Close Enough

The stage was just repainted and all the marks had to be redone. I was lucky enough to be able to see my old mark beneath the paint so I just put a new line of tape over top.

Fast-forward to today’s show. I was in the middle of my act and had just placed my wheel for the diagonal. After a couple of hundred shows, I’m pretty good about manipulating my wheel to just about the right spot at the right angle without too much hassle. But tonight, I was way off. I mean, seriously way off. The angle that my wheel was at and the angle that my mark was at almost seemed perpendicular to each other. But I looked out in front of me and the angle seemed good. I was behind the mark so I knew that I had enough space to do the line. As such, I ignored my mark and kept going.

After I finished my act and was getting changed for the next part of the show, one of the technicians came up to me in a rush and said “When we were cleaning the stage last night, your mark came off the floor. We put it back where we thought it was supposed to go but forgot to tell you. Sorry.”

I started to laugh and told him it was okay. I noticed that the angle was funky so I just had ignored the mark.

As he walked away it hit me that that mark makes sure I don’t fall off the stage. That’s really not the kind of information you want to neglect to pass on.

It’s a good thing I pay attention and don’t just blindly follow bits of tape.

After the show, I went with the technicians to look where my mark was and where it should have been. We corrected the mistake and redid the mark. This time, in ink.