Ed Wilson




Since the almost simultanious of my leaving Great America and Graduating from San Jose State, I went directly to working for Royal Viking Line as an Asst. Stage Manager as had many before me, and after. I worked for them for 1 year, it was definitely not my thing.




-----I'm hoping to replace this photo soon with a personal photo of me at the time.   (without Bugs costume)


I soon after went to work for Knott's Berry Farm as a stage tech. It was quite a bit different working there than at MGA. First it was full time, next the entertainment budget was quite a bit higher, and I was able to get a lot of experience designing lights and special effects for shows.




In 1989 I was offered a job with a company doing ride lighting installations for new amusement parks. The main project was in Seoul, Korea at Lotte World, a very large indoor amusement park. Once there the job greatly expanded into effects and system controls causing me to spend about a year total there.



After The Lotte project ended things slowed down and I went to go work for ShowLites doing concert lighting getting the chance to do a lot of lighting and spotlight work for music videos, television and movies.


I eventually was brought back to the ride lighting installation company to work on lighting, sound, and effects for their new venture into haunted houses, and a small project in Africa(never again!). This company totally failed in 2 years due to horribly bad management.


I went directly to work for one of the suppliers for the former company who had designed a new show control system that was very good. At the time they only had two people working for them, I was the third doing almost all the construction of new systems and field work doing installation and service. The company had a good product and they expanded quickly. We were doing a lot of the control systems for motion rides in Australia, Argentina, Italy, China, Singapore, and a few around the States including 2 here in Vegas. We controlled all aspects of the ride; movie, seat motion, lighting, sound, effects, and people control. We also did a lot of animatronic controls for movies like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park II, and many others.


After four years of endless traveling and having to have a bag packed 24/7 ready to go to anywhere at a moments notice it gave me no home life. So I decided to take a job that was offered me with Cirque Du Soleil as an automations operator for the new big show they were putting in at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. This would mean finally a job with a schedule and the old responsibility like at MGA of "be there for the shows, other than that your time is your own". I have been here since the installation of the show over 5 years now.

I got married last Feb. Her name is Larisa.



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