Hello all, I was recently pondering some of the crazier stories I've heard over the years from rental & stagers and thought this might be a good place for all of us to share. Here's one from a lighting designer I know from back when sharing one of his most "electrifying" incidents of his career so far, feel free to respond with some of your crazier stories:

"About eight years ago I was working on a robotic lighting system in a small venue. This was around when I started doing lighting and was touring smaller venues. I was double checking the rig and being careful, but when I went down to get a tool some guy turned on the wrong switch while I was on the ground, powering up all my fixtures. So when I went back up and touched the inside of one of the moving fixtures, the igniter ended up arcing like a good three inches, and 40,000 watts shot right into my hand. It threw me off the 12-foot ladder across the venue, probably a good 25 feet, horizontally. Amazingly, the ladder stayed put, but my hair was smoking and my hands were black. That was over eight years ago and the tip of my pinky is still numb."  

 - Freelance lighting designer, Chris Velasco

 ... that story from the Lighting side, and the electrical side, reminds me of some of the slides that Andre Lejeune showed in his presentation at the Rental & Staging Roadshow in Burbank, in December.... Andre ended his presentation with some photos of some pretty obvious "please don't do this" type of photos... (a guy, barefoot, on an aluminum ladder. The bottom of the ladder is submerged in a  swimming pool, while he hangs lights on a truss...). Andre, what's your most egregious example of "please don't do this"?