OK, We may agree on the origin of the curious tradition of wishing "merde" as a blessing for good luck for our fellow artists.

But more than a century has passed and people ar not going to theatres in horse carriages any more. Not even in Paris. (JJK)

So I think we should find a modern expression to wish good luck -without mentioning thos awful words!.

OK, but what? Finding new, apropiate expressions is the goal of this thread. And also that we amuse in the process.

A few ideas come to my mind, but they are not too elegant: e.g.

lots of smog! (too old fashioned, even for London)

lots of CO2! (too technical, not for real artists)

lots of NO! (Nitric Oxide, another pollutant) Sounds too negative and would be only for chemists...

lots of Benzopyrenes! This one sound nice, but may require a master in environmental sciences to understand. We could always explain it here to rationalists but ...

Sorry, I ran out of ideas for the moment. It's your turn now...

Lots of squeaks?

How about break a reed? (For oboes of course.)

May all of your flats be sharp.

Twist a key could be more or less universal. Except for recorder and traverso players.

We need something that could last other 150 years. Our present french expression has be so much successful.



<Added>

OOPS has be = has been

I like the "Twist a key" suggestion.

I only managed to come up with "Car!" ocr maybe "Cyclist!", the latter more appropiate for a walking musician. But they are not very exiting, and you need to know the merde-background to find it intersting at all.

Today you would probably use SMS, Twitter, maybe a PM on this forum, or anything like that to send a good luck wish... But what to say?

Ah, Jose-Luis, that is great and makes a lot of sense.

So, we need to find a modern day problem that results when there is a good show with lots of people wantign to come to it.

How about,

"hope you family isn't here" (cause the show is sold out)
or
"hope your spouse is off with someone else"
or
"hope you have a broken chair"

i liked the brake a reed suggestion,

in showbi they use brake a leg but we could have brake an arm (all musians need there arms) or brake a finger.

I think it must be short. One or two words at most.

What about
gold!
or maybe oil! (though I mean "petroleum" or "crude oil" this sense may be too loose to catch.

Leighthesim has a good point.

How about, 'bite your tongue"? or "split your lip"