Breaking Murphy's Law» Problems with People Archive – Breaking Murphy's Law

Even the Gecko has technical difficulties

Lee Potts — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:19:01 +0000

Tech rule #1: Keep the boss away from the buttons…

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Categories: Problems with Equipment, Problems with Light, Problems with People, Problems with Sound, Problems with Staging, Problems with Venue
Tags: boss, buttons, Gecko, Geico, technical difficulties

"Even the Gecko has technical difficulties" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on July 02, 2010. Copyright 2010 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

“tv anchor falls on television”

Lee Potts — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:46:42 +0000

What’s remarkable is the way she recovered. Great example of grace under pressure. Had the the presence of mind to throw the broadcast over to the weather guy and seemed to be thinking ahead of the people behind the cameras and even the director. Even thought to reassure everyone she was okay in order to head off a bunch of calls to the station switchboard. Now, if only she hadn’t put herself in the situation to begin with by asking the chair to do something it apparently wasn’t meant to do. Is there a reason the chairs are on wheels?

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"“tv anchor falls on television”" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on March 25, 2010. Copyright 2010 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Clutch Hitting

Lee Potts — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:24:13 +0000

Hard to believe Spring training is again underway. When it comes to baseball, I’m a complete homer — I always have been and always will be a Phillies fan. The only thing is, I really like hockey a lot more than I like baseball. So given that the hockey season was well under way by the time the world series final ground to a halt, it was relatively easy to come to terms with the fact that the Phils couldn’t quite pull off the repeat. But out of the the deluge of the press coverage documenting their ultimately unsuccessful campaign came this quotes from the Phillies’ cunning old manager Charlie Manuel:

“He likes the moment,” Manuel said. “He wants to be there, and he can control his adrenaline and he can handle the moment.”

Manuel is describing Jimmy Rollins after his clutch hit won them game four of the NLCS in the bottom of the ninth.

Can you think of a better description of the kind of person you want to be working a meeting with you? You know the moments we’re talking about here. Lamps burn out, speakers freaking out, cable getting kick loose, file corrupt, etc.

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Bookmarked: The Oops Factor (Two Well Read)

Lee Potts — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:00:25 +0000

The Oops Factor (Two Well Read) – “It is a fact if you perform live, sooner or later you will meet with a genuine, bona fide onstage disaster. Generally, these seem to fall into two categories. The first is the self-made conflagration where lyrics evaporate into thin air, the high note that was there at sound check mysteriously vanishes in performance, clothing falls apart, and stools move themselves about the stage so that you find yourself in a heap on the floor. I could go on, but being the superstitious type I’ll stop here. The second is the stuff performance legends are made of, those moments where, despite your diligent rehearsal and careful plotting of every moment, elements beyond your control enter in and all hell breaks loose. Sometimes it comes from your fellow musicians onstage, sometimes from the tech booth, and sometimes from that ever unpredictable element, the audience.”

[Great stories in the post as well as in the comments. Artistic presentations oops are as much fun business presentation disasters.]

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Categories: Bookmarks, Problems with Equipment, Problems with People, Problems with Staging
Tags: disaster, music, musicians, onstage, oops, perform

"Bookmarked: The Oops Factor (Two Well Read)" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on October 10, 2009. Copyright 2009 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Bad Signs

Lee Potts — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:02:57 +0000

They call the meeting venue’s electrician “Sparky”. Unfortunately it’s not so much a affectionate, if clichéd, nickname. It’s more a description of his work.

Inspired by a Nicholas Bate post from earlier in the week. (BTW, check out Nicholas’ terrific ongoing series, How To Be Brilliant: 1-50, currently on number 39.)

How To Be Brilliant: 1-50: 38

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Categories: Pre-presentation, Problems with Equipment, Problems with People
Tags: bad signs, electrician, sparky