If you don’t like something, change it; and if you can’t change it, at least laugh about it. With this philosophy, comedian Ricky Gervais —winner of a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award— tackles the subject of human mortality in his aptly titled Mortality Tour, which began last year and will run until the end of 2025.
“We’re all going to die, so we may as well laugh about it”, said Gervais when announcing his world tour. And that’s exactly what the Reading-born comedian is doing on this tour with his delightful mix of witty, irreverent, and always insightful humor. Providing a supportive backdrop for his performance is the production designed by Rod Clay of Absorb Media Ltd., working with production manager Adam Scott.
Clay manages the theatrical leg of the Mortality Tour with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ70 compact console, along with a Compact Connect control service as an extension.
There is limited FOH space in the theatres, so the ChamSys Compact series was the obvious choice. The shows are always sold out, so space is at a premium. Aside from saving us space and offering a lot of power relative to its size, ChamSys is easy to load in and out. This is very important, as the turnaround time for the show is quite tight. We arrive early in the morning and load in. The tech run is at 5 p.m., then Ricky arrives at 6 p.m. and does his checks. The show starts at 7 p.m., and before you know it, we’re loading out, Clay explained.
Given the tour’s intense schedule, Clay appreciates being able to work on and tweak the show on his ChamSys system while traveling. “It’s a huge benefit”, he said. “I work with our team based on feedback from previous shows so we can always improve. I create VIZ and WIZ drawings and share them with our excellent touring rigger, John Ashton”.
Clay and the production team strive to maintain the same look throughout the theatrical leg of the tour from one venue to the next. Helping in this regard is the Morphing Head feature on his console, which makes it easier for him to work with different local lighting rigs on the world tour without losing his programming. He can also edit the morphed file to account for variations in aspects such as color rendering between fixtures.
The intuitive functions of his ChamSys also make it easier for Clay to experiment with different ideas during the tour. Among his most inspired concepts was overlapping gobos to create the captivating effect of a projected video. He also keeps much of the stage in darkness but relies on audience lighting to ensure that Gervais can see his fans.
For us, the best outcome is when Ricky walks on stage, loves the work, and says ‘Yes’, Clay said.
Following this formula, the tour is giving fans an experience they are likely to remember for the rest of their lives. And even with Mortality, that should be a very long time indeed.
