Update

Howdy folks, just a quick update on the last few shows.

Show 1 yesterday: We had a new techie running the show so were told to be aware for slight mistakes with sound effects etc. He actually did pretty well for a first attempt and the only mistakes were noticible to us on stage and probably not noticible to the audience.

Show 2 yesterday: Well we were all in our places backstage, the pre-show music ended and the backstage light got brighter signalling the beginning of the show. However it quickly became apparant that there was no music, only dialogue coming out of the speakers. There's no way the show would work like that so without even setting foot on stage we went upstairs and the show was cancelled.

First show today: Unfortunately cancelled again, this time the show was running fine to begin with but at the point where Wolveine repels in and the action starts (i'm sitting in the wings watching the stage) the curtain dropped and there was a distinct lack of Wolverine. I waited for a couple of seconds but it was clear that Wolverine wasnt there so ran backstage to inform the techies that we were missing a character and the show would have to be stopped. Well the music continued to play to a baffled audience before an announcement was made saying the show was cancelled. Turns out that the glove needed for the Wolverine repel had been knocked off the walkway, making it impossible for Wolfy to come down the rope.

So here we are, with a very long gap before our next showtime, thank God the weathers nice eh!

P.

Allo.

Oh dear, goodbye England from the world cup, going to be annoying putting up with all the smug Germans, at least until Friday when they get beaten by Argentina!

So the weekend went fine, a couple of glitches in the shows but nothing serious. Huge audiences on Saturday afternoon, maybe the biggest since we opened which is always good for us on stage.

Back to the usual 2 shows today, the weather is really playing a part now as it's been so hot, having to be very careful about running the risk of dehydration and exhaustion but we get plenty of time to rest and recover between shows so we're all taking it easy.

Not much else to report except I seem to have aquired a groupie, added her on Facebook because we had some friends in common but it turns out she is just a crazy fan and is emailing me saying she wants to talk after the shows, signs all her emails "Your Jacqueline". It's quite funny in a creepy sort of way so that's my entertainment for the week!

Til next update!

Px

Ay 'up.

Afternoon all.

Well it's Friday and also my day off so hopefully the shows are running well today.

Not too many disasters to report on since the incident with the CO2 tank. Wednesday was the first time that Gareth played Magneto and he did very well considering he hasnt had to play that part for 5 weeks or so.

World cup fever is still very prevolent here, Phil, Gareth and myself went to a little bar to watch the Germany game that would determine if they would be playing England this week. It was quite funny trying to act inconspicuous as we got very excited every time Ghana looked as if they would score, fortunately I dont think anyone noticed us and as it turned out Germany will face England on Sunday. We're not busy when the game kicks off but we have our last show of the day at half time, we're expecting a very small audience indeed but will be able to run up to the green room in time to catch most of the second half. It's going to be pretty bad if England lose as we wont hear the end of it from all the techies and crew but hey-ho, maybe we'll win and can gloat at them for a while!

So back to work tomorrow and the usual weekend schedule of 3 shows a day, the weather has been brilliant recently but as a result we come home exhausted every day, still, it's good practice for the high season which looms ever closer!

Will update you all again after the weekend unless anything spectacular happens In which case i'll update sooner!

Px

Post number 40.

Hello all.

Well yesterday was quite funny. Our first show began at 1:15 and started off as per usual, however about 7 minutes in a noticed from my backstage position that the lighting was wrong, we were in pitch black and i could see that the lights weren't running to their usual programme. Just as i was climbing down the ladder to see what was going on the wholw show stopped and i heard our lead technician over the mic announcing that the show would have to be cancelled due to technical reasons. So I didn't even make it on stage in the first show :-P

Show two ran normally and was free from any disasters but we'd all been in since 11:45 and without doing the first show the energy levels werent particularly high, but still, it went fine and we were told the sound issues wouldnt happen again.

Today has the same show schedule and the audience will be arriving in 10 minutes so im off.

Catch you later people.

Px

Lo.

Alright readers.

So yesterday my parents came to visit me. Was great to see them, we went to a few places around the local area and had a general catch up. They're in the park today and have watched 2 of the 3 shows so far, should have some good photos and footage.

So as for the shows:

Show 1 highlights: All started off well until Gambit struck the CO2 cannister on the back of one of the mutants, it sheared a valve at the head of the cannister and the entire contents began to spray violently from the top, causing the guy to trip forwards and graze his knee. He was very lucky in my opinion, if that CO2 had been spraying his skin then he'd have ended up with serious burns. Anyways, he's ok but is taking the rest of the day off.

Show 2 highlights: A very successful show actually, little bit of audience reaction when Magneto came on stage which is always good. No technical or pyro faults and no performer errors either, lets hope this last one will be just as good!

P.

Easy Friday.

Alrighty. So today was second Friday in a row where we only had one show. The show time was 1.15, fifteen minutes before Germany kicked off their second world cup match so we were expecting a tiny audience, we were however quite surprised to see an avergae amount of people for a weekday so put on a good show. Just before curtain up Aidan (Gambit) and i had a little boxing sparr, not uncommon, but this time he managed to give me the perfect dead-arm and right up until my entrance i could hardly lift it. Somehow managed to muddle through without wiping out in the tumbles, must get him back for that! :-P

So tomorrows a day off for everyone due to a dance competition in the theatre, tonight we'll be watching the England game at Aidans appartment then going for a few celebratory/conselation beers in Dorsten. My parents arrive in Germany tonight and will be picking me up tomorrow to spend the day together, will be good to see them :-)

Next update might be sometime Sunday which, i should imagine, will be a busier day with 3 shows on the schedule. See you then!

Px

And so...

So first show over, reasonably successful except our "repaired" rotating car failed to rotate. Upon inspection it turns out it just wasn't pre-set properley so hopefully we'll see it work in this coming show.

Finally got some good footage of me as Cyclops, i'm also planning to do some Parkour in Kirchhellen to give me plenty of new show-reel material.

Next show is in an hour and a half so i'm going to enjoy the sun and eat some lunch!

Catcha later.

Px

Briefly.

Hello all.

Been a pretty un-eventful week show-wise. Pleased to say I haven't landed on my arse again. We're about to do a show with the big boss of the park in the audience so have been asked to pull out all the stops, to be honest there's very rarely any problems caused by performers, just technical issues with the FX so really it's just business as usual for us.

Weather continues to be lovely, when we first started I was freezing backstage since I don't have to wear a muscle suit, now i'm very glad I'm not wearing one as it gets pretty warm on the stage.

Have got Gareth filming the show today so can hopefully get some decent footage of me in action, might start piecing together my next show reel soon. Happy days :-D

Will report on show 1 later on.

Byeeeeeeee!

*ahem*

...

In show 2 today i tripped over a Chinese and landed my handspring on my arse...

...bugger.

P.

Sunday, sunday, sunday.

Hello folks.

I realised the other day that all the times on my blog posts are all messed up so please ignore them. It's currently about 3:30pm on Sunday and we've just finished show 1 of 2. A lot of the new changes have been applied but with that has come a few technical difficulties. Yesterday we were off due to the Shrek premiere, turns out that in order for the cinema screen to be put up our stage had been completely ravaged and many of our on stage props had been taken down. Consequently this mornings technical run through highlighted that loads of effects weren't working anymore. We were told that if the show was going too badly they'd pull the plug and cancel it. So the show began and started off ok, up until my entrance, whereupon i stepped out on the balcony and it fell immediatly leaving me awkwardly poised by my lampost trying to shoot the laser. I managed to scrape it together and rode the lampost successfully. However it became quickly apparant that the entire sound track was far too quiet and we struggled to hear our audio queues for the rest of the show. I've also had 2 lines added into the show and wasn't told what they were so i had to face away from the audience and try to blag it. I've got the new lines sat in front of me now and am doing my best to commit them to memory but it's not easy.

So the next show is in an hour and a quarter, hopefully some of the technical issues will have been resolved but we may be in for another trying run.

Here's hoping for the best!

P.

Friday

Alright folks.

I had yesterday off so had a very lazy day at home, did go to the top of a massive hill in Bottrop which has a massive lookout structure, you can see all the towns and cities around here, it was pretty cool.

We've only got one show today as the park are playing host to the Shrek 4 premiere tomorrow and they're using our theatre. They're expecting a lot of people so they're having to prepare our theatre this afternoon, hense only one show at 1.15.

Tomorrow is a day off for everyone so we'll probably end up going somewhere tonight for a drink or two, tomorrow as i'm sure you know, is England first world cup game so again we'll be going to a bar or something to watch. Will be interesting to see who the Germans are cheering for, hopefully they like us a bit more than the States :-P I dread to think how it's going to be in England have to play Germany at any point!

We're implementing a few changes into the show again, Matt from Sigma services is fixing our rotating car and Storm now gets to stand on the rising bridge, we're also tweaking the end so that the audience know when to clap, it's a bit awkward at the moment.

Weather continues to be a mix of pouring rain and glorious sunshine meaning varied Audiences but the show is still going well and every crowd seems to enjoy it so all is well.

That's it for now folks. More updates soon.

Px

Hallo.

Alright everyone.

Well it's been an un-exciting week so far, lots of rain during the mornings has left us with very few people in the Audeince. We're still down to 2 shows a day except for weekends and holidays so the workload is pretty decent.

It was Amanda's (one of the yank girls) birthday on Monday so we all went to tyhe local biker bar and resteraunt and had a nice meal and plenty of drinks. Was good fun :-)

No show disasters of recent, we have a guy from Sigma (fx people) working on some of the broken effects aat the moment so the show is nearing completion. We still have some changes due to be made, I've been given some more lines but they havent been edited into the soundtrack yet. Just been told that we'll be rehearsing at some point tomorrow. The end of the show needs tweaking too, at the moment the audience dont really know when to clap which makes it awkward for us on stage, standing looking like lemons :-P

So that's about it for now, hopefully we'll have 2 good runs today despite the small audeinces, if anything happens i'll let you know!

Px

Show highlights, weekend.

Alright everyone so i'll start where i left off with Saturdays shows:

Show 3 highlights: all was going well until Gambits entrance whereupon he proceed to spin his stick and launch it across the stage (it was bound to happen sometime) there was a ripple of pity from the audience and Aidan ran to retrieve the stick just in time for the flame throwers to go off. A bit later on in the show one of the CO2 guns failed to work causing a bit of a plot hole in the script but hey :-P

So onto today...

Show 1 highlights: About 5 minutes from the end of the show we were plunged into darkness, however all special effects and sound kept going so we carried on with the show (pretty difficult for me especially as i can hardly see with the Cyclops goggles as it is!) Later we found out that the lighting programming had decided to skip back to the very beginning of the show where only the stage curtain is lit.

Show 2 highlights: Not too much to report on the show we just did except the CO2 gun i use at the end of the show had been leaking throughout and by the time i picked it up there was gas erupting out of the thing. Still got to shoot Magneto with it though so no problems :-)

Show three coming up soon. We're about due a show with no errors at all!

Px

Weekend!

Hello all.

Well i'm pleased to report that Aidan did a brilliant job covering me on Thursday. I had a brief lie-in before going into the park in time to catch the second show which I filmed. Because Thursday was a holiday in Germany the park was very busy, it felt strange to be up in the audience for a change but it was great to be able to see what the crowd see's.

During the 3rd show I sat right at the front with my camera but had to obey the no flash photography rule meaning all the photos are a bit blurry but nevermind. The funniest thing about the 3rd show were the groupies sat near to where I was who spent most of the time taking pictures of me... sitting there, watching the show. Groupies are funny.

So Yesterday was Friday, David Draves (one of the higher ups from mirage) had been back for a couple of days to monitor the shows progress. He watched the first show and then gave us a few notes on things that are yet to change. Most of the notes werent about us, they were more focused on some technical issues and the like. I've also been told that they'll be recording a new line for me to clear up a mildly confusing part of the show.

We also got payed yesterday so a small handful of us and people from the other stunt show in the park all went to the Irish bar in the local (ish) shopping centre.m I took it easy knowing that we'll have big crowds again today and tumbling hungover isn't very fun at all.

That's all for now, will update again soon :-)

P.

Briefly...

Today so far...

Highlights of show 1: Had to bail out of my wallflip as the cover guy was late getting to me and wasn't holding my arm correctly. Didnt matter too much. Other than that a good show.

Highlights of show 2: Some kid in the front row decides to puke up very close to the stage and sits there for 5 minutes before leaving. Smell was horrible but whole situation was pretty funny.

Show 3 coming up at 5:30, It's very very hot today so just chilling out between shows without shirts on. No internet tonight but we have a router in the green room now so i'll probably keep doing the whole "show highlights" thing :-)

Bye for now!

P.

Previously.

Hello all.

Well i'm pleased to report that Aidan did a brilliant job covering me on Thursday. I had a brief lie-in before going into the park in time to catch the second show which I filmed. Because Thursday was a holiday in Germany the park was very busy, it felt strange to be up in the audience for a change but it was great to be able to see what the crowd see's.

During the 3rd show I sat right at the front with my camera but had to obey the no flash photography rule meaning all the photos are a bit blurry but nevermind. The funniest thing about the 3rd show were the groupies sat near to where I was who spent most of the time taking pictures of me... sitting there, watching the show. Groupies are funny.

So Yesterday was Friday, David Draves (one of the higher ups from mirage) had been back for a couple of days to monitor the shows progress. He watched the first show and then gave us a few notes on things that are yet to change. Most of the notes werent about us, they were more focused on some technical issues and the like. I've also been told that they'll be recording a new line for me to clear up a mildly confusing part of the show.

We also got payed yesterday so a small handful of us and people from the other stunt show in the park all went to the Irish bar in the local (ish) shopping centre.m I took it easy knowing that we'll have big crowds again today and tumbling hungover isn't very fun at all.

That's all for now, will update again soon :-)

P.

Good morning.

Hello readers.

Well today is my first official day off, in about half an hour Aidan will be performing as Cyclops and I might start thinking about getting out of bed. Yesterday we did 2 shows with our back-up Magneto, they were pretty disasterous, in the first show his costume pants wouldn't stay up, for literally the whole show. We were all doing our best not to burst out laughing but had to remain a little bit proffesional. Also, he didn't know his lines or his blocking making it harder for the rest of us to perform like we usually do. Anyway, the second show was a bit better but I think everyone will be glad to have Phil back today.

Last night a few of us went to the local Brauhaus for "Die Party", pronounced "dee party". We didn't know what to expect since there's a lot of middle-aged and elderley people in Kirchhellen but by the time we went inside the room was full and the average age looked a lot lower than we'd thought. Beer was very cheap so we all had a few drinks whilst occassionally dancing. Was a fun night :-)

So here I am at home, I'm probably going to Rollerskate into work shortly as I really want to see Aidan as Cyclops plus i've never seen the show from the audience before, will be taking my camcorder in to film the results.

Speak to you all soon folks.

P.

Interesting day.

Hello people.

Well today should be very interesting, we have a lot of people covering today so we're not performing with our "A-Cast" infact it's more like our "C-Cast" but there you go.

We're about to go and do a run-through to see how disasterous the shows are going to be. We still have our lead Cyclops, Gambit, Nightcrawler and Wolverine but that's about it :-P

Big party at the Brauhaus in Kirchhellen tonight so i might not get to update again but yesterday I put another months worth of credit on my internet USB so will no doubt get to write a large update soon :-)

Fingers crossed for today :-S

P.