excerpt from 6th novel life on tour

Like any good theatrical show there had to either be explosions, glitter or confetti. I’m not sure why, but I think its one of those silent unspoken of rules. Thankfully for us, it was only confetti. I’ve seen shows where you get all three. Those are sad, sad shows with unhappy technicians cleaning the stage, props and clothes until the end of time itself.

We had some basic air confetti that blew out over the stage and then some that shot up out of the stage. We had your basic run of the mill confetti cannons. Load ‘em up, put in the air and kaboom! Thar she blows. It looked pretty nice overall, but noooo, we had to go for fancy. Because that’s what all tours do. Push for the prettiest, fanciest, cheesiest looks that you can do. Our confetti master had devised an intricate concoction. A wheeled board with a fan lying on its backside, the front facing the sky. Encompassing it was ducting that was attached to the wheel board and then to the fan. You could then pull the ducting straight up and there were two sticks to wedge in place to hold it about 18 inches high. Thus encompassing the space between the fan and the hole in the stage. There was also two hand sized holes on either side of the ducting.

The idea was open the trap, slide the wheel board in place and lock it, push the ducting up, switch on the fan (all while holding a small tupperware dish in your lap that was filled with loose confetti), switch on the fan and then insert handfuls of confetti thru the holes and off she flew.

Much like the sphere, as beautiful as it was, we were simply just too slow. Something, to this day, I know we were all grateful for.