Pyrotechnician Steve Yoss
From Burning Man to the Golden Gate Bridge to July 4th celebrations all across America, Pyrotechnician Steve Yoss has worked on some of the biggest fireworks shows in the world. We talk becoming a pyrotechnician, how fireworks are made, staying safe and the future of fireworks. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Fireworks.
Steve Yoss: 01:47ish
Pointless: 36:26ish
Top 5: 54:46ish
nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show email)
https://www.youtube.com/user/PyroSpectaculars (PyroSpectaculars YouTube Channel)
https://twitter.com/pyrospectacular (Pyrospectacular Twitter)
https://www.pyrospec.com/ (PyroSpectacular Website)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cpe-today/id1549603293 (CPE Today Podcast - Steve’s Podcast)
http://www.cpetoday.com (CPE Today - Steve Yoss’ Website)
Interview with Steve Yoss of PyroSpectaculars
Nick VinZant 0:11
Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode fireworks and fireworks,
Steve Yoss 0:19
what I really love about pyrotechnics is immediacy of it, you get to witness this one little thing. And then if you're not there, it's gone. You know, we use different chemicals to be able to create the different effects that we want it to be, you know, so like, we have different effects that'll make crackle we have different effects that will make it bright and yellow, and you make those by hand. It's important to note every firework every firework out there, everything is made by hand. For me, there's like certain memories, you know, that are very like, like stuck in my head that I can remember, they were like, Oh my God, you know, like that was like, for that time in place, like the coolest thing ever. And
Nick VinZant 0:54
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or a review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. We are trying to make this show much more interactive. So starting in July, probably towards the end of July, we're going to be setting up a voicemail so that we can hear more from you. So our first guest is a pyro technician who has worked on some of the biggest shows out there. Everything from Golden Gate Bridge celebrations, Macy's parades Burning Man, you name it, he's done it. And what I found so interesting is there's how I thought being a pyro technician worked and how I thought that fireworks were made. And then there's how it's really done. This is Pyro technician, Steve Vyas. I think everybody has heard of a pyro technician. But I don't really know what a pyro technician is doing. Like I know, but I don't really know,
Steve Yoss 1:56
you know, I would say is a professional who is qualified and is properly trained on the safe execution of doing fireworks displays. And there are a lot of different probably nuances with respect to that particular term. And for myself, you know, I'm coming from the professional display community, you know, so I, when I'm working with pyrotechnics, I'm doing it in the context of a public display for Fourth of July show or birthday party or something like that. And to me that particular word, it means somebody who is is gone through the proper training and has the proper qualifications to be able to execute a show safely.
Nick VinZant 2:34
So how much training will go into it,
Steve Yoss 2:37
being a pirate technician, you know, who has a license. And it's important to note that like, my license comes from, in my case, the state of California from the Office of the State Fire Marshal, it's a license just like any other profession, whether you're a CPA, which I also am or lawyer or medical doctor, you know, you're you're getting a license from the state that shows and demonstrates that you have gone through the proper training and have the proper background to be able to do this. And in my particular case, it's a lifelong thing. I grew up in the profession, my dad, well, not a licensed pirate technician has been in the community for pretty much his life, which means it's the entirety of my life, I grew up doing this. And then when I turned 18, that's when I really kind of started shooting shows that at least during the state, California has, at minimum age to be able to handle pyrotechnics. And for the first several years, it was just apprenticing. It's just basically learning from other people. And I would say that it is very much a tradition that's been handed down 1000s of years really kind of going back to the invention of black powder today, from person to person, whether it be the safe and presentation of a show, or you know, where I actually do is we actually make fireworks to you know, beyond the actual fourth of July's shows. You know, there's a whole community which I'm a part of, where we're still practicing the traditional art of making Pyro the different methods and manners of wiring a show or the different methods and manners of rolling stars to make the different effects that you really learn. You know, there's so much it's just like baking in that particular way where you know, you really can't learn it until you do it. And with anybody who's may be interested in going out and becoming a pirate technician, I would encourage you to kind of learn from somebody who who has been in the industry and who has had those years of experience because there's so much you'll pick up from somebody else. Now beyond that, to get your license. There are specific requirements at every state. And again, I'm here in the state of California. So our requirements are going to be different than Nevada, which are going to be different than Washington or elsewhere. But there's a huge component of it. That's the experience that you pick up from other Pireaus. Working on shows then there's a written test and exam there's a training program that you have to go through. Then there's background checks and other things like that, but and I would encourage our listeners to review their state fire marshal guidelines on what's required but I would tell you just go out and do it, you know, and find a pyro and just start swinging a hammer and start building the show and actually just start learning from somebody. That's the best way of getting started.
Nick VinZant 5:09
So it's a real kind of training thing. It's not like I'm CPR certified. But I took a two hour course. And I couldn't do CPR. Right, like, sure. If someone's life depended on it. It's a, it's a real like, oh, no, you really got to know what you're doing. Yeah, no,
Steve Yoss 5:27
it really is.
Nick VinZant 5:28
No, what's difficult about it? Is it putting together the show? Is it the safety aspect, like what's the difficult part about being a pyro technician,
Steve Yoss 5:39
you know, when you're a crew member, you know, it's often working with the pyro itself, it's a very physically demanding job. You know, we'd like to say it's firework, you know, because it is work, it's a lot of fun. I mean, for many of us, myself included, it's an, it's an ancillary thing to our lives in the sense that it's not my my full time gig, it's something I do many times throughout the year. So it's the way that I earn my living. But it's still work. You know, like, I tell people, like I take vacation from my normal job to go do physical manual labor in the sun, every fourth of July and throughout the year, and I love it, I wouldn't have it any other way. But when you're a crew member, it's often the physical labor side of this, the equipment we're working with the mortars themselves are very heavy, you could be working with anything from stuff that weighs, you know, a couple of pounds to hundreds of pounds, you know, a 10 inch mortar, which is the steel gun has a side in wall, probably about a quarter inch of cold rolled steel, in a sanded mortar box can weigh 1000 pounds easily, you know, and you're working often, you know, with really heavy things, moving them around, to get them into the position that you want them to be. And it's a physically demanding job.
Nick VinZant 6:48
The mortar is the thing shooting off the fireworks Correct.
Steve Yoss 6:52
Think of it as the two okay, you know, so you have the mortar and you have the shell. And so the shell was the firework itself, we call it product in the industry, the product of the show. And then the mortar is what we shoot it out of, in a term mortar is a very generic term, it's used in the military to use obviously, in our profession, it just, it's it's the it's the tube that ultimately the firework will leave from. When a firework goes off, you know, we have fireworks seated at the bottom of the mortar. And when we light it, it produces a ton of gas, like a tremendous amount of gas. And that creates a concussion at the bottom of the water that ultimately projects the shell out of the mortar itself up into the sky. And we know roughly, you know, that size based off of the diameter of that shell, how big it'll go, meaning how wide it'll shoot, how high it'll go in the air, how long it'll take to get to the apex. And all of that's determined by the firework itself and ultimately the mortar you use.
Nick VinZant 7:45
So are they pretty standard in the sense that like, look, this is a math calculation at the end of the day. And if we put this much in at this, it is going to do exactly this? Or can they be unprinted us on predict unpredictable,
Steve Yoss 7:59
the stuff that we're shooting that we use for public displays, you know, and I'll point out like our company pirate spectaculars, by Souza, we shoot the annual New Year's Eve show at the Space Needle. You know, every year, we've been doing it for many, many years at this point. Everything on that that show is tested, everything on that show is professional grade, everything on that show has been cleared to be used on that. And we know 100% We have safety procedures. And we also have testing procedures, that when we receive product that we will put this product through evaluations to ensure it is something that is reliable, that's going to be the fact that we're going forward and ultimately safe for the public. But we know I mean, I apart from this apart from the public display aspect of this, you know, when you're making a firework itself, it's not 100% formula, it's it's art and science, but we roughly know, you know, if I do this, and this and this, it's gonna yield something that'll look something like this. Now, just like a baker baking a cake, I mean, you can, you know, have some variations on that. But for the most part, we know roughly what it's going to be. And what I would tell you the rough calculations, this isn't perfect, but the rough is that for about every inch of diameter of shell, and typically you'll start off with the smallest shells are going to be about three inches and those are our finale shells. And for our we use those a lot in finales and we also use them throughout everywhere but three inches above the standard, smallest size that most of the time we're working with for Ariel and they obviously can change going all the way up to the largest standard production sizes 12 inch, but I will point out they can go much bigger than that much bigger. But roughly for about every inch of caliber. It's roughly about 100 feet of burst, meaning it'll go 100 feet wide. It'll go 100 feet in the air and it'll take a second to get there. So roughly, let's say like an eight inch shell which would be a fairly large Fourth of July production shell that we would use that will roughly go about 800 feet wide. It'll take Eat second state pecs and we'll go back to you 100 feet in the air roughly.
Nick VinZant 10:03
That actually works out very well right? So if you got a one inch shell, it's gonna go 100 feet wide. It's gonna take one second to blow up is blow up the right yeah, that's not perfect is blow up the right word or the pyrotechnicians, I goo. You don't say blow? detonate, or yeah, we've
Steve Yoss 10:18
we've, well, yeah, we have we have different technical terms like a detonation would mean that the shell blows up in the mortar itself. That's, that's what we refer to as a demo, or detonation. That's something obviously you don't want. But no, we would just say that it shoots you know, and then it'll burst in the sky. You know, preppers would probably be the term I would use most, most succinctly.
Nick VinZant 10:41
So in my mind, right, like, are these basically just big black cats in the sense that like, alright, this this is basically just an upscaled version of the fireworks stuff that you buy at the tent? Or is this a fundamentally different thing?
Steve Yoss 10:55
Yeah, great question. So with respect to the Pyro, that we're shooting the we have two major classifications, three technically, but really in production, there's there's two major classifications and actually comes to the Department of Transportation, we have 1.3. And we have 1.4. And 1.3 is aerial pyrotechnics, which is non consumer. These are, these are I want to point out, they're not high explosives or normal, explosive devices. It's not like C four, it's not like det cord or something like that. These are artistic effects. And it's important to know that our fireworks are art. And what we're calling for isn't necessarily a blast, but what that blast produces beautiful colors, sound effects, things of this nature, and those fireworks are designed for that. But aerial fireworks, which is the 1.3, which is the stuff we're typically dealing with here. You know, your consumers should ever handle those. I'm not going to say that they're unsafe, but they do require particular training and safety, awareness to be able to work correctly. And they also require in almost all instances of mortar, which again, most consumers are not going to have, but these shells are I mean, they're fundamentally different in terms of how they operate and they're typically single single thing like you might end up getting a fountain or a cake or something like that from a consumer grade that might have lots of different effects in it. Our effects are single purpose you know, so it's like a you know, let's say five inch red Dahlia or it might be you know, three inch red white blue piani but it does one thing and one thing only
Nick VinZant 12:28
like now you make some of the fireworks yourself. Does that I guess how do you make a firework is it really just like breaking a cake like all right, you take what's what's the thing that's blowing up? Like what are you using? Is it gunpowder? I haven't I don't have any idea.
Steve Yoss 12:45
Black Powder. You so with respect to making fireworks? I want to make it very clear in the context of a fourth of July show like well, I'll be shooting next week. There are no handmade pyrotechnic devices that like I'm physically or personally making all this stuff is is professional grade. All of this stuff is made in very strict production, quality environments, you know, to ensure the safety, accuracy and reliability of the devices. I'm a member of several different organizations, but the two most notable would be pyrotechnics guild, international PGI, which is our international association of let's just call it fireworks enthusiast. And then I'm also a member of the Western pyrotechnic Association WPA. And we host a convention at both organizations where members will come together over a common love of fireworks. And throughout those events, there'll be many opportunities to manufacture your own Pyro and it could be learning how to make, you know, wheels pinwheels, it could be learning how to make you know, you know, different types of aerial effects. You learn how to make all that stuff at those types of events under a environment where you're working with people who know what they're doing that have the proper safety considerations all taken care of, and you learn from one person to the other from master to student. And often with a pyro, you know, you have some pyrotechnic composition, as we call it, or comp, and it could be anything. You know, we use different chemicals to be able to create the different effects that we want it to be, you know, so like, we have different effects that'll make crackle we have different effects that will make it bright and yellow, or bright and blue. You mix different chemicals together to ultimately get the effect that you're going for. And it's the process of kind of pulling it all together, that you will ultimately create what are called stars and stars are those pyrotechnic effects that have been rolled in certain chemicals they end up as kind of if you can imagine little balls and those ends up like pixels in the sky. You know, like when you're looking at fireworks, and you see the individual lights coming down. Those are those are what we call stars, and you make those by hand. It's important to note every firework every firework out there, everything is made by hand. It doesn't matter. If it's made by myself, or it's made by a manufacturing facility, everything is made by hand. There is no real kind of like mass manufacturing of this and somebody's hands ultimately made every effect that you've ever seen. And the difference is when you make it for yourself, you know, you can, you could really put the attention to detail into the shells to get the exact effect, the symmetry, the color, or the orientation, you know, that you're kind of going for. And you know, what's beautiful about PGI, and with winter blast, but the WPA, you'll see, I mean, almost everything at those events are made by hand, they're made by the members that are there, and you'll see stuff that you won't see anywhere else, because that one shell might have taken that person three days or even longer to make, wow, it takes that long. Oh, it could take way longer than that, you know, I have a good friend. His name is Jim Whitman, that He's also a member of all of this, he's a current record holder for pretty much every large caliber firework you've ever seen. And he'll often work on a single shell for months to to get that one perfect shell that goes off. And he's done shows all over the world. Often with very large pyro. And by large, I mean, like, in the 1000s of pounds per shell. And like, I think the biggest one he's done at this first, this point is like 60 inches, so like five feet in diameter, you know, and he could work on that show for months to make that happen.
Nick VinZant 16:24
Do you have to be super careful while you're making it like the one wrong move and the house is gone? Or is it pretty much like look, just don't have a fire next to it, you're gonna be fine.
Steve Yoss 16:34
We have tables of distances that we have to follow. So if you're doing this, this and this, you need x number of feet between structures. They're strict criteria and guidelines about what that manufacturing space has to have. Certainly no flame period, you know, but the other big thing that we have to think about is static electricity, you know, what's the atmospheric pressure? You know, because certain things, for example, create atmospheric pressure, which is going to create more static lightning, you know, as a huge consideration. You know, I would tell you, anytime you're manufacturing the least for myself, the first thing I'm thinking about is egress, you know, if something happens, how can I get away from here? This is absolutely not something you want to do. Just in your house or your backyard, you need to have a dedicated space to be able to do this correctly.
Nick VinZant 17:16
Are there a lot of Pyro technicians? Or is it hard to find people
Steve Yoss 17:20
in the state of California, in terms of licensed operators, there's a list that's maintained by the state. And last time I looked at it, you know, there were several 100 People with different licenses, it's important to note, there's not just one license, there's several different licenses you can have that have one license or the other. So it's only a couple 100 people here, at least in the state of California, which is one of the largest markets for pyro.
Nick VinZant 17:43
Now when when it's time when it's go time, right? Like if somebody's sitting there like, all right, like the match, or is it basically computerized at this point,
Steve Yoss 17:51
there are three ways of being able to shoot Pyro you can physically go out and light it, which many people still do. But then really with our company and other companies in the in the industry, they really kind of started to advocate for the safe presentation of this where instead of lighting it by hand, where you're putting yourself physically near the fireworks itself, you can shoot these things electronically. Where essentially, you can put a firing system, sometimes you know hundreds of feet away or even further, and then be able to shoot it remotely. In the case of something detrimental happening, you're not putting that specific operator in physical risk. And currently, for our company with very few exceptions, almost everything is shot electronically in that way. Now, in a 21st century, we shoot things digitally. And for our many of our shows, now we're shooting them electronically, but they're being computer shot. And that really kind of allowed us to be able to do things with much tighter choreography, where we can choreograph the effects and the time that those effects go up in the sky to be able to produce firework shows that are cued specifically to music. And so when you see, you know, again, like the 1812 overture, and you hear the cannon fire going, you know that cannon fire occurring is occurring at the same time we're shooting Pyro in the air, and it's perfectly synced up. It's not that you can't do that with electronic firing, which is a manual process where the pyro literally shoots each shell, but they're doing it remotely. The computer is just going to do it with such accuracy that really kind of separates, I would say the the ability to be able to choreograph these shows to a much tighter timeline. That
Nick VinZant 19:29
makes sense, right? Like I can still do math in my head if I need to, but it's just easier to have a calculator right here and do this. Yeah, yeah. Um, absolutely. Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yep, sure. What is your favorite firework? What is your least favorite firework?
Steve Yoss 19:46
Great question. For me firework is about art, you know, and really what I look for in a great firework and I mean it. There's so many different types of effects that are out there that you can consider off For me, what I really want to look for is is just the quality of the shell itself. So I look for symmetry you know, is it balanced is the left look like the right is top look like the bottom, you know is it laid out correctly in the shell, I look for color, vibrance, you know, I really like beautiful, vibrant colors, I look for effects stuff I've never seen before like chase sequences where a firework for example, they can call it we call it ghosting, where we'll roll the shells in one color, let it dry and then we'll roll them in another color and as a firework burns, it can change colors for example, from blue to red, you know those and sometimes it will actually chase around the firework itself, you know, where it'll kind of vibrant, brights flashing, which is kind of cool. I look for you know, kind of unusual shapes, you know, we've got these jellyfish shells that kind of like be exactly the jellyfish, you know, things of this nature or, you know, certain, certain odd shapes, you know, certainly the stars, the boxes, the hearts, those are always kind of fun to see and do. And from a manufacturing perspective, they're very challenging to create, and make. So that's the kind of stuff I really look for. I've been again around Pyro my whole life and just your standard just burst in the air, you know, those are obviously fun, and they're, they're great. But I'm to the point now, where it's really about the art and about creating stuff that that hasn't been seen before, or stuff that's very unusual, or very unique. The stuff I don't like. What I don't like I would say is probably just unnecessarily loud things you know, and often in our community, how big can you make it how big of a boom, you can make it? Sometimes you'll hear the term and the community thump junkies, you know that people that just want to hear a big boom, it'd be a big flash. That's cool. You know, it's cool once or twice, but frankly, you know, it's kind of a waste of pyrotechnic composition, when you can make something a little bit more flashy and a little bit more
Nick VinZant 21:56
brilliant, hardest color to make easiest color to make.
Steve Yoss 22:00
I'm not gonna probably be able to answer this as succinctly as probably people who are more apt for manufacturing that could. With respect to colors, though, I've often heard that getting a really good blue is difficult. And I think one of the easier colors to make is red, because there's several different ways I think you can get to red,
Nick VinZant 22:19
who is the Michael Jordan of pyrotechnicians. And if it's you, say it's you, but who is like, oh,
Steve Yoss 22:25
there's several people. But if I had to just pick one out of it, and I've had the pleasure of knowing this person my whole life both personally, as a family friend, and then also professionally working with him. I have to go with our company's president CEO Jim Souza, James Sousa, he's the full package. He's an absolute, brilliant businessman and a creative genius in so many respects. He designs a lot of the shows, you know, and he just has such really good taste and what makes a great firework show. If you've ever seen the Fourth of July at Macy's on NBC, that's his work
Nick VinZant 23:00
what show to pyrotechnicians like yourself like what did they consider to be like, This is the show like oh, that's, that's where it's at man.
Steve Yoss 23:11
From a production perspective. What I really enjoy is bringing that happiness and joy to the crowd. You know, you can't watch a firework show not smile, you can't watch a firework show and not not pointing Ooh, and ah, and that for me, I've told people you know, when we shoot that firework show for that 10 minutes, you know, I'm Mick Jagger, I'm Paul McCartney. I'm the guy who actually gets to bring that happiness to people and then I get to fade and go back into my normal life which is wonderful. Now beyond that, though, to answer the other part of your question is a pyro what I really get excited for again, are going to be these these membership driven organizations, the WPA and PGI because often at those events, and at winter blasts for the WPA, or the PGI conference, that sense of being able to see that kind of one off like it's so very, very awesome. Because you know, that firework I mean, it's not like a piece of art that's going to Hagen museum that will be there forever. It's every time they make it, it'll be a little bit different. I'll never be the same effect twice and you get to witness this one little thing. And then if you're not there, it's gone. What I really love about pyrotechnics is immediacy of it you know, if you're not there, you missed it. And a firework will never do justice on a video recording or picture you might look okay but like the what you'll see when you're actually there at these membership events, where your buddy made that effect I think, to me is ruin one of the things I really enjoy.
Nick VinZant 24:40
Have you ever been injured?
Steve Yoss 24:43
Thankfully, no. But I will point out I've also got years of experience and safety and training. And I'm very very conscious of the safety side of this. I'll tell you again growing up in this and shooting Pyro with my dad most of my life. I remember something he told me Very, very, very young and I've never forgot it. There are no second chances,
Nick VinZant 25:04
biggest firework you've ever sat off. Most fireworks you've ever set off.
Steve Yoss 25:11
In terms of size of fireworks, I routinely shoot large diameter shells, my fourth of July show which is for the city of Lake Elsinore here in Southern California, our show features three inch to 10 inch. So a 10 inch firework is largest routinely I work with in one of a handful of those shells on our show. And I've been part of shows that have had larger shells, 16 inch shells, 20 inch shells, 20 twos 20 fours, but those aren't ones that I've myself physically worked with, but I've been there and then when they go off, man, they are something to be seen. And it's important to know, with respect to shells were working in cubic space, and the difference between like a tenon and 12 inches almost 50%, you know, in terms of cubic volume, it's bigger. So as these kind of go up in diameter, they don't just it's not a linear thing we get like, exponentially bigger in terms of in all possible ways in terms of burst in terms of effects in terms of everything cost, you know, for that matter as well. Now, in terms of most number of fireworks, my fourth of July show on the for the city of Lake Elsinore, that'll end up having about 400 queues. So a queue is like you hit it and something happens. And so we'll end up having 400 queues and one queue can end up having multiple shots associated with doubles, or triples or things of this nature. And I've worked on bigger shows than that. The Macy sports show, for example, in New York, each barge has 1000s and 1000s of fireworks on each one. And there's like six barges for that show for you
Nick VinZant 26:43
what show that you've worked on because you've worked on some big ones that you look back and be like, yeah, that was it. Like that was that was that was cool.
Steve Yoss 26:52
For me. There's like certain memories, you know, that are very like, like stuck in my head that I can remember they were like, Oh my God, you know, like that was like for that time in place, like the coolest thing ever. And I've had the pleasure of working with my dad for all of these years. He's been a member of my crew since I've had my license. And you know Sosa in particular, that kind of stick out in my mind for one reason. The other first show I ever worked on was the Macy's Fourth of July show. I was 18. I was just graduated high school. In May, my dad took me to New York, we worked on that that show, and I remember standing on the barge, and I've been to firework shows forever. But it was the first time I'd ever worked to show and I remember standing on that barge and it's raining down the firework debris, you know, because you're shooting within the fallout zone, we whenever we shoot a show, we know the perimeter in terms of like when the Pyro is going to come down and you're wearing a hard hat and everything. Just seeing these these borders go off. And in such volume and, and frequency. I just remember, I was hooked for life. You know, it was like, oh, and the smell of the sulfur. You know the gunpowder that's going off, I was just like, this is this, I'm going to do this rest of my life. There's no question in my mind about it, I'm gonna get my license, I'm going to do this forever. I'm also part of the group that does pyrotechnics at Burning Man every year, which is takes place. It's a large, temporary city that's constructed outside of Reno, Nevada. And I've worked on that event for almost a decade now. And I remember the first time going and actually doing fire art with pyrotechnics at the same time. Same thing, it was like, you know, just like this is an outstanding, this is something I want to do forever.
Nick VinZant 28:25
Is it different when you're kind of in that Fallout zone when you're close?
Steve Yoss 28:30
Yeah, absolutely. For a couple of technical reasons. And I'll tell you the technical reason here and then I'll tell you what it's like for me now when I'm working on a firework show. So when you're part of a crew, and I would encourage your listeners, if anybody's interested here, I mean, this is something normal people do you know, I'm a normal person, I have a normal nine to five job as do almost everybody in the profession, this is not something call up your local display company, give me a ring, you know, and you can come out work on a show anybody can anybody can do this. In fact, there's a shortage of operators a desperate shortage, pretty much nationwide. If you look at most of the people in here, there's a lot of gray hair. And this is a very physically demanding job. And there is a huge need for a younger generation to step up and get their license that comes due to show we don't have enough operators to shoot the shows that we could possibly shoot. And the first thing you're going to notice is that fireworks are in 3d. Most of the time when you're watching a firework show, you've got the audience and you're standing in front of the actual Pyro itself. But you're you're looking at it the same way that somebody looks at a canvas in a museum, you know, and when you're at a firework site, you're seeing these things go off in that third dimension, which is vertical space. And it's kind of fun to actually see the vertical separation between some of these different fireworks that you just don't get when you're watching it, you know, 1000 feet away, you're just seeing it happen all in front of you. But when you're standing underneath it or next to it, you're seeing happening in another dimension that you just can't physically see unless you're actually standing there. And you're also getting the impact of the actual firework going off itself. to thump you know, there's a visible and auditory and a kinetic thing when you're standing near this in that fireworks Fallout zone operating that show you got your heart hat on, you got your firework turnout, you got your earplugs in, you're physically feeling these things go off, you know, they're going 1000s of feet per second in some instances
Nick VinZant 30:20
of after every single Fourth of July or fireworks saying we're always going to hear about something when something does go wrong, like where is it usually.
Steve Yoss 30:28
And there are certainly accidents that can occur. But a big instances where I see this is that culture, it's that safety, lack of safety, mindset and lack of professionalism with respect to producing these shows and allowing for that culture to, you know, come in and create an environment where like a safety event can occur. Everything kind of kind of comes from there.
Nick VinZant 30:48
What do you think about drones? Seems to be the new the new thing now, right? Where they're lighting up these patterns in drones? Is that Is that a threat to the it's not like pyrotechnicians aren't like they're gonna take they're gonna take our stuff?
Steve Yoss 31:03
No great question. And in fact, our company, we partner with many different drone companies. And we've done joint projects where we've had drones flying in the sky and fireworks going along with them. I think it could be a great complement to, to a firework show, and they offer a different type of experience. You know, and they're different tool, you know, why do I have five different types of screwdrivers in my workshop, you know, because I've reached for the tool I need for the job that I want to do. Now saying that, as somebody who likes drones, and has shot shows that you've included drones, personally, I really like fireworks. And although as a technologist, I enjoy the technology behind this. And I think they're really cool with respect to what they do. I don't think it's a matter of replacement. It's really a compliment. It's not an ad, it's, it's an order you can do both
Nick VinZant 31:49
Do you think that there's going to be is something new coming down the line or like, whoa, never seen that before.
Steve Yoss 31:58
There's innovations all the time in so many different things from the chemistry of the actual compositions that make the fireworks themselves. Our profession is an industry that's constantly striving to, for example, make pyrotechnic devices that are cleaner, safer, more green, more environmentally responsible and sustainable. There's innovations in safety. You know, in the last 50 years, for example, the Advent and introduction of electronic firing, and now digital firing, that has opened up opportunities for doing Pyro musicals, and beautifully choreographed shows, and at the same time improving the safety of the crew that operates those shows. That's a huge innovation, we're seeing lots of innovation in that space as well. It turns to the actual effects themselves. I mean, think of it as an artist with a blank canvas, every show you work is a little bit different. And that artist is going to paint a different picture. And I think there's all different types of effects that can be used. And it's about the order of sequence music and the circumstances that you put around there. But, you know, I'm very, I have a very positive outlook for the industry and in the different types of things that we can do. And I believe this, there's going to be new innovations coming. And I'm excited to see what they are.
Nick VinZant 33:10
That's pretty much all the questions I got, man, what's kind of coming up next, are you how can people get a hold of you? I know you got a lot going on.
Steve Yoss 33:17
Sure, absolutely. And I would encourage our audience to go find their local display. You know, the Fourth of July is about community. It's about family. It's about friendship. It's about celebrating America. And one of the best ways of doing that is find your local community show and supporting your local community, whether you are Massachusetts or you're in Alabama, or Texas or California or Washington and just going out and enjoying it and experiencing it. If you're interested in trying this out and seeing if it's a show you want, just look up and find your local display company. If you're here on the West Coast, check out Pyro spectaculars by Sousa Pyro spec.com. And you can learn a little bit about us we have a full training program. And we are absolutely always looking for new operators. It's a it's something that we're always trying to recruit. And it is, as I've said a few times here, it's a tradition handed down person to person and we very much want to get you involved to go out there and do this for your community and shoot a show for your, your town, your city, your church, your whatever. And it's a great way of kind of exploring for myself, really, by mid next week I start getting into show mode. As I mentioned, I'm shooting the city of Lake Elsinore here in beautiful Southern California. I've shot the show for many years, I have a great relationship with the city and our fire authority there. I've been in contact with them. We're starting to do all the planning and my crew will start showing up we're actually shooting three shows second, third and fourth. And over the three days I mean, it's just going to be a wonderful gathering of old friends and new friends to come together to put on something truly spectacular for that city and come at o'clock on on July 4. They could mean I'll be standing there with my, my city manager and the parks department there and my Fire Authority and we're gonna light up the sky and bring the the city of Lake Elsinore and its citizens of beautiful display to celebrate America now,
Nick VinZant 35:14
but you've got a podcast too, but it's not now you're not just doing Pyro technician full time, right? You got stuff going on?
Steve Yoss 35:22
Yeah, I do. And you know, as I mentioned, pyrotechnics, brings together people all walks and all lives. My background. I'm primarily a software developer and I work also in in finance, I'm a CPA, I'm although I don't practice any publicly any longer, but do continuing education for accountants, and teaching all different types of technology, audit, accounting, ethics, fraud, everything you could think of. And so if you have any financial professionals in the audience, and they want to check us out, our company is CPE today, and you can check us out at CPE. Today and find our podcast where we talk about the latest and greatest technology, providing reviews, Insight training, I do a lot of in depth analysis and training on Excel, Power BI other types of stuff like that, and love for your listeners to check us out. Again, it's CPE today,