Other Union Slang: a seat warmer

seat warmer (noun): a sub who holds the place for an 802 musician who goes off to play another gig. Similar to a stiff, but seat warmers can't be used indefinitely. Eventually, an absent musician has to give up there chair in the pit.

Term of the Day: Intel

Intel (noun): Intelligence whether a show is going to run or not. "Do you have any intel on whether we are going to survive January and February?"

Term of the Moment: Captain Panic

Captain Panic--a good nickname for a stagehand or stage manager who panics when there is disaster and mayhem backstage...when units are crashing into each other and you need a cool head, this is time when he or she decides to freak out. See also: Chicken Little

Term of the Day: get it on the load out

get it on the load out--when a prop, a flashlight or an important piece of hardware rolls under the show deck, it is often impossible to retrieve. Someone will say, "We'll get it on the loadout,"  meaning the item will be retrieved then, or possibly never. Sometimes said compassionately to the person who lost the item, sometimes not.

Term of the Day: hard-soft rule

Hard-soft rule: a rule on the books by theater owners that is mostly ignored and only enforced when advantageous or useful to them.

Term of the Minute: Fake nice guy

fake nice guy: often a TV segment producer, a roadman or a tech, who will be chummy until they freak out or throw you under the bus. Some people will even rent a bus to throw you under.

Obscure term of the day: Rowing the boat

rowing the boat (verb): an old vaudeville bit, where a performer will pull himself across the stage with a cane while on one knee while singing. The vigorous strokes with the cane look like the man is rowing a boat.