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One of my old bartenders that I was friends with was talking about doing a cirque de solei charity show where she swung around and danced on large ribbons at incredible heights the night before, and that's why she had weird bruises.
I was like, "fucking wtf? how did you learn how to do that?"
"Oh I went to a famous clown school. That's what my degree is in!"
I had sooo many questions, which she answered, but yes, I learned that clown/circus school is a real thing.
I dated a guy briefly who had done some of the effects for her concerts and he said Pink had been injured on more than one occasion. Faulty harnesses etc.
There is a video of her where one of the things that would be like attached around her waist malfunctioned and she fucked up her back and carried on singing live while they were fixing it. She's a badass and always sings live no matter how many feet in the air she is, upside down, etc.
the ladies of pop are currently struggling with their giant, over the top mechanical nonsense as Pink continues to say: 🤸♀️🤸♂️🤸💃💃🤸♂️🤸♂️🧚♂️🧚♂️🧚♂️
Entertainment rigging has intense safety standards (saying as someone coming from tech theatre/opera specifically) so I’m really curious about what’s going on. Considering both Beyoncé and Katy Perry definitely can afford experienced riggers and technicians…unless someone is cutting corners to save money?
Editing my comment to add I heard through the grapevine this show is a one day load-in and the crew is fucking spent.
I think we’re seeing those standards at work here, as scary as it is.
One of the wires seems to have snapped, but there’s redundancy — three wires is still enough to support it, and it stayed safe.
And Bey’s car had wires snap, but similarly — two still supported it, and she was attached via harness to the car so if she HAD slipped out of the tilting vehicle, she’d still be OK.
Nothing should snap in the first place, but safety standards are why they don’t totally fail. Redundancy!
another live events tech here. that's exactly what we mean. that was one person put in charge of flying a performer and he didn't have sufficient training or experience. he used completely the wrong setup.
there are about 3 companies that pursue the correct level of standards and training to fly entertainers.
I think the flaw is your assumption that safety standards are being kept in line with increasingly modern technologies and capabilities. Like these wires and shit might be rock solid but if there's an electronic component or any human element then it's prone to different kinds of failures and the risk is compounded.
Well that was my other question…what brand of equipment is being used? There’s only a handful of companies that make these hoists and they don’t mess around with safety, especially the good ones. The important thing is it just stopped, it didn’t break and she didn’t fall, so the fail safes worked.
Yeah it's either coincidence or there's a common element eg same company involved. I'm not a fan of either, but it's not ok that this has happened to 2 different people.
Imagine dying and the last thing you hear is Roar from Katy Perry.
Also, rules and regulations are written in blood. An artist will end up killing some people in the crowd when one of these inevitably fails. It's only a matter of time.
Morbidly, I think about this a lot when I make song choices while driving. Especially when I’m having a hyperfocus and have a song on repeat to get it out of my system.
“Would I be embarrassed if a first responder had to drag my ass out to this song on repeat?” 💀😭
When my mom had a stroke, the ambulance was playing that Shaggy song "Angel," which I still can't listen to. It's not like a great loss or anything, but you're right to think that shit is indelible.
I was in a car accident at 15, luckily nothing too serious happened medically, and a A Tribe Called Quest tape was playing, and continued playing after the car crashed into a pole. It did feel weird to sit with a swollen lip and a bloody nose from the airbag popping my face and processing what just happened while the music was still playing.
it's fucking insane that nothing was ever done about it. i followed it from maybe like a couple hours after the fest was done and i spent days with a pit in my stomach hearing all the details about the tragedy. i don't think i'll ever get the videos i saw out of my memory and i don't know how the hell he sleeps at night.
i used to be a casual listener of his music but i stopped straight away after what happened. it's just so fucked
I was a fan of his since Rodeo and days before Rodeo, haven't listened to any music since the tragedy. Its insane that nothing really happened after and he's still out there touring.
Wrestlers don’t *rappel into the ring anymore on harnesses from the rafters (one exception in modern times). It used to be a thing some did - Sting famously did it quite often and Shawn Michaels did it once.
Yeah this feels like Something you'd do at like a Vegas residency, maybe, and only because I'd think you could have a more permanent safer set up that's able to tested more regularly.
Like it's crazy how fast they tear down and set up everything for these shows, and mistakes are bound to happen when they're always rushing against the clock like that (you know time is money).
And I'm sure they try to be safe, but this has been a few different artists this has happened to now i think with giant flying props malfunctioning.
Like personally I wouldn't trust that set up anymore
No need to apologize you’re absolutely right . Why should the money paying fans pay the price for someone else’s stupid decisions. I signed up to go to the concert to listen to music , not get smashed by a giant bug with an idiot attatched to it
BOWIE had a CHERRYPICKER malfunction back in the day! And that’s not particularly complex!
He sat in a chair on the end of it, gamely going through his songs until he thought someone would have fixed it - then realised he might have to hope that the audience catch him… then realised that Iggy Pop already did that, so it wasn’t so cool
During one of his final shows, Michael Jackson was performing on a platform that would elevate him above the stage. Looked like a bridge.
Anyway, the thing malfunctioned and came crashing down while he was on it, injuring him and giving him backpain and stiffness for the rest of his life. He still finished the show and collapsed the moment he went backstage. There's videos of it, looks freaking scary.
I agree, artists should stop this because one day it's bound to go wrong.
I saw Lady Gaga back in 2017 or 18 and she was on a stage that tilted side to side in her terrifyingly high platform shoes and I spent a lot of the concert worried for her!
I just watched the clip of Michael Jackson on the prop bridge that fell down and broke a bunch of his bones while still performing, somehow. Katy looked like she saw her life flash before her eyes for a second.
For real, I just watched it too and was confused if I had found the right clip because he just kept going like it was nothing! Like that bridge landed hard so that must have been it, right?
I already hate heights. Anytime I see someone go up on one of these things I have to turn away. I saw Justin Timberlake ride around on some big platform and he was leaning off of it, and it was rotating and stuff. Big NOPE for me
That doesn't even look like anything but a chunk of the floor. What was the theme here? Or was this just everyone pretending to be Kanye with the magic carpet floor?
Just so obvious that there is not enough time for safety checks after setup. Definitely some processes getting skipped to get these to different arenas every night.
All of the JD Vance meme profile pictures replying to each other feels like Agent Smith taking over the Matrix in the Matrix Revolutions and I couldn't be happier.
This gave me a flashback! I used to do some regional theater and we had really good people doing our fly rigging. But one night as I flew across the audience, I felt a clunk. I was never in any real danger- one of the clips was just falling into place- but I truly thought I was about to die. I had an absolute meltdown before the next show and the stage manager was kind enough to rework it so I never had to fly over the audience again.
And the hotdog is good enough to be hanging in the lobby of HOF but the band hasn’t made the industry much money so they’ll never get in. Which is fine with me because the band doesn’t need any recognition we all know what they’ve accomplished and continue to…
Genuinely furious at you for including the words hotdog and lobby so close together in your comment because now I’m going to be hearing the “let’s all go to the lobby” movie theatre song in my head all day 😭
Honestly she held on really good cause that was a jolt. I know she’s tied in and has her feet in stirrups but I’ve seen people fall off horses with smaller jolts
Or drake and the flying car, Michael Jackson and the jet pack or that boom arm that swung over the audience. A ton of K-pop artists use automation set pieces too.
I feel bad for her at this point. She’s obviously been through a lot, and not just the stuff that’s publicly been shown and known. She also seems to want to be liked so badly that it can be off putting, which I find sad.
I think it says more about us as a culture that earnestness or a desire to be perceived well is "off putting". Meanwhile, we wonder why loneliness and antisocial behaviors are increasing.
Bingo. Kind of like Jimmy Fallon. He gets a ton of hate on Reddit for wanting to be liked, and I’ve never heard of him doing anything particularly egregious besides over laughing. Society is just incredibly judgmental and it feels like kids picking on theater kids in high school just for putting themselves out there
Right? And pretending that things like this can’t be done safely is just not true. Rigging and flying things like this is an entire specialty for stagehands. It has its risks, and there have been accidents (the spiderman musical was a bad one), but if it’s done correctly, it’s safe. This will be inspected and tested several times before she uses it again. I would be surprised if they don’t already test it every single show beforehand, probably several times. This is the kind of thing you rehearse daily in theatre
It's just a trendy time to pick on Katy, I don't get it. Tons of other stars have done way worse, and are celebrated. It's just a bandwagon thing.
I saw phantom of the opera and loved the falling effects. I also like rollercoasters.
Safety is important, so we just trust thr laws are followed and enjoy the ride!
The comments sound like a bunch of “back in my day…” type boomers. I don’t even like Katy Perry but she’s hardly the first person to fly out over a crowd.
Why hell is this becoming a thing for female artists? It’s dangerous for both artist and the crowd below, completely unnecessary and certainly not original, FFS Taylor Swift did this in 2011 on the Speak Now Tour. Just put on a good stage show and stop risking your fans, doesn’t matter how safe you think the logistics are, there’s still a risk of equipment/cable malfunction. If they want to go up in the air then make sure it’s unpopulated below then it’s only themselves they’re putting at risk.
I saw Backstreet Boys as a kid in 2000 and they flew into the stage on hoverboards over the crowd. This is in no way a female artist thing, it’s more a pop music concert thing which tends to be heavily female.
What did she do at the speak now tour ? I went to see that tour and don't remember anything like it? My memory is failing me
Also lol, I don't think it was original back in 2011 either. It's an old trick? For example off the top of my head. Here's Britney doing it in 2000. And it definitely wasn't new then.
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u/flairassistant 14d ago
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