Jeff Dunham's Controlled Chaos Tours with Adlib

Liverpool-based Adlib rounded off a busy April 2012 tour supplying sound, lighting, and rigging equipment plus crew to globally successful comedian Jeff Dunham on his Controlled Chaos tour.

The tour already had a design in place and a spec to which ADLIB worked. Based on four trusses, the front one was in the advanced position, around 30' out from the front of stage. This was rigged with eight Martin Professional MAC 700 wash moving lights, four ETC Source Four profiles with 19-degree lenses, and seven four-way linear Moles for audience illumination.

Above the middle section of the stage was a 56' wide truss that provided mid-stage lighting positions for 12 MAC 700 profiles and a 24' wide by 18' high projection screen flown at 8' off the ground, complete with black drape masking.

The back truss also had black wool serge drapes hung on it for masking.

7.5m upstage of was a flown 2m truss section that accommodated two video projectors supplied by video contractors XL Video. The blacks on the back truss masked the left and right sides of the screen, leaving a clear path for the projector beams to shoot through.

On the stage floor at the back were 10 PixelPAR 90 fixtures, up-lighting the rear blacks.

The lighting was programmed and operated by Adlib's Charlie Rushton on an Avolites Pearl Expert console running the latest TITAN software. The cue list was supplied by Dunham's touring team and programmed at the first show.

Dunham was lit in white throughout, while the stage was washed in a variety of different colors, coded according to which of the five "characters" was acting out the scene with him.

Front-of-house Richie Nicholson and systems designer / engineer Tony Szabo were joined by Alan Harrison, and together they ensured that Dunham's multiple voices were audible loud and clear throughout each venue.

The main sonic challenge was keeping the sightlines absolutely clear for the audience to see the IMAG video screen which itself was 12' upstage. It involved the main hang of 14 L-Acoustics K1 and three Kara downfills being positioned 1.5m upstage of the downstage edge of the stage. This had to be achieved avoiding any feedback whilst still reaching a premium level in the mic and not obscuring the screen.

Left-and-right of the main arrays were side hangs of 10 L-Acoustics Kudo, and at the bottom were three SB28 subs-a-side.

Along the front lip of the stage six Kara's provided front fill, their low profile ideal for the application on the 4' high stage.

These were all driven by LA8 amplifiers running the new L2 Network Manager software. Adlib supplied one of their standard Lake LM44 / 26 systems for control, which was run over Dante protocol. The mixing console was an Avid SC48, specified by Nicholson.

The monitors comprised of four of Adlib's new MP4 wedges, driven by Labgruppen PM10000 amps. Completing the sound package was a Shure KSM9 mic plus backup.

Says ADLIB account coordinator, Phil Kielty, "Hooking up with production manager Marnell White again, after Adlib's partnership with Jeff Dunham's 2010 tour, was a real joy. Marnell is so easy going and we all ensure everything is just right, so Jeff can do what he does best and entertain capacity crowds. His ever increasing array of characters from Achmed to Walter & Peanut now take pride of place in the Adlib offices."