Raleigh show!

[admin]

Bob has never gone on public record on the reason for his departure.  I did an in-depth interview with him back in 2013 and we talked about it.  The answer that he was okay with putting out there was "It's complicated".

This is the interview, if you're interested - we touched on a lot: http://www.musicandartinterviews.com/201...inkel.html

That is a great interview. I found this question and answer especially interesting since I often complain about the choreography, saying the show does not feel organic... almost too scripted. But there is good reason for it!

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DR: I wanted to ask you about how the show has changed over the years. Some long-time fans and former performers alike have noted how the show today is a lot more scripted and choreographed than in it's earlier years. Can you comment on that?

BK: Well, the stage direction evolved over the years; "Who's gonna stand here?" and things like that. We went from a theater show, where basically no matter where you are, you're lit, to an arena show, where if the lighting guys don't know where you're going to be, there's no way they can keep a light on you. It really necessitated thinking what the flow of the stage is. When we started adding pyro, lasers and the cues, you really had to start taking the production aspects more seriously. You had to be in the right spot, or you'll be playing in the dark.

As the show grew, it necessitated more stage and placement direction. For instance, we would watch to make sure no one is blocking someone else and that everyone could be seen. And then we started adding staging in the back of the arena; the TSO shows are just a massive undertaking. There are about 130 people on the road, per tour. You'll have 26 performers on stage, but then you'll have 18 semis worth of equipment, a generator truck because a lot of buildings don't have enough power for all of the lights. You have nine tour buses. So that right there is 28 people just in drivers. And then you have your lighting crew, the laser crew, the pyro crew, the rigging crews, the backlines guys, the production manager, stage managers, tour managers; all of these people are out there. It's a huge team of people that it takes to put on one of those shows.

So again, if you're doing something in the back, and the performer has to come to the front, you can't just go back there - there's people going up on lifts, there's safety issues; it's complicated. There's live fire on the stage - you do not want to become part of a barbecue. [Laughs]

You have to know where you are, so just the evolution of the size of the stage and the massiveness of the show dictated a lot of that happening.