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DAVID BLAINE: REAL OR MAGIC The revolutionary magician sets out on his first UK tour bringing his unique brand of unforgettable interactive experience and death-defying stunts. TPi discovers some of the audio wizardry taking place behind the scenes...
Embarking on his first ever UK tour, David Blaine’s Real or Magic arrived in Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Bournemouth and London in June 2019. Renowned for his close-up street magic and elaborate, often dangerous stunts, the American is one of the most recognisable and pioneering magicians on the touring circuit. At the O2 Apollo Manchester, TPi caught up with the double act tasked with handling the audio for the one-man show. Quite the logistical feat, Ben Hammond was drafted in to ensure there was studio-quality sound in a live environment. He told TPi: “The team was having issues with things being heard and required an engineer who had a good knowledge of mic placement and who could think outside the box.” The FOH Engineer explained how the main bulk of the show required audience participation, thus mic placement was essential to the delivery. “The last thing we want is to stop the flow of the show,” he commented. “We need to be able to capture the slightest reaction from the audience.”
Having amassed quite a collection of Audio-Technica mics over the course of a decade, the engineer worked closely with the company to come up with a viable solution. “I typically use Audio-Technica mics with rock bands, but they worked well on this production, too, because they pick up everything I want them to without compromising on sound quality.” For the audio team, the brief was equal parts daunting and straightforward – the mics had to be as discreet as possible. “The thing with magic shows is that people in the audience are immediately sceptical as they think it’s fake,” to which end the crew was careful to represent blatant microphones, such as a headset or a handheld mic in addition to the hidden mics. Hammond added: “We had to achieve the balance between gaining the audio information we needed while simultaneously hiding the mics.” On the props, Hammond specified an AT ES935/C Gooseneck Microphone with an ML6 capsule. During a particularly gasp-inducing scene that saw Blaine invite two audience members on stage to help him sew his 16
