The Messy Magic Adventure, brought to Lake Hawea by Arts on Tour NZ, has attracted an excited crowd of mainly primary school aged children on Saturday afternoon (November 10), and that crowd leaves after the show in a collective state of blissed-out silliness and magic-induced mayhem – thanks to Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman of Rollicking Entertainment.

The pair play two cleaners, Spray and Wipe, who have been hired for their most exciting job ever: cleaning a magician’s house. Of course the naughty one accidentally (on purpose) lets the magic out of its box, creating even greater opportunities to make a great big magical mess. 

It’s hard to think of a better scenario for a bunch of four to 12-year-olds. The audience warm up at the beginning kicks off the giggles, belly-laughs, and gasps that barely let up for the 40 minute show.  

Physical comedy, magic tricks, fart jokes and sprays of water keep the kids more than happy: they are clustering at the front row, some are standing on their seats, and one four-year-old’s exaggerated double-take at a particularly clever trick is priceless.

But there’s plenty to keep the adults in the audience happy too: some of the tricks are genuinely perplexing, there are puns aplenty, and it’s simply a pleasure to watch two skilled performers having fun and managing a young crowd with ease.

There’s an added subversive thrill for both parents and children in watching the sensible parent figure, Spray (whose job for the first half of the show is keeping the order and stopping Wipe from making a mess), let the magic go to her head and make some magical messiness of her own as she cries “I’ve never had fun before!” 

Among the confetti, magical loo paper, and all that “sheet hitting the fan”, if there’s any message at all it’s that one: “Remember to have fun.”

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Do you believe in magic?

Disclaimer: I’m a massive fan of Rollicking Entertainment, the powerhouse team behind this and several other excellent pieces of theatre. I’ve even seen Messy Magic Adventure before, a couple of years ago, so I know roughly what to expect.

Spray and Wipe are cleaners who are tasked with cleaning a magician’s house. A big inviting magic box sits on stage and mustn’t be opened – what will happen if they do? Is there such thing as magic? Will it escape? What could possibly go wrong? Packed with slapstick and tricks, and a few well timed jokes for the adults, this is a great piece of entertaining theatre. I know I am in for a good time.

There are two main differences this time though. First, I now have my own daughter who, at age 1, is admittedly a bit young to appreciate it (it’s fine, it’s all part of the indoctrination process). Second, and this is a biggie, unlike the more intimate theatre they were in last time, this show is performed in front of two thousand 5-7 year olds. That’s not a typo, not even an over-optimistic estimate.  

Do you have any idea what a stadium full of excited children sounds like?  

It would be a challenge to daunt even the most seasoned professional but Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman take it all in their stride. They keep the room enthralled, navigating the challenges of such a large crowd with ease. The kids are riveted, shouting out, squealing with delight, laughing and applauding in all the right places. Their attention is kept right to the end and you can see the joy on their faces. Hats off to these two for a masterclass in entertainment.

It is a beautiful experience as an adult to watch kids discovering the wonder and, yes, the absolute magic of live theatre. The sound of two thousand children gasping in wonder as these magicians pull of yet another trick gives me shivers and warms my heart. I do believe in magic, and now thanks to the Messy Magic Adventure, hopefully so do our Southland kids. 

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As if by magic, today it is raining after school holidays full of sunshine: perfect timing for this full house of excited children and their slightly jaded parents.  It’s the first performance of this year’s Nelson Arts Festival and a rollicking start to what looks like an exciting and stimulating line-up in the fortnight ahead.

Lizzie/Spray and David/Wipe are a smooth team with plenty of kids’-level jokes and double-entendres to amuse grown-ups and children alike. Smelly bottoms, stinky grown-ups and good old chestnuts, loud farting et al have this full house audience laughing along. 

Everybody is having fun. Acrobatic stunts are made to look easy, juggling with brooms likewise.  Absolutely ghastly puns and misquotes of advertisements currently on the box are a delight and the old custard pie in the face gag is received with rapture.  

The sleight of hand, slick timing with recorded sounds: fabulous. Sold out today, sold out tomorrow also, it is no surprise that this couple fill the auditorium wherever they perform – and how lovely to see a young audience absolutely entranced with live theatre.

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A packed house waits eagerly for The Messy Magic Show to start at Invercargill’s Centrestage Theatre.

My son, 5, has plenty of questions about the objects on stage: a box, a silky red curtain, a ladder, some dusters. What could possibly be in the box? But then the show begins and he is transfixed. 

Spray and Wipe, Rollicking Entertainment’s Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman, have been charged with the task of tidying a magician’s house. But who wants to just do the dusting when there’s magic in the air? 

Tollemache and Ladderman appear to be genuinely having the time of their lives. Plenty of subtle, cheeky wordplay gives the grown-ups laughs of their own, but the broad, gleeful physical comedy is infectious and the entire audience appears to be having a ball. Magic tricks astound and delight, as they should, and the genuine connection between the work onstage and the audience is palpable. 

It is a relief and a joy to be at a show where children are so welcome, catered for and, most importantly, not just shown some half-hearted kiddy fodder. Tollemache and Ladderman are two hugely talented professionals who approach their children’s show with the same passion and focus as any of their other ‘grown-up’ performances.

I have to admit that I only really see half of The Messy Magic Show. For most of the time my eyes are on my son, who is laughing like I’ve never heard him laugh before. Big, glorious belly laughs wrack his whole body. He is so captivated by what is on stage he never has time to wriggle or flip his seat up and down. He simply laughs, and squeals, and sometimes stands to get a better look at the madcap antics on the stage.

He comes home and invents magic tricks and makes himself disappear from behind a blanket for almost an hour before we can convince him to get in the bath. Then he goes to bed dreaming of one day becoming a magician.  

This, for me, on Mother’s Day, is magic.

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It’s a clever conceit that the two cleaners – Spray (Lizzie Tollemache) and Wipe (David Ladderman) – who arrive to clean a magician’s house finish up making much more of a mess than there was when they arrived. What’s more, it turns out that house – spoken for by a speaking magic book – is looking for a new Messy Magician.

Let’s not jump to conclusions, however. For a start, Spray doesn’t believe in magic. For a second, Wipe especially is pretty incompetent and forever being told off and corrected by Spray, who is very concerned for their reputation in the small and competitive cleaning community …

Of course that’s all a set up; a sneaky way of lowering our expectations so the only way is up. And it’s a great starting point for clownish comedy.  

They start with simple gags, tricks and physical theatre and work up to more and more impressive illusions. The large box upstage centre is endowed with great mystery and status, enhanced by the performers’ great skill in getting the audience vocally and – in a couple of cases physically – involved.

In direct counterpoint to the apparent chaos, The Messy Magic Adventure is a very well-conceived and cleverly structured show that clearly appeals to all ages, including parents and grandparents. 

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