Real-World Geometry
Job: Concert Rider Specialist for Shaz & Raza
Concert Rider Specialist
Imagine starting a new job and being told that you can ask for anything you want and it will be yours in minutes. Celebrities have this opportunity and it seems as though the more famous they are the more outlandish the requests. For instance
Christina Aguilera must have a police escort meet her at the airport and lead her limo because she refuses to deal with traffic. Backstage, she must have a jar of Flinstones Vitamins
Mariah Carey insists a new toilet seat and gold faucets are installed in her hotel suite before she checks in. She flies in her own personal bed linens and must have enough of a certain kind of mineral water so she and her dog can bathe in it each day. Also, when on tour Mariah’s dressing room must contain one box of bendy straws, two air purifiers, puppies and kittens (oh dear Lord), an attendant to take her used chewing gum and Cristal champagne.
Eminem - Backstage Eminem must have a masseuse, a Play Station, basket ball hoop, ping pong table, and lots of fast food from different restaurants.
Beyonce - A fresh scrubbed and disinfected backstage toilet and temperatures of exactly 78 degrees.
Johnny Depp – Likes his dressing room draped with Moroccan drapes and filled with candles and water pipes.
Jennifer Lopez – Her coffee must be stirred counter clockwise. Trailers and backstage areas must be draped with white sheets and decorated with white rose and candles.
Britney Spears demands one box of mints, one bag of Doritos and seven clean and secured dressing rooms for her entourage at each show.
The Backstreet Boys require 24 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches on every tour.
Apart from being rich and famous, many artists today are getting increasingly demanding with some of the requests that they list on their backstage riders.
Grapevine has it that the band that started it all was Van Halen! The story that most people remember is when they asked for a bowl of M&Ms with the request that all of the brown ones be removed by hand. The rider specified, "…There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation..." While this may seem like an odd request, there was a very valid reason behind it. The band travelled with very complex equipment that required stringent setup guidelines for safety. Their rider specified in intricate detail the specifications for setting up the equipment. Their premise was that if they found brown M&Ms backstage, the promoter had obviously not read every line of the contract and they ran the risk of malfunctioning equipment during their performance and not to mention, significant liabilities…Today, riders exist at all levels of the entertainment world but obviously the higher their profile, the more those artists can get away with. http://www.concertriders.com/
As a concert promoter your job is to meet the demands of all artists that come to your stadium. The list of requests is called a rider. Although there are many things that can be written into a concert rider like the ones I shared earlier, you are in charge of the dressing room design for the hot new singing duo SHAZ and MAZA. Each of you will work in teams to design the rooms to specific celebrities specifications. If there is any element missing this celebrity may chose never to stay at your hotel again and you will be fired. Please meet every demand.