Presto Photos: Just get in the damn hat!

Massive thanks to my fabulous cast and also to photographer, Kelly McGannon, for capturing the moment(s), and Mike McRae for writing the excellent script. I love your work, all of you!

"You just need to hide there until you get pulled out." - Magician's Assistant (Sarah McCarthy)

"Why can't he just, well, trans-com-mod-u-fy me?" - Rabbit (Michelle Cooper)

"Can I really what?" - Magician (Tony Cheshire)

"I am a real magician."

"People love to be fooled."

"A good magic trick leaves you with a sense of hope, miracles, and infinite possibility."

"Are you going to climb in there, or am I going to have to snap off your four good look charms and cram you in there?"

"Hey, Chimp, you know there's no such thing as magic?"

"Humour is about breaking conventions and pushing taboos." - Monkey (Paul Jackson)

"Pulling a monkey from a hat just ain't funny."

 

"Everyone's busting a gut, I'm busting my butt."

"Tears of the clown? Try tears of the f*%!ing dancing ape."

"For every joke reinforcing that ape-ist hegemony, I die a little inside."

"All I care about is that somebody's getting in that hat tonight!"

Friday Five: Presto!

As part of the Short and Sweet Play Festival in Canberra, I am directing a play by Mike McRae called Presto. It concerns the nature of magic and comedy; theatre and deception, with some intense arguments and witty dialogue. It features a magician (Tony Cheshire) and his assistant (Sarah McCarthy), along with a rabbit (Michelle Cooper), a monkey (Paul Jackson) and a voice (Liz McRae).

If you are in the neighbourhood of the Courtyard Theatre (12-15 August), come and see it. Meanwhile, here are some of the great lines from the play. There are more, but I don't want to give too much away...

5 Lines from Presto:

1. "Magic is all an act, you realise? It's storytelling? It's art?" - Assistant
2. "I've been in the magic business since I was old enough to push coins up my nose, and I tell you, people love to be fooled." - Magician
3. "Let me get this straight; several thousand years of scientific and philosophical inquiry has busted its balls to explain how the universe works, and people are paying you to hide that fact from them?" - Rabbit
4. "Professor Chuckles is having an existential crisis. Thinks he's not funny. He's probably right, of course. Hobo clowns are so 1930s." - Monkey
5. "It's time, Mr Amazing. Places everyone!" - Voice