Laying the groundwork so laughs can stay on track

Mike Malone

Stage manager

Current credit: ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live”

Job description: “I run the show. One of my responsibilities is making sure that everyone is where they are supposed to be. I have to get the show off on time because even though we are one-hour tape delay, we are basically live-to-tape. So we must get our show up on the air at a certain time, otherwise we will have trouble down the line missing our window. We go on the air [to East Coast audiences] at 9:06 p.m. [PDT], so 8 p.m. [PDT] is our drop-dead time [to start]. We have to get everyone in place and ready to go.

“I interact with the various departments on the show so that everything that the show requires for that particular day, the accommodations, are met and that no departments are lacking in anything that they need. We do a lot of bits on the show and each one of those is unique, with their own sets of intricacies. My main function is ... to make sure what Jimmy and the writers have envisioned comes to fruition. And, of course, working with the director and various producers -- a combination of all those people -- we make what comes out on the paper a reality.”

Work day: “The office day starts at 10 a.m. and then at 10:30 the meetings will begin with Jimmy and the writers and continue until 1 p.m. I am basically part of the engineering staff. So we come in at 12:30 p.m. and then have a production meeting at 1:45, which lays out of the course of the day. Then we start implementing what has been worked out throughout the morning. We have a window of five hours to put things together and make it work.”

It’s show time: “Approximately 45 minutes before the show begins, after we have finished all of our rehearsals, the audience is starting to load in and I make my way up to Jimmy’s office until we are ready to come down [for the show].

“We come down to the stage together, and then Jimmy does a short ‘hello’ to the audience and we begin our program. Once the program begins, I am generally center [stage] at least for the comedy segments of acts 1 and 2 where there are a lot of clips coming. I count Jimmy out of the clips so he knows where we are, so he’s not surprised by any camera shots.

“Once the guests come out, I move to an audience seat which is front-center so I have a direct view of Jimmy, direct view of the guests: I can see [sidekicks] Uncle Frank and Guillermo from my position and I can also see the band. In the commercials, I get out of that position and generally check what’s going on around me on the floor.”

Going with the flow: “Jimmy likes spontaneity. He likes to let things roll and see how everything will play out in the course [of the show]. And if something is going on, I just watch Jimmy and he’ll let us know if he’s happy with it or not happy with it. If he continues on, obviously he’s happy, but if it comes to an abrupt halt -- actually I really can’t think of an incident where we stopped anything, we just let it all play out. We had a show a couple of months ago when we had Andy Dick on. I was in my regular position and we knew in the first segment it might be a little iffy in the second segment.” [Dick twice touched guest Ivanka Trump inappropriately and made rude comments.]

“I was watching Jimmy and everything just kind of flowed. I gave Uncle Frank the motion to come in, then I jumped up on stage and some other people came on and we carried Andy off and continued with the show.”

Beginnings: “My background began with game shows. I started as a music supervisor for Goodson-Todman Productions. There was a musical company that would hire composers, and once the music was composed they would give it to me and my job was to apply it to the program needs. I started with ‘Password’ and then I went to ‘Concentration.’ I did ‘I’ve Got a Secret,’ ‘The Price Is Right,’ ‘Match Game,’ ‘Family Feud.’ I was in that golden revival of the game shows in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

“I did that for seven years and wanted to move on.... I left the company and went to work with Ralph Edwards and Stu Billett -- those are the people who produced ‘People’s Court.’ They sponsored me into the Directors Guild and I worked on that show as a stage manager and music supervisor for 13 years.”

Resides: Los Angeles

Guild or union: Directors Guild of America

Age: “50-ish”

-- Susan King