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Corona: Creative BackStage sets stage for drive-in comedy with Chauvet

On the night of Wednesday May 13, Michael Longfellow - a comedian from NBC TV’s ‘Bring The Funny’ - headlined a drive-in show in Phoenix, Arizona. Longfellow’s appearance was at the east parking lot of the upscale High Street restaurant and shopping complex. For the people of this area, his show at the ‘Drive-In Comedy Night’ represented the first step in bringing live entertainment back to the USA’s fifth largest city.

Lighting the stage where Longfellow and fellow comics Joe Carden and Mike B Dapper performed was a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue and Well Fit fixtures supplied by Creative BackStage. John Garberson, who served as the LD for the show, chose the fixtures to help enliven the stage and create a comedy club feel with deeply saturated colors and a few ballyhoo moments.

At the same time, the lighting also ensured that attention was focused on branding material from the evening’s sponsors, Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy and the High Street Association. “This was a first, a very different experience,” says Garberson of Creative BackStage. “But it was also a lot of fun. We had the Well Fits on trees stage left and stage right. The Rogue R2 Washes were also on trees.”

Garberson placed additional Well Fit fixtures in front and behind the stage. Those in front were used to keep constant light on the prominent sponsor banner. The rear fixtures provided back lighting and also set an inviting tone by lighting the trees behind the improvised stage.

Keeping the stage well lit and maintaining good sight lines was critical, given the distance between the stage and some of the fans at the event, which adhered to strict social distancing guidelines. Cars had to be kept six feet apart and fans were not permitted to get out of their vehicles. The performances were transmitted to vehicle radios over an FM signal.

Restaurants of the High Street district had takeout food available for fans. The event also boosted Creative BackStage’s fortunes, being its first paying project since the Covid-19 lockdown began.

www.chauvetprofessional.com

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