launch looper with audio signal

[guyd]

i'm working on a circus project where i record a sound made by an acrobat on stage, which is fed into ableton's looper device and then later manipulated live by me. At the moment i am triggering the looper record button by watching the acrobat closely and launching it with a foot switch from off the stage.
But is there a way to configure it so that the looper is actually activated by the audio signal?

[chapelier fou]

despite using m4l, no idea comes to my mind.