I don't like to interrupt: but it's my job

I find myself today asking "What would I have done?" with regards to a very-slightly-newsworthy event at an awards show last week.

Names and details are irrelevant, let's just say that in the middle of the awards the host made a 'joke' that would have been regarded as crass in the 1970s, upset the punter on the receiving end and caused him to issue an apology and lose his radio presenting job. There's also been quite a (manufactured) fuss in the tabloid papers - it's just their sort of 'story'.

*Disclaimer* I wasn't there (although I had previously bid to do VOG for it) but I've seen eyewitness accounts from people I know, so it's not just rumour. And it's got me asking what I would do if something like that happened when I was behind the VOG microphone, and therefore the only person apart from the host to have instant access to the PA?

It's important to understand the backstage setup: the 'client' isn't normally on a headset, we generally have the technical crew, the showcaller (without whose say-so nothing happens) and me. In this situation the host wouldn't generally have an earpiece, so there'd be no way of having a 'quiet word'.

If, after this sort of event, the client comes frantically up to the control point wanting something done, it'll be the showcaller they talk to and in the extreme the show will stop. The public face of what happens will be the VOG, i.e. me. That's what I'm there for.

So, let's say I interrupt the host and say "The organisers wish to apologise for that last remark. Now, let's carry on without any more of that, please?" or words to that effect. The host won't be able to go ahead regardless because the prompting will have stopped, his mic will be cut and no cues will happen.

More extreme - the show stops and I introduce the CEO of the client company to come on stage and issue an apology, after which we carry on.

It's debatable whether any of this is necessary for one 'joke', however offensive, but it does raise the issue of what happens if there's a really serious incident and it's something for events organisers to think of beforehand and organise a contingency so everyone knows who talks to whom and what everybody's role is.

The last thing it needs is everybody panicking and not knowing what to do.

Finally, and this is where it directly concerns me, it highlights the importance of having a VOG who does it for a living and has their wits about them. And with all due modesty, that's me.