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Six or so years ago with my current My partner at the time, Um, he was in the show as a as a boy. Um, I went along formally just to support him. Um, I tended to just sit in the background in the rehearsals. Do nothing. Really. Um, and then suddenly I got a little job which happened to be babysitting a dog. And, uh, one of the contestants, um, had a little [00:00:30] lap dog of which I used to look after. And that was my first official role of the Queen of Show. So, um yeah, that was me. It was the first year. Was the dog part of a performance? It was, um uh, he the the contestant was actually using the dog. Um, he was Miss New Zealand at the time, and he was using the dog because it was a little white, fluffy thing. Sort of represented a sheep or lamb, so Yeah. So the dog was there basically to get used to all the people around [00:01:00] and so a lot of fun. Have you done anything like that before? Not at all. Not at all. Um uh, my closest. Anything stage wise would have been, probably when I was about nine. And I was, um, Oliver in the stage show Oliver at school, and, uh, dare I say it was horrifying. Number one, that was my one and only attempt for stage work of any form. Why was it horrifying? I mean, I just It was just I don't think it went that well, so But anyway, hey, [00:01:30] as I was young but never, never really had the inclination to to follow it through, it was just a school thing. Can you describe what it was like going to those first rehearsals where Where you'd never actually been in this kind of environment before? It was actually quite nerve wracking, um, sitting there not knowing a soul other than my partner. Um, it was a whole new group. Um, I'd recently, um, come out as as far as my sexuality was concerned, being married two kids so forth. So [00:02:00] coming into that environment, not ever really being associated with drag queen scenario, Uh, and I use that term very loosely, um, and and mixing it with the lesbian and the gay community in that form, it was actually quite scary. Um, but as I said I was there to support my partner at the time, and and, um, you know, it took probably two or three rehearsals for me to find that comfort zone. Um, but it it got there, it got there. And, um, it was it was it was [00:02:30] fun that everybody sort of stood back. And who's this guy, you know, who's this new person? He just sits there and does nothing. Now he's got a dog on his lap. So what's he doing? You know, it must be quite an interesting experience if you've never been in a large group of gay lesbian people. Totally. And, um, it was, I must say, um, very good for me. Uh, it enabled me to to accept the community in in a whole, um, it [00:03:00] enabled me to get into the community, um, to to a level where I was comfortable with. So, um, you know, it was a great help. It wasn't. I did. I had no idea at the time that that was what was gonna happen. It wasn't designed that way. It was just a great opportunity. And it opened up a few doors for me, which was great. So how much time had lapsed between you kind of coming out and and then starting with the queen of the whole, Um, probably about four years, Um, in total. Um, I had [00:03:30] a, um yeah, II. I came out as left home, came out and then sort of did my own little thing as as such. Then I met my partner at the time, and he was very out there in the context of a very friendly, open sort of a person, Um, bubbly and and he just encouraged me to get involved and and which is great, which is great. It really was one of the really nice things I think about the queen of the whole universe is that it's open to anyone. [00:04:00] So, you know, are you straight or go absolutely and and and you know, you you have to question who is straight and who is gay. You don't know, and it's not. We don't all just stand up and say, Hey, I'm gay or I'm straight or I'm a lesbian or whatever the case may be, um, the show is open to anyone. You don't have to be a gay person. You don't have to be a lesbian or or whatever. You know, it's, um if you want to be involved and and Jonathan is accepting of that, that's fine. That's great. And and that's what the whole family I know. I call [00:04:30] it a family. That's what the whole family is all about. It and it. And it's just it's just exciting to be involved in. So that first time we were looking after the lap dog, did you actually take the lap dog on stage as well? No, no, no, no. I was just It was just I was there, as I say to support my partner. Um, the dog was a little bit of a nuisance in the fact that it was running around the place. So I ended up picking it up and just holding it, and and I was just nicknamed the dog minder. And that went on for the whole that whole show. [00:05:00] Um oh, sorry. The whole rehearsal period, Um, for the six or so weeks that that went on, um, my actual role in the show that that particular year that first year, um, was in the dressing room and and that's really where it, um where it started. Um, I have never seen the show live in front. It's always I've always been in the back of the stage in some form. So, um, and looks like I'll never see it in front. [00:05:30] So what? So what was your role in the dressing rooms? Um, just again, I I was encouraged to to to stay with the boys, as you would understand. There, there, the boys. And then there's the the the girls. Right. Um, I was nominated to help the boys out with their dressing room, help them with their costumes and and get them anything they really wanted. I was, like, the go for. So this is the boys who were boys on stage and and and ironically, boys. And some of them were girls dressed up as boys. [00:06:00] So so you know, it was a mixture. So So you go I was the gofer. Yeah, Yeah. I I I'd relinquish my, um, my dog role and went to be the go for the boys for that first year. Um, and again, I. I enjoyed it immensely. I missed the fact that I actually didn't see the show improper. Well, we saw it was from TV cameras. A lot of screens, but, um so, yeah, I can imagine when you're in production. Uh, it would take a while [00:06:30] to get made up and in costume. And so you would actually be having to support those people for quite a number of years? Absolutely. And And this especially show day and And they get their, um, their costumes and they get their makeup put on and it's you can see the stress levels exaggerate immensely. And, you know, some people handle them really well. Others get really spaced out and and it and it you get to a stage that a dresser [00:07:00] can be quite comforting because you can just sit down and, you know, calm down, calm them down, or talk to them, or just help them out in any form just to take as much stress as possible away from the contestant or the or the performer. When you say spaced out, what what do they How do they? Well, they sort of go into their own zone. And I suppose it's the adrenaline pumping, knowing that suddenly the curtain is going to come up in an hour or two and they're gonna be exposed to these many hundreds of people, and [00:07:30] and a lot of them, especially the first time performers get very, very nervous about that. Um, and it's not a nerve as in hating. It's a nerve as an excitement. It's it's just wow, you know, this is just unbelievable. And it is, trust me. It is unbelievable. It must be quite weird having if if you are a new a new bee going through, having all that kind of rehearsal where you're in a kind of a private space and then suddenly to be in the theatre and thinking, 0, 1500 people are about to see what I do That's right, It's dead right? And it's it's, [00:08:00] you know, you tend to I mean, there's been occasions where you've seen guys that have struggled through the rehearsals and and you know, Jonathan's either identified some issues there or or and we've gone along and sort of comforted them and say, like, you know, you can do this. This is This is not that hard. You know, you're not the only one on this boat. There's there's another 30 plus others that are in the same boat, so you know you can do it and and you just give them the confidence that it's it's not a biggie. Hey, it's We're here to have some fun and [00:08:30] at the same time entertain as a go For what? What were the things they were getting you to get? Oh, just drinks. And, um, occasionally the button might fall off, so I'd have to run around and try and find and sewing needles and some thread and and stuff like that. So, yeah, just a little thing, like through experience. Do you find now that that you actually have all those things, like, you know, needles threads here, my current role as stage manager, Um, I tend to go Well, I think the extra mile and and, [00:09:00] you know, I will go and purchase on my own bed a few items that I have found necessary on the show night, and it might be a felt pen. Or it might be some double sided tape, and, um, it's just because they come up to you and they'll say, Oh my God, my button's falling off or my collar is sticking up, you know, so you need to help them get that stress out of their out of their mind. So because they've got a show to go on with. And as we all know, the show will go on. [00:09:30] Regardless. We've got, uh, felt pins. Uh, double sided tape. What? What are some of the other, um, highlight pens? Um, safety pins? Because stockings might have fallen down. Or or um um, belts coming off. Um, uh, we had, uh, one stage. What do we have? We had Oh, the straps on somebody's shoes actually snapped on show night and with, Oh, my God. You know, how do we fix [00:10:00] this? But good old safety pin and a bit of kiwi ingenuity. And where we go, I actually handy, man, build a slash palmer. So I'm sort of recognised as the butch man around the around the stage area. So going back to the, uh, the first year you were involved where you became a gopher from there. How did it, um, the following year? Um, the current at the time was Mark was the stage manager. Um, Ellie was stage manager call. [00:10:30] Um, but Mark did the main stage management out the back, um, with props and and getting the casting and cast on on stage and so forth. Um, I then was asked to help mark out, and there's a group of six or seven people behind the scenes shifting scenery and and and so forth and helping the contestants out with head gear. And exactly, um, so [00:11:00] that was the second year. Uh, and, uh, third year also, Um, I did that, and that was sort of gave me a a far bigger insight to actually the the backstage side of it, um, neither ever imagining that I was actually going to end up where I have ended up. Um, to be honest, it was the last thing I wanted to be involved with because of the stress you can see since the stress in Mark's, um situation in in stress [00:11:30] is a major part of the management role making sure things go right. So the first couple of years after the go role, I was sort of a stage assistant, um, and just did what I was told. Can you just define for me what the difference is between a stage manager and a stage manager call? OK, Ellie. Stage man. A call she actually calls the show, so she will call the lighting cues. She will call the music cues. Um, [00:12:00] she will actually direct me to call on a contestant at a specific time or or things of that nature. So we have a script that is basically word perfect to the minute to the second, and she calls that script by word by second by minute. And that's when precisely everything will happen. Um, as you appreciate there's so many lighting queues. There is so many, uh, changes in in scenery or or music or whatever the case may be. So everything's [00:12:30] done to a specific time. And so Allie is stage call. My role as stage manager is to sort of manage the cast, so to speak, and I get them on stage at the right time. Um, I make sure they're in the right positioning at the right time. Um, I make sure they are quiet at the right time. Easier said than done. Um, these guys and girls, um forget that they have an audience out there behind the big curtain, and [00:13:00] they're clumping around their heels and so forth. So there's just a lot of things you got to consider I have a a group of 6 to 8 helpers, and, um, I have a a lady Jan. She's on the other side of the stage. I'm on normally on, um, left hand side. Jan's on the right hand side, and she's my second night assistant, so to speak. So she she controls one side of the stage. I control the other side of the stage, [00:13:30] but at the end of the day, I call it to what happens and, um, how how it happens. You mentioned just before that, um, you could see the really big stresses when Mark was doing the job. And I'm wondering what are the biggest stresses? Well, it's it. It's it's really just organising and having everybody organised at the right time. Um, Mark left was leaving, and he rang me up. One day, he said, Look, any chance of you [00:14:00] helping Jonathan out as I am leaving? I'm moving to Australia, I said, Yeah, I think so. But I said it sort of set it with hesitation. And then a few days later or so, I got a call from Jonathan saying, Hey, you heard Mark's leaving. Can you help me out and the implication I got with the wording. Help me out was just temporarily help me out. So I agreed to help him out until about a week or so prior to the show, actually [00:14:30] starting. He said, You know your stage manager, don't you? I said you're kidding me. He said if I told you I wanted you a stage manager when we started this, you would have run a mile. I said, you sod. He conned me. But anyway, it was a nice con. Uh, but the stress is, I suppose it's er, taking things to the to the to the max is making sure things happen for the for the cast, you [00:15:00] know that they are stressed themselves. You try and destress them as much as you possibly can. Um, I've had instances where I've I've had contestants really barrel me out because as far as they're concerned, something didn't happen or something went wrong and they blame me, and that's fine. That's that's their prerogative. I don't take it personally. It's just something that happens. Um, but we all laugh about it at the end of the day. You know, the audience, the audience actually don't realise there's a mistake [00:15:30] being made. We do, but the audience actually don't. But the con contestant is mortified to think that something has gone wrong. So, you know, we we try to keep things down. Distress in terms of trying to keep things under control. Do you have, um, techniques or, um, signals that you give people backstage? Because I'm I'm guessing you can't talk either. No, correct. I mean, I ma ma, when I when I first got there, I was a bit, [00:16:00] but taken back it with a mark. Mark was a very boisterous, loud, solid type of guy, you know? And he stamped his authority as as stage man, and you will be here. You will be quiet. You know, um, whereas a lot of the guys accepted that and and it didn't really phase them, some of them actually thought, Hey, this is a bit bit on the nose, you know, there's a bit on the top. So when I took over, I was a little bit the meek, mild sort of a character, and I thought, Oh, we'll just befriend everybody and and and everybody will just blend [00:16:30] in and it And it worked for me. Um and then occasionally I'll get, say, at a rehearsal, Jonathan will say, Oh, Steve, can you organise get everybody in such and such a position or for this particular act or whatever And I was screaming out at the top of my lungs, you know, get your so and so's back on stage or up here or wherever, and you you'll get the sneaker and they'll look at me and think, Where did that come from? You know, that's not Steve. Uh, but it's It's [00:17:00] It's fun, it's It's the guys are, it's It's such a compliment for for the guys to come up and say, Hey, thanks, Steve, You're really you're really doing us proud and it's it's it's It's a really great feeling. Great feeling. What do you think the, uh, biggest attributes are for, uh, being a successful stage manager? Oh, um, it's a It's a tough question, because I've never actually done this sort [00:17:30] of work before. II, I honestly can't answer that. However, my I would state that you really need to get the contestants or the performers, um, understanding of you and how you operate. You know, I don't think you don't need to be too aggressive with them. Uh, they have their own issues. They have their own concerns about what they're doing and and so forth. Um, you just need to offer them. And I believe I do offer them as much support as possible, [00:18:00] even if it's even if it means going the extra mile. Um, you an instance? One of the contestants, uh, was an actor, and he had his his outfits and staging and and props and so forth. It was quite vast. And he rings me up knowing that I've got a van for work. He said, Any chance of you being able to pick up my gear? I said, Yeah, no, that's fine. So I said, How big is it? And then he measured how big some of his head gear [00:18:30] and stuff was, and I thought, Oh, my God, this is not gonna fit in my van. But Steve been Steve, I said, Yeah, yeah, no, no, I'll organise it. So I actually went and hired a truck at my cost and rent Randy's house picked all his gear up about to leave, to take it to the stage to the to the um theatre to find. I had two flat tyres, so we ended up ringing. I did ringing the, um, rental company. [00:19:00] They brought another truck around and took the other one or repaired the other one. We unload one truck, reload the next one. What I thought was going to be an hour where it was about four hours. Not to mention I got stung for the blowing tyres as well. So that little exercise cost me about $300. Um, but that's that's fine. That's That was what I offered. And and it wasn't, you know, again, I was taking some stress away from this particular candidate. And, um, [00:19:30] you know, he knew he had a problem with getting his gear to getting gear to the stage. Let let's talk about the, um, the gear because the even simply the head gear is, what, two metres by two metres for each contestant. Totally. And, um, most of the staging area that I have to play with in in in terms of storage or so forth is minimal. And that has always been a nightmare for me. And, um, two days before the the the actual [00:20:00] show day. Um, most of the head gear and so forth is delivered. And and And it's up to me to then rearrange the stage in such a way that either the contestants can find their gear and in in in such a format that people aren't falling over each other because we go made to Z as far as who's coming on stage. So I don't want the Zs mixed up with the A's because everybody goes, It's just not gonna happen. Um, and if you've ever been behind stage on on, um, the [00:20:30] head gear time, it's it is organised chaos to the nth degree. And that's when people get really, really toy. Um, we've had instances where we've had, um, head gear getting caught up in curtaining. We've had instances where, um somebody's put head gear on and then walked past somebody else's head gear and broken it. And it's just wow, you know, and we all keep smiling. So yeah, so how do you [00:21:00] How do you plan out where the head gear is on that first? Well, generally we've got, uh, if you can imagine looking at the stage where? Left hand and right hand side. Um, II. I lay the the the head gear on the back wall and behind all the curtaining. Um, if a contestant tends to be, if if a contestant is is entering the stage from the left hand side, obviously their gear is on the left hand side and vice versa. Um, our biggest issue is the girls go on [00:21:30] stage with their massive head gears in general, uh, and they're escorted with either one or two boys. Now, I don't know why it is, but every year we've always had an issue with getting boys to girls. It is crossing them from one side of the stage to the next. They are literally running. Um, the perspiration is pouring off their faces, and occasionally we've actually missed a queue because of it, and [00:22:00] girls slash contestants get quite upset. And hence we've had some rather especially, uh, dress rehearsal. Not we've had some. Um, well, I've had a couple of dressing downs by contestants Say, why didn't I have this person Sorry. Yeah, just just an error. But it But it works out on the night. It's bizarre. It is so bizarre. And as the boy issue, because there are only what six [00:22:30] or seven boys compared to 30. Yeah. I mean, normally we have between eight and 10 boys. Um, and it's a matter of getting them paired up. Some of the girls specifically want a specific boy because A for the height size or they've got a costume that they want him to specifically wear. Now, when a boy is using a costume outside of his normal outfit for a specific candidate, Um, girl that takes that [00:23:00] person out of my role. Um, I don't have I don't have the facility to use them again until he can de de Robbe and get back into his normal clothes or his costume clothes. So yeah, it's, um, a bit confusing, as I say, organised chaos. So we've got the headgear, but we've also got there are other parts of the set totally, totally. And and I mean, if the Act one is reasonably straightforward, Um uh, as [00:23:30] a stage manager, you you get to a stage opening night or first night curtain goes up. The sense of adrenaline that pumped into your body in that split second for me personally is amazing. It's actually quite emotional. Um, it is a form of a relief in the fact that you've got to this point and now we now have a two hour show ahead of us. Now we're here for serious. There is no [00:24:00] mistakes, and it is as much as it is exciting. It is very emotional because you see everybody, the girls and the boys standing on stage. The curtain goes up. There's this huge roar from the crowd. The music starts and we're into it. It don't stop. So it's It's just amazing, Um, very exciting. It's hard to express express, and I can understand and appreciate how the girls and the contestants feel that split [00:24:30] second, the curtain goes up. It must be just amazing just to get that blast from the audience, you know, and we're just in the background. What I find really cool having been in one of the audiences is that the audience are absolutely wanting it to be successful, right, even before the curtain goes up. So you've got this wonderful energy, absolutely. And and it's in the six years that I've been there, uh, and associated with the show never been in the audience itself. But you obviously get [00:25:00] that vibe. The minute the curtain goes up. It's like, Wow, you know, this is we're talking world stars sitting out here. That's the sort of the atmosphere you've got. Um, you know, it could have been Elton John. That's the response that these people are getting. And it's just excellent. It's just excellent. It's exciting. How was it for you then? Taking the show to a different venue. Like, I know that you've toured to Wellington and, um, we've had a few humorous events. Doing [00:25:30] that first trip was Papa when we took it to Wellington, and fortunately it was an abbreviated, an abbreviated form. It wasn't a full, full show. Um, it was like a a, um, performance, an abbreviated performance for Papa itself. And, um, that particular year I was still stage manager or new, too. I think it might have been my my second stage manager role. Um, and I offered to drive a truck [00:26:00] with all the head gear to Wellington and um, which was fine. Jonathan organised the truck. It was reasonably small because nobody at the time had a heavy traffic licence, so So it was reasonably small. But we got the major majority of gear and into the into the van or truck. As it was, I drove it down. It's fine. Um, that particular year there was, uh, a contestant had a little issue with two [00:26:30] of their his backup crew for for Act two couldn't perform for whatever reason, illness or or whatever. So yours truly got roped into it. Well, I'll talk about petrified. So we actually did end up on stage in the lights. Rather rather scary. It's, um But we did it. We did it. I stayed in the background. Undisguised. Hopefully, no, it was awkward. [00:27:00] It was. Did you realise you were about to do that? No. No. It was like I was given six hours notice. However, I had been to all the rehearsals because my partner at the time was in the show in the Act two show. Um, so I was privy to to the dance routines and so forth. And it was reasonably I wouldn't say it was complicated, but it for somebody to just say, Hey, can you go and do this? Can you help us out? We need another guy on stage and I'm thinking, My [00:27:30] God, you know? So I got to wear somebody else's outfit and costume, which didn't quite fit. And but you know how we did it? We did it. So what was the feeling like? It was actually quite it was. It was exciting. Um, in the over the years, I've often thought to myself, Do I have the needs to actually go and do this to actually get out there? I could have said it to Jonathan. I wanna move on to the next stage. I want to go from [00:28:00] backstage to front stage, but I never really II I couldn't quite bring myself to it. And it was always an instance. Jonathan, we were at rehearsals one day. It wasn't that long ago. It was like maybe two years ago. And, um, I tend to get involved with the dancing and at rehearsals sort of helps me get into it and and, you know, we have a bit of fun with it. And afterwards, Jonathan said to me, I think you're a better [00:28:30] backstage than a dancer. And I thought, Oh, thank you, my friend. That's a really good compliment. So we didn't go any further forward with performing. What is Jonathan's directing style like, um, his directing style is very direct. Um, Jonathan, um has his a very, um, easy but directing manner, [00:29:00] if you know what I understand. Uh, he he's the only one that I could I can imagine to be able to get that group of people to do what is needed to be done. Um, he's very sensitive. He's very, um, in in context to the abilities of of some of the performance some of them have. You'd have to say, Wow, is that guy going to survive this show? You know, does he really know what he's doing? [00:29:30] But Jonathan supports him through it and and, you know, he he's He's very acknowledging. He's very aware of of what's going on around him. Um, no, I think it's great. He's just he's just generally excellent person. Everybody knows exactly where they stand with them. Um, there's no pretence. There's no ball. It's just Jonathan speaks his mind, tells him how he wants it to be done, organises [00:30:00] the, um, choreographers to do so, and it's done. So how does it work when he's like that in the, uh, rehearsals? As soon as you move into the theatre, do you then a stage manage. Just take on the role of Jonathan effectively. Um, three hours prior to the show, we'll have a get together on stage itself. We'll sit down. We'll have a, um, a chat backwards and forth. Jonathan will express his feelings to [00:30:30] to what's happening and and so forth. Now, as Jonathan's role then becomes performer slash Compare, um he must then divorce himself from the role of production manager um, and producer. So he then effectively, officially hands the stage and the performance over to me. And that's when things get really serious. Um, and I tend to take my job very, very seriously, even though it's a lot of fun. [00:31:00] Um, I get very to with individuals that don't do what I we think should be doing, You know what I'm saying? Um, we had an incident, so I in the early earlier years, I had we have headphones that I do in context to, um Allie has headphones. I have headphones so I can hear what the calls are and so forth. And this particular day I had headphones which were connected to a plug, so I had a lead, maybe a 20 metre [00:31:30] leap on what note? There's probably an extra 10 metre litre constantly. People are standing on this lead and ripping my head off my shoulders every time I walked past and it was so frustrating. And but there's one particular person that keep on doing it. So I need to say he got a mouth full. I had to apologise afterwards because it was rather a large mouthful. But, uh, the next year I actually got, um, Cordless one. So it made life a lot easier. That must be quite hard. I'm just thinking, in Jonathan's [00:32:00] situation, it must be quite hard being a director and a producer and then having to just completely step away from worrying about what everyone else is doing and and suddenly working about thinking about, You know how you're going to compare the show with Jonathan. It it must be hard for him and and I I do feel for him because he it's his baby, you know? He he works his entire life around this show, Um, and I. I give him [00:32:30] 100 and 10% credit for that, Um, with Kevin and his partner, they do a marvellous job. Jonathan's the minute he he effectively hands it over to me. He puts 100 and 10% trust in me, Ellie, that things are gonna go right in 99% of the time. They do, um, one of my roles, One of my fav favourite roles. And it's It's [00:33:00] few hours before the show. The contestants are downstairs in the green room or in their dressing room, getting ready and so forth regularly. Probably I would go and ask each and every contestant, possibly four times between that time to the actual curtain up. Is there anything you need? Is there anything I can do for you? It's just again distressing them, just knowing that they're being thought about. And And this includes Jonathan and and Kevin. Uh, you know, they're putting [00:33:30] their huge costumes on, uh, they've got to focus on their their presentation to the to the audience, so they, too, are very involved with what's going on around them. And they've got media asking them, talking to them so forth. So it's it's It's a busy, busy time the last couple of hours prior to, uh, kid up. Are there any little rituals that you do before? Um, we have. We have a little little dress rehearsal. Um, pre kidnap. Um, [00:34:00] little warm up. Um, but other than that, nothing major, um, it's really just it's just lots of things needing to be done. Um, I mean, I run around and then I go and check that everything's in one place or the places that's supposed to be. Um, and I make sure I got batteries on my torches. I got I have pens or I have my mics working or so forth and so on. Or or the the tables are set at the back where we have the, um, flowers [00:34:30] and this and the awards to be set in the order that they need to be done and and things like that. So is it your responsibility to make sure that all the costumes are in the right places and all the set pieces are in the right places? Um, when it comes to act two, as I say, Act one is reasonably straightforward. Um, there's a few routines that go on and and and so forth. And Jonathan and and Buffy and Bimbo uh, do the presentation and and so forth come back to [00:35:00] a different story. That's when my role gets a little bit more up front. And that's when the Act two girls have all their sets and so forth, which need to be positioned or or taken away, or even even to an extent. Um, I had a few little roles in acts last year, not visual roles, but things needed to be done precisely at a certain time. Um, so it gets pretty busy, and, uh, they get very precious [00:35:30] about their show because they are at the end of the day, the Act two girls are the ones that are there for the money. Um, one of those two girls will win the queen of the show, and nobody knows who it's going to be. It is a legitimate judging process. Um, so it is my role to ensure that they get the each and every one of them gets the best that they require without any bias. [00:36:00] And I can honestly say there has never, ever been a bias. Has there been a sabotage ever? Never. Never, never. If there has not by me. Uh, no, it's all It's all very good. It's I mean, all the act two girls totally have high regard to each another. Each another one. And you know, never at all. Never be that to that extent. We mentioned briefly touring to Wellington, And I'm wondering, um, we didn't quite touch on [00:36:30] moving into a new theatre space and and trying to work out how how everything works. Can you talk to me about that? That's that's that was a challenge. Um, the last Wellington run we did, um, Jonathan organised the truck again for me to I offered to drive down, and we realise that Oh, my God, this truck is not gonna take all this gear panic. It was a serious [00:37:00] panic. We This was on the Saturday. The show was the following Saturday. We needed to get all the gear down there. We needed to get them in the in the staging area. We needed to do dress rehearsals. And that particular week I had taken off from work and I offered my services to drive the truck down, um, help stage set up and help Jonathan. Whatever he needed doing during that week, we can get 50% of the head gear in the truck. [00:37:30] We have a major problem. What do we do with the other gear? Nobody had a HD licence to get the bigger truck. So yours truly offers to drive the truck there back there and back. And trust me, that was a nightmare. I had never been so exhausted in my life. It was just very tolling. Um, but we did it. The show must go on. And, um, I drove to Wellington on the Saturday, um, unloaded [00:38:00] Sunday morning, Drove all the way back to Auckland, loaded up again, slept Sunday night, Monday morning, drove all the way back here. So, uh, yeah, it was, um, quite a quite, um, quite tiring, but, uh, and then all the late nights with, uh, the rehearsals and the and the so forth. It was a very big week, but I Jonathan was pretty appreciative of these. Um, you know, he knew we we all went the extra mile. It wasn't just me. It was, You know, everybody [00:38:30] went the extra mile to make sure that that everything went through because we made the promise to the contestants. We will get your gear there. So it was up to up to us to do it. We did it prior to actually getting into the theatre. Have you worked out? Um, because I I imagine all the dimensions backstage in front of the stage will be quite different. Totally. Totally. Um, for example, ST James, um, has slightly raped um, staging, um, smaller. Uh, and all I was given was [00:39:00] a piece of paper with a measurement on it. I actually had an eyeball. This thing. So my first, um, experience at this stage is when I finally got down there and think, Wow, where am I going to put all this gear? But we it's it's we found a way, and it happens. It just, you know, if you don't, I think the idea is just to stay calm and and and don't try and and just just go with the flow because it will happen. And we can We can work it somehow. Um and then it's just a matter [00:39:30] of OK, we we don't need this gear, particularly in act one, So we'll put it in storage. That means in that interval of time, we do the big swap over and and and bring Act two gears out. So, um, there's, you know, there's a way of doing it around everything. Um, but it was it was a bit scary, you know, how How do we put all this stuff in there? Uh, and then more to the point, we had a particular routine where the entire, um, cast was in one line right across the face of the stage. Well, we couldn't get them all in. [00:40:00] So then Jonathan devised a way of getting them in. We doubled them up and so forth. So as I say, there's a way. Just don't stress. Don't panic. What about the interface between, um, the people of the show and the people of the venue? So, like the the technicians that are actually housed in the venue? How does that work? It's It's great. Um, we don't cross paths. Um, I have as far as I'm concerned, I have high regard [00:40:30] and respect to the their role is lighting person or or visuals or whatever the case may be, um, it's their stage. At the end of the day, it's their stage. And the, you know, the there's a guy that manages the stage as a full time job. Um, we take nothing for granted. We ask permission before we even put a piece of tape on the stage. Um, total respect to these guys, um, they run a very professional [00:41:00] in, um, staging process. Um, and we must respect that, Uh, but everything is they get on well with us. They now understand us. You know, sometimes when there's one particular guy, uh, the stage manager, slash uh, the full time guy there. And he's quite a rough, butchie type of character, you know, big handlebar moustache and so forth. And then here's a bunch of queens arrive and you and you think you have My God. What is he [00:41:30] thinking of next? You know, and we all we all take the Mickey out of him, and it's still a bit of fun, but he's a very straight serious sort of a guy, but he he understands. But he's as I say, we give them in the respect they deserve, and and it all goes fine. They'll tell us if if we're not allowed to do something, they'll tell us. Um, because some there are some things we can't do, you know, obviously, for for safe and health, safety and health reasons, um, we've got to be careful where we stage [00:42:00] things where we hang things, whether we can hang things. Um, some of the guys wanted to use naked flames. We can't do that. Some of the guys wanted to use dry ice. We can't do that in specific cases we have done before. Um, we one of the contestants want a dry ice for their show. And this was up up here in Auckland, and, um, we accommodated not a problem. Uh, special machine. And it blows this dry ice across the floor. Well, we had a It was my role and [00:42:30] responsibilities to get this dry ice blowing across the stage, which we did. And this was prior to the curtain actually going up. So the appearance was this cloud of smoke going hazing through the the floor. Well, Jonathan would not get off the stage. He was talking bimbo and Buffy you're referring to with talking and talking and talking on stage. We ran out of dry ice. By the time the curtain went up, there was no dry ice left. So [00:43:00] we we sort of advise Mr um Jonathan to make his speeches a little shorter in future. When we can using dry ice. That must be very hard to time in terms of, you know, making sure that there's enough of a kind of a missed out there, but not too much. So you can't see anything. Well, ironically, rehearsal dress rehearsal. They didn't do the full talking side of it, Jonathan and, um, I pumped the dry ice on, but then we had the [00:43:30] other other end of the scale. We actually lost the contestants. I had too much of it. Uh, we we we So we didn't actually ever win that one. Are there any other memorable moments that you can that you can think of there? There's probably numerous in in, you know, we've had guys breaking arms. We've had, um, heels been broken on stage. I've had the abuse given at me because of things haven't gone right. [00:44:00] Um, obviously, the double run with the truck, um, it's just it's just just momentous, really. It's it's it's just such a privilege to be associated with it. Um, it will be a very emotional time this year being its last. Um, it will be the biggest and best ever. I'm sure. Um, it's just gonna be straight [00:44:30] out exciting. Uh, and I'm sure the other contestants and other participants in the show it's a highlight of your year because I know it's a really highlight of my year. You know, I look forward to it. Um, I can't wait till we actually start rehearsals. Rehearsals and and And And we start moving in. And then then I can then start forming a plan in my head how things are gonna work. Because at this stage, I've got no idea. Absolutely no idea. Um, but in a couple of weeks, we'll [00:45:00] start to think about it and move on and build the bigger picture for for the audience to appreciate and enjoy. And I'm sure they're gonna have AAA great night.
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