Ever wonder what it is we do when we say we are "working a show"? I am going to show you anyway.... ;)
11:00 AM Arrive and unload the boxes from the truck. This was the Britney Spears show so her road guy brought in about $550,000 worth.
We have to open every box and count it all to get our beginning numbers.
Thats a lot of Britney.

The back breaking begins...

We couldn't keep Danny away from the panties. He's Out.
12:30 PM It is all laid out and is ready to be counted. This part takes a while.

Michael entering numbers. He and Devin count all the product at the beginning and agree with Britney's peeps on that starting number.

About this time, we always go look at the stage being set up. It is pretty cool to watch. This stage was "in the round" meaning that seating was 360' around it. More seating that way. This show was the 2nd largest attendance in the building to date. (U2 is still #1)
1:30 pm We then have to split the product between however many stands there are for that show. This show had to be split 7 different ways. Every stand is accountable for the product they are given and has to turn in the correct money to match what was sold by the end of the night. If our money is short, it comes out of our pay.
2:30 pm When we get to our stand, we have to set it all up. I do the display and pricing and the rest of the crew (there were 5 of us that night) organizes the product so we can sell quickly. We have all worked together for so long now that we know how we all like it to be. It takes us a while to get it all organized. I was so busy that I didnt take many pictures of the process.
3:30 pm Folding...and more folding. Isnt this what you always aspired to do when you grew up..fold PussyCat Dolls shirts..Eww. Probably got diseases just touching the shirts.
They like to call themselves Team Bean. And they have adopted Christian...they are such a bad influence..haha.

We are just East Side. We have no cute name. We only know that we always bring the biggest numbers. This is our gift, this is our curse, who are we? We are East Side.

5:15 All set up. Bring on the masses.

6:00 pm Doors open to a bunch of spray tanned, half naked, bratty teenage girls and a few guys that kept hitting on our son. Ugh.. Not my favorite show, if you cant tell :)

Seriously, it looked like this for almost 6 hours.

8:30 PM Getting stuff from the Merch truck to refill everything we are out of. Somehow he knows what is in there.

9:00 PM The show. Never got to go in this one to watch.....mostly because I didnt really care to. Probably just looks like any strip club show...not that I have been to any of those. I Swear.

9:30 pm First Drop. I get a chance to sit down (while the rest of the stand is still slammed) to sort through money. I shoulda taken a picture before it was sorted because when we are this busy, it is just shoved in a bag all sorts of ways. Also, they make us wear the shirts we are selling. This one had red glitter all over it which I found in various places for a week and several showers later. Why would people pay $40 for this crap? I am glad they do though...

Just so you get an idea....just our stand grossed $81,000. This means that
each of us had about $16,200 go through our hands in 6 hours. We have no machines except our sharp minds (!!) and a few calculators that we hate to use because it slows us down. It keeps my mind working but it is usually fried by the end of the night and I cant even remember my own name. Quick and accurate is the name of the game. But there is always cupcakes...

So, like I said, brain totally fried and forgot to keep taking pictures. But it is basically the opposite of setting up. We have to take down the stand, count it, and then go turn it in. I count money while the rest of the crew counts all the left over product. We agree on turn in numbers and then box it up and put it in the truck for the next city. We usually roll out about 1 am. It is such a long day that never seems to end but I dont mean to complain, having work is good. And having people that you fully enjoy being around for 14 hours straight definitely helps! Sometimes, we have cool bands that are actually talented. I will try to bring my camera to one of those someday...