ADLIB Gets the Last Laugh!

adlib-carr-boyle-crew-dsc01099.jpgLiverpool based rental company ADLIB supplied lighting, AV and sound to recent UK tours by two leading British comedians - Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle.

ADLIB's ability to offer a package combining all 3 production elements ensured that their client received ADLIB's renowned quality and continuity across all three production disciplines.

Lighting This department was overseen for both tours by ADLIB's Tim Spilman, who also designed both rigs.

The Jimmy Carr set up featured a down stage truss with 8 Martin Professional MAC 250 wash lights. These gave great colour saturation on the whole down stage area allowing Spilman to highlight the relevant areas individually.

There were 3 main performance positions – centre stage, sofa stage right and table stage left - each of which was lit with 2 profiles and 2 floor cans.

Three 19 degree ETC Source Four profiles on side booms were positioned each side of the thrust for downstage side illumination. There were 6 floorcans positioned across the front of the stage fitted with heavy frost filters to eliminate facial shadows. A black back curtain was up-lit with another 10 floorcans.

On some of the larger shows Carr was highlighted with a Lycian 1.2Kw follow spot.

Spilman programmed and operated both shows on a Hog 3 console.

Frankie Boyle's lighting was almost identical, except that his down stage truss had 6 MAC 250 Washes instead of 8, with the same 3 profiles a side on booms but no floor cans. At the rear, his upstage curtain was highlighted with 4 MAC 250 Washes.

A large ‘Frankie Boyle Live' sign outlined in festoon lights was flown below the truss on steels, and the lights patched into the Hog 3.

Video Video was co-ordinated by ADLIB's Tristan Bryant.

For Carr, this featured two 10 7.5 ft Stumpfl side stage screens, each fed with a Sanyo XP100 projector. Two Sony D35 cameras were positioned at FOH and to the side of the venue, and fed into a Panasonic MX70 vision mixer, mixed by Nev Bull and Iain Christie.

Frankie Boyle's video was one screen and a single projector with stills playback coming off a laptop along with the twin camera feed.

Audio ADLIB's Hassane Essiahi took care of this intricate task, which might appear straightforward in terms of inputs, but requires superlative precision and balance to get the voices sounding completely natural - and therefore what the audience are used to - to appreciate the delivery of the humour and punchlines.

Essiahi chose a JBL VerTec 4889 line array system – 10 elements a side, with ADLIB AA281, AA81s and AA122s as front fills. All of this was powered by Camco Vortex V6 amps and EQ'd via Lake DLPs complete with remote tablet. The mixing desk was a Yamaha LS9 digital console, chosen for it's small footprint and appropriateness for the project.

Carr uses a lavalier headset with a DPA mic, and Boyle used the same system but with a Shure KSM9 hand-held radio mic.

“The challenge is EQ'ing the system to get the colouration and tonality of the voice spot on;” explains Essiahi, adding “It is a lot of PA for one person, but the VerTec is extremely good for getting nice tight focuses and even coverage all around the room.”

With French being his native language, Essiahi's benchmark is always that if he can clearly understand what comedy performers are saying ….. then everyone else will!