This is me playing favorites

[fbhjr]

Last November I was accused of playing favorites because I paid for one
troupe member’s plane ticket and not another’s.
I don’t think I was, but I’m sure it can look that way, and I have no
interest in trying to convince folks otherwise.

This trip we had a last minute addition.  Normally we require 6 weeks of
rehearsal before a big show.  This person had only done 1.
So, by agreeing to bring them to the show I am stretching the rules and
playing favorites.

Why am I playing favorites?
That’s easy: having this person at shows makes the shows better.
This person does stage fights, historical fights and fire acts.  They are
also a good person for fueling the fire tricks, which is something we were
missing this trip.  We trained someone else, but this would have been their
first time doing it at a show.

This person is also very helpful at shows, helping to organize, pack and
set up things.

They have also done a huge number of shows with us, more than 150.
I was told that the total number of shows people do is not a fair
assessment.  We used to do 30-40 shows a year and now we’re only doing 15.
So, people who were with the troupe in those years got a bit step up that
others can’t get now.

So, only using shows since the latest member of the folks going from New
England joined I recalculated.
In those 33 shows, this person has done 30, or 91%.  The only people who
have done more shows in that time are my wife and myself.  The next closest
person going on this trip has only done 67% of the shows in that time.
Of the shows down south, they only missed one since they joined the troupe,
and that was the one less than2 weeks after they joined, so that would have
been too much anyhow.

And, this person is riding down in the car, but paying for their own plane
trip home.

So, what does it take for me to play favorites?
Be good at what you do.  The more you do the better.
Help us out at a lot of shows with a lot of things.
Don’t expect me to foot the bill for high cost last minute travel changes.

But, I am clearly playing favorites because I would not do this for anyone
in the troupe.  There are others that I would take last minute like this.
But, not very many.