Dunno how you define “good”. But it is really easy to become a stagehand. Like, unbelievably easy. You can be a meth addicted felon with bad face tattoos and get that job - and even keep it as long as you just show up on time! The job can be physical, but the work isn’t super repetitive so it tends to make you stronger rather than weaker over time. Because of the non-standard schedule, you are paid well for what is essentially menial labor. Spend most of your workday kinda bullshitting with coworkers while you move something from A to B or turn a wrench or whatever.
Yeah. You could also search for staging companies in your city. Two big ones you could look for are Rhino and Upstage. Also, lots of people get the job because they like going to concerts - so if you are part of the music scene in your city, you can start by just striking up convos with event staff at concerts/festivals/raves/clubs etc that you attend. Even better, probably, is to just volunteer for a festival and talk to the organizers - then you can show you will actually do your job, and you get to go to a festival for free. Big bonus points if you have previous experience in theatre or AV, even if you were just in a high school club or something.
I will note that winter is the worst time of year to get hired in most markets, since there is a lot less work and the companies have lots of mouths to feed. Not that you shouldn’t try, but know that your odds are worse, and even if you get hired on, the gigs might be pretty sparse. But around springtime they’ll go on a hiring spree as the ramp up for summer, when they need to build whole stages in arenas for touring bands.
Show up on time, take the occasional abuse from an asshole boss, and get your shit done. If you do that and ask for advancement opportunities, you can pretty quickly get trained in various specialties - lighting, sound, fork lift, boom lift, safety, rigging (that’s what I do), etc. Then get good at a specialty and work on expanding your social network and you can get to the real money - going on tour. If you get hired to tour with a band, you will make bank while having basically no living expenses. Talked to a girl who did lighting for Coldplay - apparently they’d been touring continuously for 3 years. She’d been to Europe, Saudi Arabia, S America, Mexico with the band. Def a lifestyle choice - but can be a good one if it jives with your personality.
Dunno how you define “good”. But it is really easy to become a stagehand. Like, unbelievably easy. You can be a meth addicted felon with bad face tattoos and get that job - and even keep it as long as you just show up on time! The job can be physical, but the work isn’t super repetitive so it tends to make you stronger rather than weaker over time. Because of the non-standard schedule, you are paid well for what is essentially menial labor. Spend most of your workday kinda bullshitting with coworkers while you move something from A to B or turn a wrench or whatever.
you search for job ‘stagehand’?
Yeah. You could also search for staging companies in your city. Two big ones you could look for are Rhino and Upstage. Also, lots of people get the job because they like going to concerts - so if you are part of the music scene in your city, you can start by just striking up convos with event staff at concerts/festivals/raves/clubs etc that you attend. Even better, probably, is to just volunteer for a festival and talk to the organizers - then you can show you will actually do your job, and you get to go to a festival for free. Big bonus points if you have previous experience in theatre or AV, even if you were just in a high school club or something.
I will note that winter is the worst time of year to get hired in most markets, since there is a lot less work and the companies have lots of mouths to feed. Not that you shouldn’t try, but know that your odds are worse, and even if you get hired on, the gigs might be pretty sparse. But around springtime they’ll go on a hiring spree as the ramp up for summer, when they need to build whole stages in arenas for touring bands.
Show up on time, take the occasional abuse from an asshole boss, and get your shit done. If you do that and ask for advancement opportunities, you can pretty quickly get trained in various specialties - lighting, sound, fork lift, boom lift, safety, rigging (that’s what I do), etc. Then get good at a specialty and work on expanding your social network and you can get to the real money - going on tour. If you get hired to tour with a band, you will make bank while having basically no living expenses. Talked to a girl who did lighting for Coldplay - apparently they’d been touring continuously for 3 years. She’d been to Europe, Saudi Arabia, S America, Mexico with the band. Def a lifestyle choice - but can be a good one if it jives with your personality.