On Saturday 19 November the show's triumph was further established when Evans played to world record audiences for a single stand-up comedian of 10,108 at the Manchester Evening News Arena (MEN). Stand-up comedy is inherently intimate, which is at odds with the arena environment, so consolidating the performer/audience relationship in these huge spaces threw up its own unique set of challenges for Evans' technical design team. As production manager Mark Harris points out: "Lee's comedy style relies wholly on his audience's ability to see his every facial expression, bodily contortion and hear his every word with clarity."
Video & Light
Visually this is achieved by three large LED screens (from Screenhire Ltd) which relay live camera shots and VT throughout the show. Hung just downstage of an impressive LED starcloth from Acre Jean, the LED screens posed their own set of challenges for LD Ian Jackson-French. Pulling Evans out from the overwhelmingly bright background - whilst also lighting the show for camera and ensuring it is a visually exciting experience for the audience - is a delicate balancing act.
Jackson-French explains: "The key to the conflict of balancing live stage levels against the photographic needs of the cameras, and high screen output is finding a balance between lighting the space without distracting from the performance, and providing the level of production value that a modern audience expects. Ironically, once this is achieved, the close-up shots on the screens actually create that missing intimacy."
The resulting lighting solution is sharp and clean, providing an exacting balance of enhancement, effect and clarity which satisfies both the audience and the camera needs. The stage is washed with a combination of subtle evening colours including blues, lavenders and purples, overlaid with break-up gobo effects. Evans' key and backlight is from carefully positioned and balanced followspots, supplemented with subtle Par fill.
Jackson-French continues: "I'm a great fan of textured glass gobos to provide interesting floor washes - the range of looks available through subtle changes in focus is terrific value. This, overlaid on a base colour from CMY washlights such as the Mac 600s, can be extremely effective, and versatile enough to cope with unforeseen demands. The inclusion of a couple of songs provided the opportunity to be more free and expressive with the lighting, which ultimately rounded off a thoroughly satisfying project for me."
Clouds featured heavily in the lighting brief, having already appeared in the promotion documents, publicity materials, and merchandise. Jackson-French's first thoughts turned towards Martin Professional's Mac 2000 performance, with their 'animation' FX, but having visited Martin for a demo he was more than happy with the effects achievable by fitting cloud animation disks into Mac 550s. This meant he could revert to the standard Mac 2000 Profile IIs with their 'superior' versatility.
Jackson-French continues: "Many of the concepts for the project were achieved through discussions with Lee, regarding his ideas for his forthcoming DVD [recorded on the Cardiff leg of the tour]. It was then just a case of working backwards towards a slightly pared-down version that would be realistic to tour."
Jackson-French's rig, with the exception of a few Par cans, consists entirely of Martin Professional kit, including Mac 2000 Profile IIs, Mac 550s and Mac 600s, plus Martin ZR24/7 Hazers, fans and a few Martin 'The Wife' DMX testers for good measure.
The usual time constraints of a touring show meant that fixture choice was paramo
