Rod Clay Lights Laughs on Ricky Gervais Mortality Tour with ChamSys

	Helping in this regard is his console's Morphing Head feature, which makes it easy for him to work with different house rig fixtures on the global tour while still keeping his programming.

"We're all going to die, may as well have a laugh about it," Ricky Gervais said when announcing his global Mortality Tour. Providing a supportive backdrop for the star comic's performance is a production designed by Rod Clay of Absorb Media Ltd, working closely with production manager, Adam Scott.

Clay is running the theatre leg of the Mortality Tour with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ70 Compact Console, along with a Compact Connect control service as his wing. "There is limited front-of-house space at the theatres, so the ChamSys Compact series was the obvious choice," he explains. "The shows are always sold out, so space is at a premium.

"Aside from saving us space and giving us a lot of power relative to its footprint, the ChamSys is easy to load in and out," continues Clay. "That's very important, as the turn around on the show is fairly tight. We arrive early morning and load in. The tech run is at 5pm, then Ricky arrives 6pm, and does his checks. The show opens at 7pm, and the next thing you know, we are loading out."

Given the show's busy touring schedule, Clay appreciates being able to work and tweak the show on his ChamSys system while traveling. "It's a massive benefit," he says. "I work with our team on feedback on previous shows so we can always improve. I do VIZ and WIZ drawings and share them with our great tour rigger, John Ashton."

Clay and the production team strive to keep the same look throughout the theatre leg of the show from one venue to the next. Helping in this regard is his console's Morphing Head feature, which makes it easy for him to work with different house rig fixtures on the global tour while still keeping his programming. He can also edit his morphed file to account for variations in things like color rendering from fixture to fixture.

The intuitive features of his ChamSys are also making it easy for Clay to experiment with different ideas during the tour. Among his more inspired concepts was to overlap gobos to create the captivating effect of a projection video. He also keeps much of the stage dark but relies on audience lighting to ensure that Gervais can see his fans.

"For us, the best outcome is when Ricky walks out, loves our work, and says 'Yes," remarks Clay.