I told the audience of a thousand or so that we were at five minutes.
We had a series of mystery groups use the theatre this week between our shows on Sunday afternoon and this Thursday morning. I wasn't called in for any of them, which is rare. This morning everything went as normal, and it wasn't until an actor got off stage at the end of the second scene (and she told my ASM) that anyone told me the god mic was live. And even then, my ASM understood that my comm was going over mains, not everything I was saying, so I stayed off comm while my sound OP and I tried to find the problem but I was very much talking to my surtitle OP through the whole thing. D'oh!
We never use the god mic to begin with and it's usually not even patched into the board so I didn't think to test it, but that's going on my pre-show from now on!
Last week, while calling a one-man show (Buyer & Cellar), every com channel started broadcasting into the house, beginning when I called 10 Mins to End of Show and 2 standbys. I couldn't tell, because I get stage feed piped into my booth, and I hear myself in my headset anyways... My sound op came on and told me "you're live" before he heard himself and immediately went silent. My ASM turned her wireless pack on, heard the sound go live, and immediately stopped. My actor stopped too.
I thought he had dropped a line, so I was silent in the booth, crossing my fingers that he could pick it back up. He did, and we continued on. I started talking again to give the cues, and he paused. After what seemed like 5 years over the course of 10 seconds, he looked up at the booth and said, in his Barbra Streisand character, "Michelle, Honey? I think you're on the wrong channel. But it's ok. I forgive you." Total mortification followed when the audience applauded. To get through the rest of the show, I had my ASM call me so that she could relay projection cues to the operator backstage, while I talked to the LBO sitting next to me, and used the cue light only for the sound board op.
Turns out there is a "link all" button on the front of our com box, which got hit accidentally. Normally, it allows all the channels to talk to one another. But when you run your God Mic into the com, it allows for everything to be broadcast.
Guess who's always making sure that button is never depressed again?! This girl!!