The curse...

[fbhjr]

A few years ago, we tried using breakable bottles in our show.
The crowd loves them. Especially down south.
But, they are very expensive. ($15 or more each.)
We had one crazy member who made his own for us. (That isn’t why he was crazy.) But, they weren’t very good. 1/4” think on one side, not fully formed with jagged edges on the other.
We had stopped the experiment.

The year we first did it, we used all but one in the show. Due to the expense, we decided to try and save that one for another show. The whole drive north, it sat on the dashboard. We very carefully kept everything away from it.
Carrying it into the house, I tripped on the stairs and dropped it.
I was sad.

The home made ones, we used what we could, but the end of the batch just wasn’t safe, and they got wasted too.

This year, we tried again. Six bottles. Three used on day 1, two used on day 2. (As a note, although the crowd loves it, they get very worried when you smash one on someone they think is an audience member. We didn’t do that again on day 2...)

So, we had one left.
I knew it would never make it home.
capt_amos and mythfish had one singing show left in the day. We thought it would be great if they used it there.

Now, just to be clear, I do not blame capt_amos at all for what happened. The bottle was cursed never to be used. It’s not his fault. But, I think what happened, and his reaction, to be very humorous. So, I share this in that light, not to chide, embarrass or criticizes him in any way.

Here they are singing. You can see the bottle just in front of capt_amos’s left boot. (He is the one without the guitar.)


Here you can see he just hit it with the tip of his boot and it is tipping over.


1.8 seconds later (I counted the frames...), it has smashed and he knows it. (Poor sad Captain Bob...)


I felt so bad for him as he looked up at me in the audience. I felt like he was a kid that dropped his ice cream cone.


But, it was beyond recovery. (They are very, very think and fragile. That’s great if you’re going to be hit with one and terrible for transporting, storing, or setting up with one.)


After a quick inspection of the pieces, they continued on with the show.


I was actually pretty impressed with how they recovered. And, it gave me a big appreciation for mythfish who had sat through three of our shows holding one until the right moment without problems.

I felt bad for the break, but it was only a minute or two before it would have broken anyhow. And, it’s better than my dropping it on the front steps where no one but me and my wife would see. This way lots of folks enjoyed it, even if not as planned.

But, I think this should end the experiment. Bottles are cursed. They’re not worth the money.