On the road

Best wishes as we head into not only a new year, but a new decade.

See you on the road,

Sam Pearce

The theatre was literally PACKED tonight!
Hundreds came out and completely filled the  theatre and  balcony of one of my favorite theatres in Ontario!  It was fantastic to see everyone come out to enjoy our show.

Here’s a shot we shoot from backstage before the show just as the audience was settling in, just prior to the curtains opening

You just never know what’s going to happen on the road… that’s the challenge of live theatre on tour. 
Things, once in a while always go wrong.  Things break, props need repair, electronics malfunction, vehicles break down and fire alarms get set off.

Yup, it happened AGAIN, for the second time in three years of touring we’ve managed to set off another fire alarm at a theatre.  We hold up a pretty good track record, dozens of venues, hundreds of shows, and we’ve only set off the alarm made fire trucks appear twice.  Although every second of the show is planned and all aspects of the performance are tested for faults, accidents happen. 

What caused it?  All the electronics in the show are controlled by a multi-computer system, including the lighting, sound, video and… FOG!
Last night we were at a brand new theatre, newly built and for a change, one we have never hosted the show in before.  Our computer system that controls the lighting and haze (fog) machine had to be run through the theatre’s cabling system in order for the line to reach the stage.  Before the show while our technician was testing equipment, everything seemed to be working fine.

Just as we were getting to the last illusion of the show, the cabling decided to no longer cooperate with us and began sending false signals to our computer controlled haze generator, telling it to boost the output to 100%!  We can only assume there was a short in the theatre’s cable as the machine was not responding to the signal to shut it down!   It BLASTED out fog to the point that the theatre was completely filled and the buildings’ fire alarm system was set off.

Everyone was evacuated from the theatre safely and we had an informal meet-and-greet out in the parking lot with several members of the audience who came to chat with us as the fire trucks were pulling up.  Thankfully there was literally only a couple minutes left in the show, so my friends in Bracebridge ON, you didn’t miss out on much.  But as an added bonus, we made fire trucks appear for you!

Things are never boring on the road.  We live by Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

As I write this blog entry we are in the bus, headed back home to Ontario to rest up for the final leg of our tour this year.

Being an entertainer, traveling is a huge part of my life.  Whether in the air or on the road my crew and I have gotten to see Canada, from coast to coast, Glace Bay, NS to Fort St. John BC.  l’ve stayed at more hotels than I’d like to think of over the years, and seen more pavement than most people I know.  The road is like home to me.

A big THANK YOU to my crew who shares in the driving, I couldn’t do it without them.   The odometer is telling me we’ve logged over 20,000km in the past month or so.  It’s been a long haul and I think we’re all glad to be headed home to rest for a few days.

Greetings from one of my favorite places in Canada – British Columbia!

We’re only out here for a couple shows this time around, but I’ve included some pictures taken on my previous trips here, both taken on the mainland and on the island.  Enjoy!

Forget our show, one of the most mysterious things in Canada is… the weather.

As we started towards Fort McMurray, AB this morning, the sun was out and there wasn’t any snow in sight, i mean, it is the middle of May, shouldn’t that mean warm spring weather?  Not in Canada!

Half way into our 500 km trip, out of nowhere, we’re surrounded my snow.  I’m not talking about a couple inches on the ground, I’m talking about being completely engulfed in one of the worst storms I’ve ever seen.  Vehicles scattered in the ditch from side to side, low visibility an very slippery roads.

To top off the treacherous drive, the gas gauge is moving towards empty at a steady rate.  The last thing we need right now is to be stranded in the middle of nowhere.  Ok, it may not have been the middle of nowhere, but I’m fairly sure it was next-door to it.  After over an hour of fearing we would run out of gas, we see a sign we’ve been waiting for: ”Welcome to Fort McMurray” 
We head to the nearest gas station and fill up the truck… 125 litres worth of gas as I recall.  Keeping in mind the gas burns up at a steady rate and the tank only holds 130 litres, we cut it very close.

It’s never a boring day on the road!

The truck was covered in ice by the time we made it to the gas station!

We have a day off today in Edmonton between our show two nights ago in Regina SK, and our upcoming show in Fort McMurray AB.

This is the only full day we get off on this tour that isn’t filled with hours of driving.  Our typical “day off” consists of driving five to ten hours between provinces and trying to find our hotel before it gets too dark.  Not my idea of a rest if you ask me.

But today is different, we have the ENTIRE day off, no driving, no shows, no media interviews, nothing!”
Last time I flew into Edmonton I got the opportunity to spend a couple hours (getting lost) at the West Edmonton Mall.  Let me tell you, if you ever get the chance to visit the area, take a trip to the mall, it’s well worth the visit, for the shock value alone.  INSIDE this massive mall there are over 800 stores, 100 restaurants, two hotels, a couple mini-putt courses, a few theatres, a HUGE swimming pool and water park, a theme park with roller coasters, an Olympic-sized skating rink and a pirate ship on the world’s largest indoor lake.  Oh, and they also have the world’s largest parking lot with room for 20,000 vehicles and it’s still hard to find parking at this place!

If you can’t tell, I’m very excited to be getting the chance to go back to this amazing place!

See you in a few days in Fort McMurray!

Our venue tonight was haunted!  Stories to come soon…

I LOVE looking out for funny signs during our travels. We spotted this gem today in Regina, SK on the way to our hotel.

See you at the show tonight!