Look, there was no "House of Pork" to be spotted yesterday at the RNA show, but it was replaced by something much more significant: the re-appearance of a "rocketman" display which I had not seen live since about 1968, by my rough reckoning.
The rocketman deserves an entire post of his own, as it led me today to read up on the history and design of the equipment, and it was more interesting than I expected.
But for this post, some observations:
* for the last two years, the family has enjoyed the auditorium 30 minute shows, which usually have an anachronistic aspect to them. (In 2011, it was the "Sideshow Superstars", which was pleasantly grotesque in parts; and last year it was a stage hypnotist act, a form of entertainment which I thought had died out by about 1990.) This year it was a pretty standard "magic and illusion" act, by a young-ish performer whose comedy shtick seemed to be to play (or be - he was pretty convincing) the vain, sleazy jerk. Yes, he even managed a "sometimes when they say 'no', they mean 'yes'" reference about women; a joke played without irony, and which did, to a modern audience's credibility, managed to get only a few groans in response. The tricks were competently done, but were of a stock standard variety for a stage magician these days, and as such did not really contain any element of surprise, as you could tell from the somewhat muted audience reaction.
I therefore consider this year's auditorium show a failure. I wonder what they'll dig up for next year. The Kransky Sisters are (as part of the act, I am sure) from a Queensland country town, and may well have been in the local CWA. I think they may be worth a try...
* Now onto the troublesome topic of the evening "ring" entertainment. This year they did do a large re-vamp, which had its good points and not so good points. First, having a so-so female pop star sing (or lip sync?) songs in the distant centre of a stadium, and then get driven around to sing from four perimeter "stages," quickly became pretty tedious. The fact that some of the dance choreography involved much hip thrusting (and the pre-performance video of the singer was of an extraordinarily overt "I'm a sex kitten thinking about sex" variety), it seemed an appeal to a audience that was simply not there to see such content.
The rocketman bit was given some attempt at context by having a man in an Ironman costume come out for a drive by appearance; the logic seeming to be that although we can't make the dude in the costume fly, we can get someone else airborne for 10 seconds. Meanwhile, Fake Ironman snuck over to another position where he later pretended to play heavy metal guitar during the fireworks display. Kind of wacky; but Fake Ironman need not bother turning up again next year. (Unlike the actual rocketman, who can come back any time as far as I'm concerned.)
The fireworks, flame, laser and water fountain show was actually pretty good and continued the trajectory of increasing complexity that has been evident for the last few years. I'm not entirely sure how you get a job that involves designing such a show, but I like to imagine how strange some of the suggestions at the brainstorming session may have been when the final outcome includes Fake Ironman doing a bad heavy metal impression.
* The showgrounds are undergoing major, major re-development, and the new convention centre at the heart of it was open for the first time and looked reasonably impressive in the upstairs area. However, it seems a very "brave" decision to put food outlets on a newly carpetted convention hall floor. Curry, wine, satay sauce, waffles with cream and syrupy fruit are all going to find their way onto the floor by the end of the week. It's going to drive the cleaners berserk, I expect.
Or can someone in the know explain to me the secret to what seems to be a bit of a crazy decision as to how to use the convention room floor space? Is the carpet of some special stain and oil resistant fabric that will solve this pretty obvious practical problem? I don't think it was made of carpet squares that can be individually replaced, but I didn't get down on my hands and knees to examine it closely.
The convention centre is of much smaller area than the absolutely massive (and quite recently expanded) Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre at Southbank. I love that place, and was told a couple of years ago by someone who has worked there for a long time that it is a very successful international convention centre; I hope the new one at the RNA showgrounds can find its niche in the market.
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