A Career in Production Lighting: Life after the Paradise Garage:

Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog.

The closing of the Garage was hard for a lot of people, no one more so than Larry. This particular story has been told by others closer to Larry, people like David Depino, Michael Sampson and Joey Llanos, the ones who knew him best. You can find these stories on the internet with a simple search.

Larry and I had a working relationship, I really didn't socialize with him much. For the most part we kept our relationship professional. We did the hello and how are you thing, but we never really got to know each other... We hung out in groups situations in the tech shop or in the stars dressing room, in Mike Brody's office, or occasionally in the Booth, but this was the extent of our interactions.

I never got to know Larry well, and I wish that I had.

It was around 1986 or so, I started looking to do some lighting outside of the club. Derek Vasquez, one of the other Garage Techs, had turned me on to a local Production Company in Manhattan that Derek had worked with previously. I ended up doing a few events for them at the Javits Center and a few other venues around town. It was a totally different experience from night club lighting, this was actual production work, and I found I really enjoyed it; the only issue was it was conflicting with my schedule at the Garage, so I really didn't work for them a lot.

After the Garage closed in '87, the first place I applied for work was a club called The Saint. They promptly turned me down as it was a horrific interview, and to be soulfully honest, I was a complete mess. See working at the Garage and hanging in that 80s nightlife scene had completely taken a toll on me personally and financially.
I developed a bad drug habit, I was still functional, but I was in a bad place mentally.

Anyway...
During this interview at The Saint, my inability to hold a conversation was glaringly apparent to everyone in the room, myself included. One question they asked me that I remember was:
"What was it about the Garage that made it famous"?
All I could say to them was, " in my opinion, it was the people that made the Garage special. If you want to reproduce that Garage atmosphere you need to hire that staff".  (end quote)

That statement was partially correct, but you know, at that time I wasn't able to wax rhapsodic about The Garage or the origins of House Music nor exactly how influential Larry actually was to the DJ culture. I was just a stoner techie who enjoyed doing lights on the dancefloor. Regardless, the interview was horrific, yet they were very nice to me in spite of my state of mind. I absolutely knew, even before I left the building, that I didn't get the gig, and to be honest, it was probably for the best. 

In October, a few weeks later, an opportunity came about for me to leave New York City for Massachusetts. I think this was a direct intervention orchestrated by my sister who enlisted our parents. It was completely out of the blue, because my Parents had no idea what was going on in my personal life, so I can only conclude my Sister was the mastermind...  ( thank you Sis ). She basically informed our parents that I was unemployed with a drug abuse problem and probably needed to get out of New York.

My father, in his usual no‑nonsense way, asked me the one question I couldn’t answer: “What are you doing with your life?” Then he made an offer I’ll always be grateful for: “Come up to the Cape and stay with us for a bit and get your shit together.” I didn’t hesitate. New York and I needed to end our relationship, it had become toxic, and without a job it was only heading toward tragedy.

side note: When I left New York in '87 I left all of that habitual drug usage behind, and am proud to say I have been clean ever-since...

When I landed on Cape Cod it was like being on another planet, it was an alien environment for me. In the late 80's, the Cape was country style living, a complete 180-degree change from New York City. This place was quaint, rural, and completely absent of a night life. in fact, it seemed as though the Cape close down completely at 8:00pm, even the local police went home. It was so quiet and safe, we used to leave the front door open at night... hell of a thing.
Betty Ford had nothing on Cape Cod bro. I found myself falling asleep on the couch in front of the T.V. at 8:30pm, imagine that! Me! The guy who burned the candle from both ends and in the middle, used to club hop until late the next afternoon,... was falling asleep to reruns of "All in the Family."

The great thing about being new to a place and not knowing anyone was, I was able to self-isolate and get myself clean. I didn't know anyone in town, so there wasn't a chance of me falling back into any old habits. I didn't know of any Clubs yet, so there was no chance of me heading out to get into trouble.

A couple of months had gone by, I was still not aware of the production scene in Boston, and that was fine, I ended up getting a job at a factory making computer chips. The company was called "Augat", located in the town of Mashpee. I decided to park my bones at this place for a bit and tried to be an adult. I started meeting new people, making friends and being social again... Folks enjoyed my tales of life in the big city and slowly accepted this outsider from New York.

There were a few night clubs on the Cape that I had heard about from people in passing, so I picked one and applied. I had been clean for almost 9 months, and I was confident I wouldn't fall back into bad habits, so it was time to get started. I was employed at this Club in Yarmouth called "The Kasbar", the place was small, but I was just grateful to be around a lighting system again. Actually, I ended up doing lighting for a few places on the Cape as well as Martha's Vineyard. I felt needed again, bouncing around from club to club doing maintenance, and working the boards.
This is how I passed that first winter on the Cape Cod and I was content.

The entire winter my new friends at The Kasbar kept telling me about this concert arena in Hyannis that opens up in June and is active for the summer, they kept saying I should try to work there and that I would like it. So when the summer of ' 88 rolled around I applied, the venue was called:

The Cape Cod Melody Tent.

The Melody Tent was a tremendous opportunity for me to gain experience in the production field.
We were actually installing a full-scale lighting Plot from scratch, on a circular grid, above a revolving stage. But wait, not so fast, The grid install was after we installed the massive tent, tent poles and exterior poles and all the framing. It was here I got an introduction to power distribution and lighting dimmers, circuit runs and actual programable theater boards.

  

Because the venue was, "theater in the round", the view of the stage was 360 degrees, which meant that "front lighting" was applied in the form of clock positions, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock so on, each clock position had 3 points of light, 2 front lights and back light position, then there were stage fills, washes/pools and specials, also around the inside perimeter of the tent in clock positions were front fills that washed the stage. As an introduction to stage lighting for me, this was huge, the concept of 360-degree coverage was phenomenal.

That first season in 1988 I was all in: production load-ins, loadouts, stage set-ups, instrument mic-ing and so on. I learned so much in that first season that I felt confident enough to apply for Lighting Director for the upcoming '89 summer season. I was actually given that position at the end of the 88, which gave me the entire winter to come up with a lighting plot for the season that followed. When summer came, I presented my lighting plot to the Production Director, and we started to hang and focus. Unfortunately, my inexperience in team management and stage focusing was underwhelming, we were falling behind schedule for the grand opening, so I was asked to step down. At first, I was crushed, yet at the same time, I was psyched that I had the drive to attempt such a challenge. At the end of that second season the owners of the Tent came to me and said they were impressed that even after I was demoted, I chose to stay and participate. I told them that I was grateful for the opportunity to remain on, and that maybe the following season, I would apply again.

The important thing about staying on in 1989, was that it was another summer season to learn and practice my craft. I didn't see it as a loss; In the end it gave me the opportunity to design and circuit my first major stage lighting plot using 250 fixtures and 100+ dimmers. I also had the privilege to work with a lot of well-known artists. In doing so, learned how to operate and communicate with talent to achieve an outcome that was on a professional level.

Ok, here is part of the litany of names: I worked with people like, Roy Orbison (before he passed), Bonnie Raitt, America, Patti Lebelle, Jim Neighbours, The Smothers Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, BTO, Harry Belafonte, the list goes on but you get the idea. This experience would prove to be invaluable on my path in this industry, I got to understand Artist expectations as opposed to reality, and the intricacies of working within a technical rider..
The Melody Tent was a great learning experience.

At the close of that season 1989, the production coordinator of the Tent, prompted me to try my luck at getting a job doing lighting for the Cruise Industry during the winters. He thought it would be an excellent opportunity for gaining more practical knowledge upon returning to the Tent for the following season. I thought about it for a second, then figured what did I have to loose.. 

So.. I applied to Norwegian Cruise lines anyway,.. what the heck, no guts no glory...   Semper Fi. 

Wouldn't you know it, some weeks later, I got an interview for a lighting position with NCL. Excited as you can imagine, in December, I went down to Florida buy bus for the interview, and just my luck, I got robbed in transit. Robbers stole the cash stash right out of my bag, I lost all my money, had barely enough for a hotel room, I did have a return bus ticket, but not much else, I was frazzled and stranded in Miami.
I didn't sleep at all that night but still the excitement got me up and out and I went for the interview the next morning. I was tired, dishevelled, yet completely excited about this job opportunity. This was my third interview for a lighting position post Garage, and I was psyched and completely prepared for it. I thought the interview went well, turns out NCL didn't agree with me, for whatever reason, my experience at the Tent and a variety of Night Clubs wasn't enough, so the Cruise Industry would have to wait a bit longer. Naturally I didn't receive their verdict until 2 weeks after I had gotten home, so of course in the meantime, I went around bragging to everyone about how I was going on a Titanic Adventure... talk about embarrassing :)

I stayed on Cape Cod the next 18 months or so working weekends at the local clubs while holding down an assortment of fulltime gigs. I worked as a telephone contractor doing home installs and cable splicing, I had my own vehicle, ladders and a full array of telephone specific tools. At a glance you'd think I was going to make this a career or something. I also had a job making Candles, yes I said Candles..  
Hey, making Candles is a skill man, and all of these were respectable jobs, but they weren't a career.
I was settling into that blue collar life, all the while getting increasingly fatter, actually I gained weight exponentially after leaving New York, so this wasn't an overnight deal, I gained weight slowly and steadily. I was almost 250lbs in that image below.

At one point that next January, I had had enough of being a "Disgusting Fat Body" so, I reached into my closet and grabbed an old pair of sweatpants, a "Cape Cod" hoodie and hit the road.
...... ~Marine Corps.
I started jogging 2 sometimes 3 miles per night and just like that, the weight began to melt off, and lord knows this fat loss came just in time...


Out of the blue in Late '91, I get a call from my old Production Director at the Melody Tent, we chatted for a bit catching up and he asked me what I was doing, I told him nothing dramatic just holding steady being blue collar. He seemed a bit disappointed that I wasn't fully in production yet, so he drops another gem on me.. He informed me that Club Med was looking for lighting techs and that I should give them a call... This dude earned some serious trust issues with these outlandish ideas, I was like, great here we go on another adventure, maybe this time I will get kidnapped by Banditos or something... The recession was in full swing at that time so, what the heck, I applied. Marines never quit.

After I made that call to Club Med head office, within a week I was asked to go for an interview in New York. HEY! an interview, yeah, we've been here before, Right?
So back to New York for a visit, this time I drove, which was cool, I got a chance to see some family and friends as well as hooking up with some of my old Garage family.  It was great as I really did miss the city and everyone I used to hang out with..

Anyway, after a few days visiting, I took mass transit downtown to the interview.
Again, I thought the Interview went well, there was an awkward moment tho, I remember the gentlemen handing me a pen and paper asking me to "draw a basic diagram: board, dimmer and lighting hook up".  I have to admit, I was somewhat insulted, I kind-of felt like he wanted to see if I could pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time.  It was a bit rudimentary, but I could see their point of view, he wanted to make sure I understood the basics of a lighting set up and wasn't a complete fraud.
I really wanted this job so, I grabbed the pen drew out some squares and connected them appropriately, I did it so quickly I think he got the point. The rest of the interview was very positive, that gentleman and I got along well, there was actually so joking going on. 

When I left the City, I was feeling a bit ambiguous about this interview as my experiences applying for jobs in the vacation industry weren't at all positive. Let's just say I was "Positively Objective", as to whether or not I was Club Med material.
When I got home, literally within 2 weeks I got a call telling me I had been hired, and within 2 more weeks, I was on a plane to my first Village:
Sandpiper in Florida.

Club Med: Lighting Design at Club Med

~ Ralph Curtis ~