Oh come on Unwin

A full time job, 'family man' life and two year old twins, that's everyone isn't it?

wimp. *g*

lol

D

Mat, I'll tell the aero story, you do the hot dog one - I love the way you tell it.

So, there we are doing The World's Longest Magic Show. We figure that once we reach our goal we should have a big confetti cannon blast to mark the ocassion. I get out the aerotechnic cannon and load it up and set it in front of the stage. After it's been tripped over about five times I tuck it under the stage for safety.

Finally, we approach that elusive 75 hour mark. We get someone on the trigger of the aero (was it you Mat?) and HOORAY!

PHSSSSSST

Hmmm. we heard the aero go off but saw nothing. Maybe I packed it incorrectly?

We looked at the front of the stage... it wasn't in position.... I had forgotten to pull it out from under the stage.

We lifted the cloth at the front of the stage to discover a spent cannon and a big pile of confetti under the stage!


And that's how Mat got his job.

Dean,

that's just you and me, buddy...

OK, so we get to a point on the last day (I think - it's all kind of a blur) when we are starting to look for new spins on anything we haven't done for a while. So...while waiting to take his next (of far too many) stints in front of the audience, Tim begins looking at this Hotdog on the food counter near where our 'dressing room' had been constructed.

Not just any hot dog...but THE hot dog.

The one that had been sitting in the same position in the warmer for longer than we had been in the venue. The one that was more perfectly preserved than the mummies of the pharos. The one that had taken on the patina that is only found on food in service stations located in the middle of nowhere - or on the 'samples' of delicacies displayed in Melbourne CBD chinese food resteraunts. It had stopped looking 'nasty' and had started to 'lurk'. It had ceased being a food-stuff, and had taken on a persona.

basically...THE hot dog.

"Wonder if I can do something with that?" Tim asked in that dreamy kind-of way that Sue-Anne and I know can only lead to trouble.

"Signed card to hot-dog?" He asked in the same tone. The focus of his eyes began to drift into the middle distance. He bit his lip in deep thought...and if there was any petic justice in the world, then the skies would have darkened right then, and a wolf would have been heard howling balefully in the distance.

All that actually happend was Michael Sullivan (another of the long standing participants)piping up with "Sure, why not" - and I could feel something die inside....

It took 3 of us to accomplish. Tim engaged the volunteer and had them sign a card. He then proceedted to thourougly lose it amongst the deck, discarding cards left right and center as they were discounted as the one chosen. I, secretly, snaffled the real selection and proceeded to try and hide it in the hot dog Michael had carefully pilfered from the warmer. Hey, we had no fear of reprisal - we were in effect doing some abulance crew a favour...

That's where the trouble began. The roll was, basically, stone. Not bassalt, or sandstone...no, I'm talking a couple of years off diamond here. Prising the actual weiner (thanks Brad Burt for the right US terminology) from the clutches of this fossil was bloody hard work...and the clock was ticking...

But just placing the card under the sausage (weiner-sorry) is not magical enough - now is it? Nooooo Micheal thought it best to put it IN the sausage! Now I discore it has obtained the consistency of industrial-grade rubber! And the clock is still ticking...the deck in Tim's hadn is diminishing rapidly...

Finaly it's in, and Michael (less conspicuos than I - who had just been on) saunter around the back of the crowd and past the entrance as if he's just walked in with a light (and far from nutricious) dinner. just in time for tim to 'spontaneously' call him out of the - quite large - crowd. (nothing draws a crowd like a magician who looks like he's about to spectacularly fail)

It was at this point, in a show of monumental dedication to his art, realism and general stupidity...Michael took a bite of the 'artifact' - or attempted to. Tim, in a typical moment of foresight and impeccable timing spoke out -

"BEFORE you bite into that hot dog..."

Michael was brought up on stage. The sausage was prised from it's role and broken open (on the third try) to reveal...yes...the signed card - in an impossible location.

with about 30 seconds of planning, and more luck than we deserved.

And that's the story. *

M@

*Disclaimer - Any similarity between events an persons depicted in this story and actual events and persons, are purely coincidental. Mat was sleep-dprived at the time the event occured and reserves the right to claim less memory than a member of the australian wheat board in an enquiriy. Plus...this sounds quite entertaining this way...

Aaaahhh... the memories...

Hi guys,

Well tyeh WLMS Hmmmmm.

What a great event to have been a part of.

I was 1 of the 4-5 Magicians who done the night shift.
I never thaught in my wildest dreams I would ever get to sleep a Luna Park during the day.
I lived at the Venu for the complete time and found it to be very wierd but loved it all the same.

It was a lot more wild than I expected as with the lack of sleep at time it was a tuff road.
Also it time I forgot there was a Camera on us 24/7 and you We did some silly but funny things.

When I first decided I wanted to do the night shift I expected to be doing Magic to myself and realy getting to test out my imagination, but to my surprise we found that on most nights there where at least 10 or more people, some times a little tipsy or sleep deprived.

Due to not being able to repeat the same effect in the 8 hour period it at time was very tuff in that you would look on the list and found 75% of you material had already been done, So you found yourself inventing new effects continuesly.

Thank goodness for Magic sport as this is what we where doing a lot and well I like to play it as well.

I also got to give Professor NUTZZ my wacky science Alta ego and had a blast there as well.

Michael

Mat, as usual, the most excellent teller of tall but true tales if ever there was one.

Just for you Mat, I alert you to http://www.engrish.com/recent_detail.php......06-03-09

VERY FUNNY, but not quite as hilarious as today's (March 10) "discovery" on http://www.Engrish.com


Michael, great to see you in here! Michael performed 4 hours and 6 minutes of magic in the WLMS. It was definitely funny waking up at 5 or 6am to go out and see Michael and the guys performing to a little crowd of insomniacs. Luna Park is in St Kilda, a slightly nototious bayside suburb, and we really didn't put much thought into the type of crowd we'd attract on the midnight to dawn shift. But I think our magicians, sleep deprived as they were, were able to relate to the audience on a very pure level..