. It's just excellent wine. Excellent, excellent wine. So. It was just flowing, you know, whenever it was. Good. Oh yeah. Because we didn't have time to have dinner before and I'm glad we didn't. Like they had just killer food. Everything. And at one point they were just like leaving it all on our table. And I was like, no guys.

1:02:49 Like I partook no more. Yeah, I definitely partook. I remember when that drunk guy started berating me. I won't say who he was or what company he was from, but. Yeah, that was that was weird. Yeah, I mean, that was, that was bizarre. I mean, at first he was, he was friendly with me. And of course, you know, I don't know many people there. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was like, OK, someone's talking to me. Amazing. Then I was like, Oh no, you're only talking to me because you're drunk. Yeah, that's true. And then he was like, then he just like attacked you. And I was standing there and I was like, wrong place, dude, wrong place. Like when you were probably. Also thinking how long is Marcel going to take this before he shuts the. Gun down. Well, I did. He was very polite for yeah.

1:03:33 Until. I told him. To go fuck himself basically, which did happen because I had had enough at one point. It was just. Like you need to. Shut up, you're drunk. Please. Just. But then he was still standing next to me and was like, what have I done? I was like, don't talk to me. I'm staying out of this I think. Yeah, yeah. So then I went to his boss and said you need to get him out of here. He's drunk, you know he's not. He's not making you look good right now. Trust me. But then I said he didn't know. I said, Can you imagine it? I mean, I, I would like to say I was very good because I was drinking white wine. So the white wine wasn't as free flowing as the red. So not that I was complaining. I was happy with my, the what, what I had. And I was like, Can you imagine?

1:04:14 I said, if I, if I'd done that, if I'd just been necking back, the white wine got totally hammered and then someone come up to you and goes, I think you should remove your employee. I think I'd be mortified. Next day I'd be like. Yeah, yeah, That would have been bad. It wouldn't be the first time though, bizarrely so in another company I used to own, and I won't say who the employee was because he's actually since passed away, sadly. But I had an employee and we had a major national account who was worth millions of dollars in business for us. And he was invited to go to their National Convention, their national conference with all of their their franchise owners in Orlando. Big event.

1:05:02 And so he proceeds to get drunk off his ass. And then the owner of the entire company, the entire franchise company's daughter, he starts coming on to her like in just the most disgusting ways, like nice tits lady and all this stuff, right? Like. Just disgusting. And so finally the CEO of the company, the owner of the company goes to our head of, of franchising and he he says, hey, look, your employee has gone beyond offensive at this point. I'm going to give him a little bit of, you know, leeway in that I know that he's drunk and we've been serving him alcohol, but you need to get him out of here right now. Yeah.

1:05:50 Because if I have to take him out, it's not going to be pleasant. And he told him what he said to his daughter multiple times and all of this stuff. And my guy was so embarrassed. And he, he took him back to the hotel like under, you know, total, like, argument. Like he was just like, oh, I don't need to leave. I'm fine. I'm fine, you know, and, and then calls me and says, hey, do you mind if I fire him in the morning? And I said no, not at all. That's what he deserves. And. I wonder how many people got fired during this LDI because they, even when I my very first One Plaza, there was an incident very similar to that one gentleman.

1:06:32 I remember that. That's really young. And the next day the lady put in a complaint. Then somebody else had put in a complaint and then before long, but because now it's not as simple as can I just fire him? They had to go through HR, they had to go through meetings. They had to go through this. But I knew this person and I knew he was extremely drunk. And I said, I've got to leave, You know, I told his boss I'm leaving. I'm not putting up with this anymore. But I knew he was drunk. So I just like, you know. Yeah, I don't remember that situation. But really, then the poor boy, the next day, he was like, Sarah, I think I'm really like, basically, I've effed up. I said, you have. I said yeah. I said so. Like, I must admit, I've been drunk at LDI, you know, more than once.

1:07:18 And but you have to have control over yourself when it comes to being completely disrespectful, especially to women, you know, And that's where like most men can take most things that you say to them. I I think, and I'm not being sexist, but it's. Just no, no, no, I understand that. But I just think it's time now. It it's where we are now, yeah. You know it. Is the time 20 years ago you could have got away with it, not go. It's not even getting away with it. It just wasn't the thing that you then got fired for. Yeah, you know. No, it was it was practically acceptable back then to say, hey, toots, you know, nice, whatever, and or you know, for like the the guy who owns the company to smack the secretary in the ass as she's walking by or something like that stuff happened, you know, when I was way younger in my life.

1:08:07 It doesn't anymore like that. It's a different world now. Yeah, and I mean not just to not. Recognize that is just, you know, ignorant. It's stupidity really in a sense, right? So, you know, even me knucklehead, me, I, I recognize that we're in a different world today and would never say those things or, or do those things. No, but it's not even about being, you know, that those kind of things, you know, the incident with you, you know, 20 years ago, you know, maybe it happened, but you'd walk away or whatever. But yeah, if you wanted to, you could put a complaint in against that. You know, like, you know, we're at a nice party. You know, the behavior of this gentleman was was unacceptable. Yeah. You know, I mean so many things. I never would, but you know, I understand what you're saying. Yeah, I would just, you know, it just so happens that all of his bosses are good friends of mine for. Yeah. 30 plus years, you know, so I'm. The wrong.

1:09:02 Person for him to do that too. Put it that way, you know. People make mistakes. Yeah, you know, Shouldn't. No, I know. But. That's why. That's why I'm not just saying fire that guy right now. No, no, no, I'm not saying that you want to fire you. Do need to say something because he needs to learn that you can't get blitzed at a party that you don't even belong at by the way, because he's not even from this part of the industry. Like, he shouldn't have even been there, to be perfectly honest. So. So yeah. Anyways, whatever. I'm not complaining. It happens. And. But yes, when it comes to, you know, going after the boss's daughter in a very rude and disgusting way and even doing it within earshot of the boss. Yeah.

1:09:45 And they're our customer. We're there as a supplier by invite for free, you know, all that kind of stuff. It was just disgusting. So yes, he got fired in this situation. And by the way, it wasn't like he he had he had some problems with with alcohol and drugs. And so it wasn't the first time that we had sort of a run in like this. It was the first one this bad. And it was the first one in front of a customer too. So, yeah, you just have to be smarter than that. That's all there is to it. Our industry, you know, has been tolerant of it for so long but isn't anymore. And I want to say as well how very touched I was for the Craig Burrows for the toast. Yeah, yeah.

1:10:28 I didn't know him. I didn't like to be to go there for, for for everybody that came together. I mean the the the lovely the photo display at the at the back like. Yeah, it was nice that they did that, to be perfectly honest, you know, hell yeah to, to Roby. Like, they have not only been incredibly sensitive and incredibly respectful, but they've just been outpouring with with love and and gratitude for Craig, for his life. They've taken very good care of his his widow. You know, they've really been huge in all of this. And, you know, he was a big part of the company, so good on them for doing it. But yeah, that was that was a nice event. It was nice.

1:11:14 Robert Mockery doing his, yeah, his little, you know, memorial speech or whatever you call it. But no, it was nice. I'm I'm glad you remembered that. I forgot about that one. But yeah. And, you know, they also had a A Craig Burroughs Memorial Golf Tournament as well. Yes, they did, yeah. So yeah, Craig was one of my boys. I mean he he and I were friends for. I don't know, 30 or something a couple of weeks and months before, didn't you at the Formula One? So. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Well, Sarah, it's been nice catching up with you. I I kind of miss you already, even though it's only been a couple days. I do and I don't. I do and I don't, you know, there's some things I miss. There's some things I definitely could do without. You're lying.

1:12:04 You miss all of me. I love me. And she was like, Sarah, do you want to jump? Like this was 7:00 this morning. I was like Sarah. I've got an idea, you know, let's do the, the LDI debrief today and let's risk record it and let's, you know, it'll be 30 minutes. Well, we're already 45. We just know to talk too long. We're more than 45. We're an hour and 8. Isn't that? 8:00 it's an hour and 8 minutes. Yeah. So, well, that's just because I let you talk so much, you know? I. Tried to stop you and you just don't stop. I know I love talking just as much as you do. Yeah. So yeah, it's been fun and it was a great show and, and thanks everybody for listening and. And I'm going to say one more thing, going to say one more thing.

1:12:45 Next week we're recording the Geez of Gear Get Free and festive podcast. If you haven't heard from me, reach out to me producer at geezersofgear.com and I'll send you the link. And it's going to be a group podcast. Bring a drink. And we're just going to wish everyone a happy Christmas, happy festive time and like, like you used to do an old school group. Like the weekly zoom calls but not on zooms and and it's called get freaking festive. Exactly. Yeah, it should be fun. I look forward to doing that. All right, Sarah, you have fun in Las Vegas and no gambling and, you know, no this and no that, no whatever. And say hello to the wonderful Manoli. Hi, Birthday.

1:13:30 My favorite Greek. Yeah. All right, see you. Later. OK, take care myself. Bye. Bye. Yep.