Edward Herbert Beresford "Chip" Monck was born on March 5,1939 and is an American Tony Award nominated lighting designer, most famously serving as the master of ceremonies at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
18 Facts About Chip Monck
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Chip Monck acquired the nickname "Chip" at a summer camp on Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire.
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Chip Monck began volunteering with a summer theater group at Wellesley College, learning the basics of theatrical lighting from Greg Harney.
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Chip Monck began auditing classes at Harvard while working with the university's theater company.
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Chip Monck began working at the Greenwich Village nightclub The Village Gate in 1959, lighting comedians and jazz and folk artists, and living in the basement apartment under the club where Bob Dylan eventually wrote "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" on Chip Monck's IBM Selectric typewriter.
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Chip Monck began extensive relationships with both the Newport Folk Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival, lasting eight and nine years, respectively, while continuing to work at the Gate.
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Chip Monck became friends with Charles Altman of the Altman Lighting Co.
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Chip Monck began lighting the stage of the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
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Just before the concert started, Chip Monck was drafted as the master of ceremonies when Michael Lang noticed that they had forgotten to hire one.
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Chip Monck can be heard in recordings of Woodstock making the stage announcements, including requests to "stay off the towers" and the warning about the "brown acid".
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Chip Monck confronted a member of the Angels stealing a large custom carpet that was part of the Rolling Stones stage set and lost teeth being hit in the mouth with a pool cue.
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Chip Monck later tracked down the person and managed to trade a case of brandy for the carpet.
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Chip Monck used an innovative method of stage lighting for the 1972 tour, which was designed for him by Michael Callahan, a NYC high school student interested in concert lighting.
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Callahan devised the Mirror Followspot System after Chip Monck complained about the inconsistency in how close followspots were to the stage as the distance varied from arena to arena.
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In 1974, Chip Monck was the host of Speakeasy, a short-lived rock and roll talk show that featured mostly chat and some live performances by such acts as Tom Waits, Frank Zappa and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
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Chip Monck's persona was well known enough to be parodied as "Chick Monk" on SCTV by Tony Rosato as a marriage counselor employing strobe lights and a fog machine.
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Chip Monck was the lighting designer for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as consulting on the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
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In 2003, Chip Monck received the Parnelli Award for Lifetime Achievement in the concert touring industry.