11-22-2024, 06:13 PM
(11-22-2024, 12:12 AM)RickyD Wrote: Alright alright, I haven't told the story in a while lol.
As was previously stated...you are given a nickname you don't get to make one up for yourself...
So way back when I was new to the production industry I started working with this company and really it was the same guys all over the state. You know if you fit in with and are liked by the other guys you regularly work with if people talk some shit to you and poke fun...no one wastes their time with people they don't like. Anyway, I am on this gig for like a week or so and its brutal hours already, but I also had some friends/coworkers staying with me at the family beach house, so of course we went drinking till last call every night...then went to work again on like 3-4hrs sleep. After 6 or 7 days of that I was a zombie. The last day of the load out was this super easy half day no real hard work...nothing, just finishing up the last bits. There I am working with my Business Agent from the local union...and I was so zombiefied I just couldn't get anything right. It was just a string of things just one after the other. So he started joking on me...said he was gonna call me 1 car funeral everyone is laighing and I am talking shit back. Then out of no where he is like "I got it" ..."we are gonna call you Andy Dickfingers cause everything you touch you F up.". As soon as he said it out loud I knew it was gonna stick...and it sure did. So rather than be upset or fight back...I owned it! I would always go shake hands with whatever road crew guy I would be assisting for the day...making sure to get a nice firm grip...then introducing myself with that nickname. Oh man there has to still be roadies retired now that remember me!
Anyway a year or so later I was working pretty often in a theater and everyone using my nickname started to become a problem with the venue...so it was transformed to Richard Digits to not offend their precious sensibilities. After a while of that one of our riggers (pretty respected guy on the crew) comes in and shortens it to Ricky D...and it has been so ever since.
I have used it as a moniker ever since...and to me it was a badge of honor. You didn't get a shitty nickname if you weren't considered "one of us" and if you get butthurt about it, it would only be worse. If you owned it and understood it wasn't a bad thing it would usually evolve some to something more resonable. We had all kinds...there was shit cloud, he always got the worst jobs and if you were near him you would get roped into that group and be in the shit cloud. We had kick out cause there wasn't a bar he hadn't been kicked out of. You get the point...
I hadn’t heard your story. Thanks for sharing! I think you should have stuck with Andy Dickfingers.