As I was approaching Sydney Town Hall on the eve of Australia Day I was anticipating a traditional debate with affirmative and negative sides with each speaker putting his or her arguments in a pithy and witty way.
The audience was warmed up by a special guest DJ Nino Brown.
However, when I saw that the speaking panel, emcee and adjudicator were all First Nation’s or Kanak, I knew that this would be no ordinary debate. It was much, much better.
The structure, such as it was, comprised three rounds starting with Captain Cook’s era, the current situation and the future prospects for indigenous people.
There were two ‘teams’ called ‘The Happy Valentines’ and ‘Future Leaders’ sitting where the affirmative and negative would normally sit. In between them sat the encee Matty Webb. There were, at certain points, a second chair person/emcee, an indigenous and very funny drag queen called Miss Ellaneous, beaming in from Darwin who assisted Matty Webb to keep things bubbling along.
‘The Happy Valentines’ comprised Megan Wilding, Wesley Enoch and Shari Sebbens. ‘The Future Leaders’ comprised Anthony Taufa, Ngaiire and Dane Simpson. Acting as adjudicator/fact checker was Dr Leah Lui-Chivizhe, historian from the University Of Sydney.
In those three portions of the ‘debate’ chaos, hilarity and breathtaking improvisation ruled.
Stealing shamelessly from television shows such as ‘Would i Lie To You?’ and ‘Loose Lips Lip Synch’ as well as the family game ‘Charades’, the participants seemed to be having as much fun amongst each other as well as with the audience which doubles the humorous atmosphere.
Highlights of the show included Wesley Enoch, the Sydney Festival Artistic Director, showing to the audience a Captain Cook board game with unruly native cards hindering Cook’s ‘progress’.
Shari Sebbens presented a Captain Cook cookbook published in 1955 which had recipes from 1855 even though Cook had left 85 years earlier.
Dane Simpson produced a plate commemorating Captain Cook’s death in Hawaii and Megan Wilding presented a framed letter from Captain Cook written in a hilarious Shakespearen style.
To add to the party atmosphere, each audience member was handed two mini fluro lights- green and pink. When, for example, the truth or falsity of the items presented was questioned, the audience could hold up a green fluro or a pink fluro.
To single out the best performer would be unfair. However, Megan Wilding presenting wildly uninhibited gestures and facial expressions as well as her cheeky rendition of the Captain Cook letter had the panelists ands the audience doubling over with laughter.
Appropriately, to send the audience out on a positive note Miss Ellaneous lip synched the Gloria Gaynor song ‘I Will Survive’.
Asked by one of the panelists what was the best way to get through troubled times for indigenous people, Shari Sebbens advocated that black humour was one of the best coping mechanisms.
This ninety minute ‘game show’ was black humour at its blackest and therefore funniest.
Featured image : ‘To Cook Cook Or Not To Cook’ at the Sydney Festival 2021. Pic Yaya Stempler
