I can't believe I just had to do that...

[Tempest]

Here's one sure to guarentee a few laughs: What's one of the weirdest/craziest/silliest things you've found yourself doing as part of you job?  On a regular basis, or just a one-time event?

My one time event was about a month ago.  At five 'til places, a small black kitten, from Goddess only knows where, suddenly decided that it wanted to hang out on stage.  This house didn't have a main rag, so the audience laughed themselves silly as I, the house manager, my ASM and both the crew bumbled around like the 5 Stooges, and chased the silly thing all over, under platforms, across stage, through cable tangles, etc.  We finally got a hold of it and kicked it out around places.  One of my actors asked me whht to do it it came back.  All I could do was stare at him a moment until I could finally say, "You're an actor, play off your new scene partner!"

The two repeating events both involved ceilings.  For one show, I had to put a shoe back in a box on the ceiling, every night, and for another, I had to scrub copious amounts of blood off the ceiling, every night.  Just one of those things you do, but occasionally think about and go, "What am I doing!?  This is my job?"

So, what's everyone else got?

[ddsherrer]

I had to rebuild an elf village every show that was complete with a ferris wheel that light up and moved..."If you don't believe in elves, that's your problem!"

[smarielle.goldstein]

When working on Bug with Barebones productions in Pittsburgh as a crew member I had to strike the entire set every evening, full bed, table and all to set up those huge fans to dry the carpet after the actors soaked it in "gasoline". Also had to operate a contraption that sprayed stage blood everywhere in a somewhat bathroom on stage while trying to not be seen in the large mirror behind me(getting covered in it myself), and of course every night I would literally have to mop down the walls and since there was maybe 1.5 gallons of blood in the bathroom alone it would take aprox 30 mins to just clean the bathroom. While I was washing walls and cleaning up a huge mess everyone else was drinking at the makeshift bar with the patrons 20 feet away... damn my loyalty.

[ChaCha]

not sure it was THE weirdest, but i did a show where i had t call a cue "Mango Drop GO" three times each night. Then a fake mago would fall onto the fake tin roof and bounce down and roll randomly across the stage... it made me laugh to myself every time.

[deletedoldnotanymore]

not sure it was THE weirdest, but i did a show where i had t call a cue "Mango Drop GO" three times each night. Then a fake mago would fall onto the fake tin roof and bounce down and roll randomly across the stage... it made me laugh to myself every time.

I had to do a mango drop for Once On This Island!

[stagegal1]

I've had to call "Standby poop" "Poop...GO".  Not my proudest moments.

Allison

[Michael]

I've had to call "Standby poop" "Poop...GO".  Not my proudest moments.

Allison

You don't honestly think we're going to let you go without an explanation, do you?

[KMC]

My oddest moment was "tuning" four beer bottles to play a perfect chord each night.  Not sure that tops a poop cue though...

[zayit shachor]

I had to reset an exploding baby each night.

[LisaS]

None of my moments have been quite that crazy, but it's fun to watch peoples' faces when they ask you what you've been up to at work and you tell them that you sweep, mop, make coffee, and fold origami rabbits. 

[CTsometimeSM]

Rolling fake joints.

The show had several small daily tasks, which normally were accomplished by the ASMs and myself sitting around before the show.  This day, it was just too nice out, so we used the table outside the theatre.  We got a couple looks...

[Trevor7]

I was working on a festival so people in the show had to pitch in and take a suitcase full of props home every night until opening (when we finally rented storage).  I had to carry a suitcase full of fake body parts and a bloody saw, every night on the subway.  I am just glad my bag was never searched but the police.

[sarahbear42]

Spent a week of music rehearsals trying to figure out the best way to fold a paper airplane so that it would do one loop then death-dive into the floor (and not the audience). I'd fold something, throw it, and my director would lean over and tell me how close it was to what he wanted. Never disturbed the actors at all.

(If anyone ever does Smoke on the Mountain: Homecoming, I got your planes covered.)

[Tempest]

        

These are EXACTLY what I was looking for.  I've been laughing out loud and reading them to my husband.

[BeckyGG]

When doing outdoor theater this summer we had a family of 3 foxes living in the theater (amphitheater, building behind the audience that they came through and gates backstage).  Now, I've had raccoons, rats, mice, squirrels, etc. but never foxes.  It started with Papa Fox scoping things out and visiting occasionally then it turned into a nightly endeavor, with all 3 foxes, where they would run around backstage, the audience, wherever they wanted.  We would alert house staff over the walkie talkies then the house staff would try to chase the foxes backstage where my crew would try to get them out the gates.  One night after a tech, the production manager and myself ended up chasing a fox out of the building at 4am.  I just felt bad for my crew person who would clean up the indoor run rooms after the fox relieved himself in there one night.

Another time where I wondered what I was doing was when as a props person I was gluing cheesecloth to a bowling ball so we could paint it some outrageous color.