Vetting technicians has always been a cornerstone of reliable show execution, yet it’s one of the hardest skills to standardize. In the early days of ShowPhaze, the only true measure was seeing a tech perform live — a method still unmatched for accuracy but limited by time and access. Today, referrals and interviews fill the gaps, but both come with bias and uncertainty. This piece explores the realities of vetting in a fast-paced industry, where the right hire can save a show — and the wrong one can derail it.
The conversation around vetting technicians has been coming up a lot lately so I wanted to talk a bit about that topic.
When I first started ShowPhaze the vetting was done by physically seeing the techs do the work in person. This is and always will be the best way to judge someone's competency in a particular role. For instance, an A1 who you witnessed have a flawless show is a safe bet to hire on another event.
While this method is the best it’s very limited to your time and accessibility to be on show site. The next best option is to have trusted eyes and ears who can observe individuals in these roles for you. This method presents a degree of separation and, therefore, is less reliable depending on the reliability of your source. If your source is another technician who also works the same role, oftentimes they’re not going to recommend the guy who’s better than them because they don’t want to move down the pecking order. However, they might give you a name of someone who’s ok but isn’t likely to threaten their position on future shows. So, be careful about who’s giving you the information and do as much due diligence on them as you should the tech!
Ok so we’ve covered physically witnessing someone's capabilities and having eyes and ears in the drape seams, so what’s next. How do you vet a technician that you have minimal information on?
First off, who’s asking the questions? If the person doing the vetting doesn’t know the first thing about role they are booking, their success is going to be hit or miss. Failing the indepth knowledge of the role, the coordinator is left trying to read the vibe. Some are better at that than others. Unfortunately, many techs oversell themselves. Why? Because when you’re asking if they can do the complex A1 role, what they’re saying yes to is the paycheck and maybe an opportunity to hopefully learn on the job. While you can’t blame someone for trying to put food on the table, or the fact the industry is sort of geared in a way that the best way to learn is via experience, there’s evidently a problem here that could make or break a show.
What are some of the things a stagehand will say to try and get the A1 role? “Yeah man, I’ve been rockin that console for years.” or “I’m an A1/L1/V1” or they might go off on a tangent to fill the air, hoping that if they say enough words or worse, strong-arm the coordinator into giving them the role, they will be successful.
