Production slang

Ballyhoo

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A ballyhoo is a followspot move: sweeping the beam in loops or figure-eights across the crowd or stage for energy. Called as "bally the house" during walkouts and big hits.

Stinger

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A stinger is an extension cord, usually a single Edison run. "Grab a stinger and a quad box" is the most-spoken sentence in event power. (Followspot crews use it separately for a spot pickup cue in some houses.)

Quad box

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A quad box is a portable box of four Edison outlets on a cable tail, the retail unit of stage power distribution. Where the stinger goes, the quad box follows.

C-wrench

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The C-wrench (crescent wrench, an 8-inch adjustable) is the lighting electrician’s membership card, used for clamps and truss bolts and carried tied off with tieline so it cannot become a projectile from height.

Gaff tape (vs duct tape)

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Gaff tape is cloth tape with matte finish and clean-release adhesive: it tapes cable, marks decks, and leaves no residue. Duct tape is its shiny, residue-leaving civilian cousin and using it on a stage floor is a hazing offense.

Tieline (trick line)

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Tieline is thin black cord used for everything: dressing cable, tying off wrenches, hanging signs, temporary fixes of infinite variety. Sold as unglamorous string, spent like currency.

"Kill it" / "Lose it"

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To kill something is to turn it off or strike it: "kill the hazer," "lose the podium." Unambiguous by design; nobody says "kill" about anything ambiguous over headset.

"Hot"

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Hot means energized or live: a hot circuit, a hot mic, a hot clamp fresh from a lamp. The warning "that is hot" outranks whatever else was being said.

Flown vs ground-stacked

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Flown equipment hangs from points; ground-stacked equipment stands on the deck or subs. PA discussions default to this axis first, because coverage, sightlines, and rigging all follow from it.

Truck pack

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The truck pack is the three-dimensional puzzle of loading a truck so everything fits, rides safely, and comes off in tomorrow’s build order. A good pack is engineering; touring crews defend theirs like doctrine.

VOG (voice of god)

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The VOG is the announce microphone that addresses the room from nowhere: "Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats." Producers script VOGs; callers cue them; someone backstage performs omniscience.

"Walking"

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Said of anything traveling across the site with a person: "the podium is walking," "your handheld is walking to stage." Also the polite way to say a tool left without permission: "my C-wrench walked."

"Flying in"

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To fly something in is to lower it from above (from the fly system or a motor): "fly in the mid truss." The opposite is flying out. Borrowed by crews for anything arriving quickly from elsewhere.

10-1 / 10-2

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Radio brevity codes borrowed from ten-codes for a restroom break (10-1 short, 10-2 longer), announced so a position is known to be unmanned. Universally understood, rarely written down until now.

"Copy" / "Good copy"

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Radio acknowledgment: message received and understood. "Copy" ends more conversations than any word in production; "go for [name]" starts them.

Genie

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Genericized name for a portable vertical lift (from the Genie brand), used for focus, points, and anything overhead where a ladder is worse. "Send the genie to mid-stage" names the machine, whatever badge it wears.

Dog house

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The dog house is the protective cable ramp/cover where feeder or multicore crosses a walkway, from the hutch-like look of the larger versions. Crossings get dog houses or they get taped, and one of those survives forklifts.

Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.