Gaff tape for everything, including the kitchen sink!

It's always nice to hear from people who first trained me when I started my advance career (and who played in the aforementioned great Gaff Tape Baseball Game of 2004).

The Giobblowers household writes in:

I used gaff tape to finally fix the kitchen sink. The faucet, which is one of those "pull out the faucet and use it as a hose" types, has been loose and droopy since the day we bought the house. It's very annoying because we would go to move the faucet from one side of the sink to the other, and it would seem as if we had broken it, because it would come out of the base as we pushed on it.

Well, this turned out to be nothing that a little gaff tape couldn't handle. I affixed two very tiny pieces to the base of the housing mechanism, and now it sits perfectly, and we no longer feel as if we're breaking our faucet when we move it to the left or right. And it doesn't droop any more, either!

Proving once again how versatile gaff tape is for everything...including the kitchen sink.

"No cup holders in the truck"

People in my line of work often depend on production vendors (and in a pinch, audiovisual vendors). Production vendors supply gear including stages, lighting, sound systems, electrical generators, and, of course, gaff tape. Production vendors also spend a lot of hours driving long distances in big trucks packed with the aforementioned gear.

Jarrad and Ryan T. are vendors. I enjoy working with them for many reasons, including the fact that they keep my gaff tape supply plentiful. They also have a high appreciation for gaff tape's plethora of uses. Here is Ryan T.'s photo of a gaff tape cup holder in their truck.

No cup holders in the truck, so they made their own.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Part 2

I know an advance person who often sets up small sound systems for press conferences. He uses gaff tape to secure the audio cords to the floor/ground so unsuspecting reporters and elected officials don't trip. After the pressers are over, it pains this advance person to throw away barely-used gaff tape, so he painstakingly pulls the tape off the floor and fashions it into gaff tape baseballs.

Pity the fool who walks into his office without paying attention. Gaff tape baseballs can be seen flying around in games of catch to help him and his co-workers blow off steam, particularly on a spring Friday afternoon like today.

The gaff tape baseball hides under a desk when not engaged in a game of catch

Mom, where does gaff tape come from?

Although I don't allow any of my little padawans to call me "mom" (only "Obi Wan"), they do often ask me where gaff tape comes from. The answer? Usually I buy it from production vendors at ridiculously marked up prices when I produce an event, and I make sure to take home any unused rolls. But when I have the luxury of time I can mail order it at a cheaper price. (There are three choices in purchasing--good, fast, and cheap--and you get to pick two. I.e., if it's fast and good, it won't be cheap.)

Page from the Uline catalog

One source is Uline, which sends me catalogs in the mail from time to time. Not only do they sell lots of colors (although I don't have much use for any colors except black and white), they also sell both traditional and bright orange camouflage patterns for all your hunting and fishing needs.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

What happens when an advance team at a site build hasn't slept in a very, very long time?


Gaff tape baseball.


Requirements: Ball (rolled up gaff tape). Bat (crossbar from 3' high pipe & drape). Pitcher. Hitter. Fielders.

Batter up! Circa 2004, Waterloo, IA.

Tale of the Broken Toe

A long time ago (2008) in a galaxy far, far away (New Hampshire) a certain campaign advance person (me) broke her pinky toe on the campaign trail. A phone consultation with a nurse family member yielded advice: "Wrap gauze or cotton around the little toe, then use medical tape to stabilize the little toe next to the other toes. Do this every day until it's healed, probably 2-3 weeks. Oh, and you have to stay off of it for a couple days--none of this walking 10 miles in one day at a rally."

But alas, medical tape and gauze were nowhere to be found in ye olde Hampton Inn & Suites.

Our hero gaff tape, aided by a trusty toilet paper sidekick, to the rescue! After a few days of down time (boo) to stay off her feet,  the advance person and her little piggie went "Wee wee wee" all the way to election day.

 If anyone asks, I was carrying 5 pieces of bike rack by myself,
and one piece slipped from my near-Herculean grip, crushing my pinky toe.
Unless risk management is asking, then I'll have to tell the real, much less cool story.

Moooving a Cow

Last week I had the good fortune to serve as technical director/production manager for the first-ever TEDxMileHigh. We wanted a simple stage set that was quintessentially Denver. Something that said cow-town meets city-of-the-world. Science and art. Nature and innovation. Purple mountains majesty and...something. Now, how to accomplish that in the scenic design?

One day I was walking down the 16th Street Mall pondering that very question. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this, which I've walked by hundreds of times during the last five years:

I had no idea how much the heifer weighed. I had no idea how to transport it four and a half blocks to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. But I knew who to ask.

Any of my advance Padawans will tell you that one of my top rules of advance--and of life--is:

You never know unless you ask.

I've done crazy things in my advance career to get a good photo. Flown flags from rooftops no one wanted to climb. Had street lights removed from highways. Jacked up a 30,000-lb. electric truck four feet above the ground. You never know unless you ask.

And you have to know who to ask.

Since I'd worked for Mayor Hickenlooper's communications office when Cow Parade came to Denver in 2006 and when the sculptures were auctioned off, I knew that the Downtown Denver Partnership owned this particular specimen. And I knew people at the Downtown Denver Partnership. I called up my friend Sarah Neumann and left a rambling voice mail that opened with, 'Hi Sarah, it's Sarah, I have a crazy idea I want to run by you...'

She connected me with her colleague Don Pesek, who agreed to loan us the cow for the very reasonable sum of free. He asked only that we pay for the transportation and that we construct a new base and brackets on stage to stabilize the cow because its current concrete base wasn't going anywhere.

The beautiful blue bovine arrived at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on load-in/build day. A carpenter attached it to a new plywood base, painted black to blend in with the stage. But the brackets securing the hooves to the base were not black and would stick out like a sore thumb once under the very bright stage lights. This wouldn't do.

Gaff tape, in its natural habitat of the theater, to the rescue!

Full stage set:

Photo by Chris Anthony