Term of the Day: phantom lift

Phantom lift: When a stagehand is pretending to vigorously to lift a heavy piece of scenery and is letting others do the real work. See also: soft hands.

Historical Phrase of the Day: "When's the strike?"

"When's the strike?" When the comedian Jerry Lewis was in the revival of "Damned Yankees" in the mid-1990s, every time he would pass a knot of stagehands speaking in hushed voices, he would say in a stage whisper, "When's the strike, boys?"

Term of the Day: "a set and forget"

"a set and forget"(noun): a play where there is a heavy preset, but no show cues, so during the running time of the show, the stagehands don't have anything to do.

Term of the Moment: Psycho Button

psycho button--when you accidentally or intentionally touch the one thing that will make an easygoing stagehand go berserk. Often, the relationship is never the same or completely destroyed. "I pushed his psycho button and he never spoke to me again."

Term of the Day: Bossitis

Bossitis (noun): When an extra man or extra woman is temporarily elevated to the head's position and let's the hubris go to his or her head, making questionable, imperious decisions.

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?"