Friday, Feb. 11, 2005
1:04 p.m.
This is Friend Joe.
Friend Joe is, though you may not be able to tell from the picture, bald. Yesterday, Friend Ffej (Jeff backwards) decided to coat Joe's head in gaff tape.
Gaff tape is the new duct tape. In high school, theatre geeks were all about the duct tape. The grey sticky stuff was used to tape everything from sets to cables to costumes together. Every good techie kept a role of duct tape, their Mountain Dew, and I don't know, their Magic cards all within quick reach.
Sorry kids, those days are over as soon as you graudate. Duct tape, while a thing of high pop culture status, and a very useful thing, does not cut it in the rest of the theatre world. Duct tape has a tendancy to break down the things to which it sticks. It is extremely hard on airline cable and electrical cable and the good brands always, always, leave a nasty residue that makes it really undesirable for constant use.
Gaffers tape is equally hard on airline cable, but it is friendly enough to everything else. It is not as sticky, and it costs about twice as much. A Gaffer, for those who want to increase their knowledge of movie credit titles, is the fellow whose main job it is to make certain that all the cables are securely taped down to the floor. Gaffers tape is the Gaffer's tape.
So, Friend Ffej covered Friend Joe's head in gaff tape. Instantly, he became Skullcap Joe, and was also unable to blink or move his head very much.
Skullcap Joe is also one of the aforementioned fire-breathers, stage combatants and stunt men. He is, in fact, all three. His comment on fire-breathing? "Yeah, it's great, but you burp kerosene the rest of the day."
Tomorrow is my birthday.