Featuring plenty of audience participation and some pretty weird and wonderful musical instruments, the show depends on communicating every intonation, facial expression and word to the audience - making sound and lighting both essential ingredients to the successful delivery of the material. Prior to the show, I met up with FOH engineer Ian Horne and LD Arturo Ollandini, both of whom are generally more at home with live bands than theatre.
The sound system - designed by Chris Beale of SSE Hire - uses a Nexo GEO S tangent array system rigged from the pros positions. The array was split into three down the height of the pros bar, plus a set of cabinets is positioned on the circle level (the weight of the full array hung together threatened to bend the pros scaff bar out of all recognition). The cabs were split into sections: four at the bottom with a lower underhang offering wider dispersion to reach the first few stalls rows, three above and a single to take care of the audience boxes on each side. Two subs are also hung up top with four under the stage.
Why so much sub-bass for a stand-up comedian? You have to hear Bailey's drum 'n' bass rendition of the speeches of George W. Bush to answer that one. The system is run in mono, due to Horne's FOH position (a box to the side), also the only bit of Bailey's kit that run in stereo is a key boards. Amplification is provided by 12 Camcos and FOH console is an Allen & Heath ML3000. A few infills ensure clarity in the stalls - they tend to get a lot of sub. The sound was strikingly natural, which ensured an intimacy between audience and performer. Horne told me: "Clarity is the overriding factor here, along with the ability to get above audience noise. Bill had previously used an omni-directional mic, but if the audience gets rowdy, or his instruments are loud, it all goes down his mic and I'd fight to get him heard. He now uses a Countryman hypercardioid mic, ensuring he can always dominate the audience. The mic has been built onto a Britney-style headpiece created by Horne from a coathanger and some flesh-coloured tape. Bailey refers to it during the show, saying he looks more like a wizard in a call centre, or perhaps a druid stylist using a hands-free driving kit than he does Ms Spears!
Although lighting has been kept minimal by LD Arturo Ollandini, mainly comprising various Vari*Lite wash and spot fixtures plus four Source Fours with scrollers FOH, the result is effective. Bailey's style of combining music with stand-up has also allowed Ollandini to use his rock and roll skills to great effect; also, Bailey is really into technology so the EX1 media server - now running off MIDI from Bailey's keyboard - gives the performer complete timing control over firing certain video clips to coincide with his repartee. In one particular part of the show - The Scale of Evil - each note played by Bailey prompts the projection of images of dictators including Hitler and Mussolini, interspersed with Chris de Burgh and others. The ongoing 'Where's Osama Bin Laden?' gags were also triggered via the MIDI keyboard.
The rest of the video content - some of which is more abstract - was controlled by Ollandini at the desk, along with regular lighting cues. This includes the now-famous Drum 'n' Bush sequence, where Bailey, never one to shy away from exploiting the comedy of the contemporary political agenda, sets the words of George W to a gangsta-style backing track, which comes complete with
