There's a particular kind of morning on the road where you wake up in a hotel room, stare at the ceiling, and try to figure out whether you're actually sick or just extremely tired.
Your throat hurts. Your head hurts. Your body hurts. You slept five hours. So… basically a normal show day. Then you sit up and realize, no, this one might actually be something.
Unfortunately, you also have a 7:00 a.m. call.
You're in a city you may barely know, your medicine cabinet is 900 miles away, and the nearest pharmacy appears to be somewhere across six lanes of traffic and a construction site for the new expansion of the convention center.
The road is a minefield of places to get sick. Airports, airplanes, hotels, packed ballrooms, long days, short nights, questionable meals, and a constantly changing sleep schedule aren't exactly a wellness retreat. Eventually, something catches up with you.
And production people are especially talented at convincing themselves they're fine.
"I'm good."
You are visibly sweating while sitting still.
"Just tired."
You've taken DayQuil, Advil, three cups of coffee, and something from the hotel market labeled "immune support."
There is certainly a culture in live production of pushing through. That's part of working on the road. You have a headache? Nothing a pill can't fix. Keep it moving.
But there's also a point where dragging yourself into the ballroom stops being impressive. If you're genuinely sick, especially if you might be contagious, telling someone early gives production a chance to figure out coverage. Waiting until your call time because you were hoping to magically recover in the shower usually makes the problem harder for everyone.
And on a weeklong show, nobody wants one sick crew member to become six sick crew members two days later.
This is also why having a basic road medicine kit is worth the small amount of suitcase space it takes up. Pain reliever. Cold medicine. Cough drops. Stomach medicine. Bandages. Whatever you normally reach for at home. Because the alternative is discovering at 11:30 p.m. that the hotel gift shop sells two Advil for $8.50.
Hydration helps. Sleep helps when you can get it. Eating something besides airport food and ballroom cookies helps too. None of this makes road life any healthier. It just improves your odds.
And if somebody on your crew does get sick, help them out. Grab them food. Cover something if you can. Give them some supplies from your own travel emergency kit. Don't make them feel guilty because their immune system finally lost a fight with Terminal C.
Sooner or later, we will all have that morning. You wake up, look at the clock, swallow painfully, and ask yourself the most important diagnostic question in live production:
Am I actually sick, or do I just need coffee?
-CTC Staff
