Punk me! 10 great Tech Pranks….

(The ones you’ll NEVER get away with!)

You know the story – show setup and rehearsal is SO BORING. After you’ve got cozy, rope lights rigged, ornaments and icons in place, Persian rug and fav chair just so, what now?

CX strongly encourage you not to enact any of the following mayhem on your beloved cohort of show business professionals. They will probably run you down and beat you up. As well they should.

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But if you are looking for a career change, and a bit of excitement, let’s go inside……

The 10 great pranks you’ll never pull:

1. Sound FX down random FOH line from monitors
   Julius has done this, while bored senseless as monitor guy (on a Julius owned touring production, so no risk of getting fired!) The FOH dude was a dope, with stacks of his own effects, and he fiddled all the time. Julius used a nice little Sony Walkman, with a nice cassette of sound effects, and sent various inane noises down channels that were not in use, and should have been muted. Like stray Brass or Acoustic guitar special channels. Hilarious!
2. Random re-patch during show/changeover

Not terribly clever, but guaranteed to bend the mind of the FOH guy!

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1. Mute alternate processor outputs from song to song
   As above, very hard to discern WHAT is going wrong from FOH, but losing high frequency here and there, and a sub coming and going, these focus the mind of the FOH person.
2. 110v par cans off 240v dimmers
   This one is really dumb, since the dimmers that let you switch down voltage can get switched back up again. Not by you!
3. Pitch shift lead vocal channel down an octave or several in their monitors. Especially easy on a Yamaha M7CL, and done regularly at one church we know!
4. Pay attractive girl to give band a note saying “there’s a taxi outside waiting for you”. Have her approach the stage just as a song ends, and preferably across an empty dance floor, for effect. The leader will (always) look happy to see what should be a song request, but what is actually a slap down. Hilarious!
5. Setup the drumkit left handed. This one requires a lot of work, for obvious aggravation. Probably better done as you leave. For good.
6. Hang the backdrop inverted – and do it electronically if it’s a projection.  Always fun to see the confusement!
7. Play Nailbomb as BGM before a jazz gig. OK, play anything inappropriate as background music, to really get the audience in the mood. Andre Rieu, at a metal festival anyone?

10. We saved the best for last! You know that serious RF tech? Who doesn’t share stuff and always gives you the eye or the finger? When he is outside having his 33^rd cigarette, sneak to his computer monitor and wire on your special 2-way VGA switcher! Run the secret line back to your little laptop, and just when he is DEEPLY intent on looking for a strange frequency, mid rehearsal, switch his screen view to HACKERS! Watch him fall over!!!