Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

Superstitions surround everything that we do.  Silly as they are, *knock on wood*, we all have them. For me, I guess that I am a creature of habit more than superstitious, but at some point, those habits become superstitions. For trade shows, I have a few that may seem totally ridiculous, but without them, I can’t seem to function.

I don’t shave for about two weeks before a show. I then shave on the morning of the opening day. It drives my wife crazy, but I have been doing this forever. I guess it has something to do with starting a clean slate on the first morning, or the fact that it is an excuse not to shave.

I wear the same t-shirt for the first day of pack up and the first day of load in, my Live Design t-shirt. In actuality, I wore out my first one and the editors at Live Design graciously rummaged through closets and old boxes to find me another one. Since I think my chances of getting a third replacement are pretty slim, I guess I had better take good care of this one.

Another one of my O.C.D./habitual/superstitious things is zip tie color for tagging broken gear. At shows, if by chance we run into a device that is not up to our standards, instead of putting tape on it that could fall off, we put an iridescent yellow zip tie on it. Not black, not white, not even orange-ish yellow, it has to be iridescent yellow—and it can’t be clipped off until the device is perfectly functional again. I recently drove our trade show coordinator crazy with that one. I can’t explain it, but I have been doing this since high school.

Oddly enough, even the standard theatrical superstitions follow me to this day. I never whistle on stage. I will never wish anyone good luck. And by no means do I mention the “Scottish” play.

So laugh if you must, but I have officially stopped shaving in preparation for LDI. Sorry honey, it’s that time of year.