One of the weirdest jobs I ever did involved the precursor to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission.
In the early 70’s before social media and internet was a thing the government decided to try and fund community and the arts initiatives through a lottery. It’s now known as the Trillium fund.
The lottery happened once a week and was a televised event. The show moved to a different location in the province every week. If you missed it you could always get your numbers from the daily newspaper – archaic.
The particular show I was contracted for was during some kind of Scottish Heritage week and it called for the services of a single drummer in highland kit.
When I arrived for rehearsal I was met with several – 500 pound machines, who’s only role was to each spit out a single ball with a number printed on it, a TV camera, some technicians and the announcer. There was actually an audience there as well.
So it went like this, after the pre draw chat they announced the draw was to start, cued me to start my ‘march in’ to the set where I took up a place next to the machines. On cue I started a drum roll and kept going until the number dropped from the machine. With new number a new roll.
Five minutes later when the winning number was announced I was given a cheque and told I could leave. It took longer to get there than I actually worked. Like I said – weird.
Worse thing was that I had bought a ticket and it didn’t win. Did get paid at union scale and for a set minimum time – net win for me.