ENTERTAINMENT Amazing Drumming Monkeys!
AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE LITTLE KIDS’ SHOW IS RETURNING TO BYRON BAY! CONGO AND BONGO HAVE BEEN WOWING AUDIENCES AROUND AUSTRALIA AND OVERSEAS FOR THE PAST 14 YEARS. ONE OF THE MEN BEHIND THE MONKEYS IS XAVIER BEAUBOIS. HE SPOKE WITH THE ECHO ABOUT HIS MONKEY BUSINESS. Xavier, what is your musical background? I started playing a bit of guitar and bass in high school. I started drumming in my mid-twenties while traveling though east Africa and it quickly became all I wanted to do. Throughout the next few years I travelled around different countries with a drum, and had many wonderful experiences with it. Eventually I learned to carve and skin African drums and began making and selling them while I traveled through Central America. I was taught to make African drums by a Guatemalan shaman man, who was taught by a German. Eventually I found my way back to Australia and tried to make drums as a job for a few years. I took some formal lessons and began performing in a local West African Ensemble led by a Senegalese teacher. I began busking and performing more and more until that became my main source of income. Then the Monkeys happened and that has now been a very fun 14-year journey. What inspired you to create a show for kids? We were struggling musicians, trying to make a living out of playing and making African drums. One day we (Troy Moore and I) were busking in the Adelaide Mall and we weren’t making as much money as usual that particular day. We wondered why, as the quality of the drumming was good… and then we found our answer. A very cute 8-year-old girl was 200 metres up the mall, playing her little drum. She played quite well for an 8-year-old, had a crowd five deep, and more money than her mum could carry.
culture
That evening I was playing with my then-2-year-old daughter Kira, when I picked up her little monkey, and played a drum with its hands. She laughed so hard, and I think she even said ‘Djummin Monkey’. That was a lightbulb moment, and the concept was born. What are the challenges of creating a show for a young audience? Creating something that you as a parent would like to watch as well, without compromising the children’s experience. For me, it also had some sort of point. It’s very tempting to delivery silly songs that mean nothing but get the little ones wiggling and giggling – but I reckon that when you have a captive audience of little sponges in front of you, you may as well give them something positive in the content. How do you evolve and grow the show each year? Very slowly. It’s a busy modern world, and with kids to grow and rent to pay the reality is that there are only so many hours in the week to be creative. Every year at the Adelaide Fringe Festival we try to develop a new theme, or a variation on an old theme. The structure of the show has stayed very similar, but we are consistently adding new elements. Why do you think the Drumming Monkeys worked? The show has something for everyone and stays lively, varied and interactive. Parents and kids laughing, dancing and drumming together with heartwarming messages running in the background – it’s a well-rounded experience.
STARLIGHT FESTIVAL SHINES
Discover four transformational days with more than 80 workshops, talks, sound healing, yoga classes and more at the Starlight Festival this year. Featured this year are: Crystal Armonica – a transformative and transcendent experience. The crystal armonica is a rare celestial instrument of 30 pure quartz crystal bowls invented by Benjamin Franklin After two months’ in 1761. Jo Kelly is an award-winning singer/songwriter hiatus Country Club and qualified ayurvedic practitioner. Jo was awakened to comedy is back! Featuring Steve Allison her spiritual path in 2005, by Sri Ravi Shankar, where she as the January headline discovered pranayama, chanting and devotional music. Mark Wiseman brings a modern approach to meditative singingwith S Sorrensen as bowl sessions. Mark thrives among nature and his music takes support and Mandy great inspiration from the energies of the world around him. Nolan as MC! Dini Martinez is known globally for her authentic, free-spirited Steve Allison has that rare gift of walking into and inspiring workshops and retreats. Her practice emphasises breath, flow and philosophy. a room and making Christina Covington is an ayurvedic lifestyle consultant, everyone his mate. counsellor, healer and medicine woman. She is a successful Steve Allison was born businesswoman, mentor and mother of two. Passionate into show business. With a natural sense of about encouraging the embrace of life as a sensual, abundant humour and quick wit, activated queen. Steve’s show is a wellAnd there’s Chocolate Yoga! Experience the medicinal crafted mix of snappy one-liners, hilarious stories, funny home properties of ceremonial-grade cacao moving through your truths and current topics. It’s Aussie humour at its best. body in a specially designed kundalini yoga practice, involving Now in demand on the growingly popular Comedy Cruises, ceremony, pranayama, asanas, dance, relaxation, chanting and this is a chance to catch Steve on land. Steve is joined by meditation. support act, the hilarious dry poster boy for pissed-off ageing, 4–8 January. Bangalow (A&I Hall & surrounding pavilions). S Sorrensen, and the outrageous wit of Mandy Nolan. $20 admission. 4-day pass $50. Locals 2-for-1 day 4 & 5 Tuesday at the Ocean Shores Country Club. Free. 7pm. January. Tix at the door or online: www.starlightfestival.com.au
COUNTRY CLUB COMEDY WELCOMES STEVE ALLISON!
Ballina PLAYERS
12 - 21 January 2018 AUDITIONS ALADDIN Directed by Mike Sheehan Directed by Jacquie McCalman
How do you differentiate the monkeys’ personalities? Tell me a little about the two of them? Bongo and Congo are quite different. Bongo is the older, wiser monkey who delivers a lot of the messages, and kind of hosts the show. He speaks to the adults as much as the kids. Congo is the younger, more enthusiastic monkey who provides a lot of the comedic and cute factor, and is especially popular with the little ones. What should we expect for your Byron shows in January? Expect to have a lot of fun and see kids and parents laughing, dancing drumming together. The amazing Drumming Monkeys at the Byron Scout Hall on Thurs 4 Jan. 10.30am. $10 pp or $35 for a family of four.
THE MERMAID EXPERIENCE Ballina Players have done it again! Bringing The Little Mermaid to life onstage! There is more to this classic tale than froth and bubbles. There is wisdom, like loving someone how they are instead of how we want them, or not blaming all humans for a few wicked ones. The Little Mermaid runs at Ballina Players from 12 till 21 January. Details and booking information on the website www.ballinaplayers.com.au or via Facebook. Tickets can also be purchased from Just Funkin Music in River St, Ballina.
CONT P50
THE GLITTA SUPERNOVA EXPERIENCE
BODY MAP Saturday 30th December 2017
THE BYRON THEATRE 8pm 69 Jonson Street, Byron Bay
“An audacious, hilarious & sharply political show” –Theatreview
Adult $25; 16 and under $15; Family (2 adults, 2 children) $70. Wed to Sat evenings 7pm; Sunday matinees 2pm
“BODYMAP exuded both vulnerability & subterranean glamarama” –Alt Media
BOOK NOW
TIXS: www.byroncentre.com.au/event/bodymap
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
How do the kids relate to the monkeys? Kids seem to be drawn to slightly older kids as their main inspiration (their immediate future). The size of the monkeys makes them seem like they are about eight years old, and most of our crowd are 3–5, so I think they see them as slightly older. I think this is one of the reasons that the monkeys have such an amazing effect on little kids.
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BEST IN FRINGE 2017
BEST CABARET 2017
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER 2017
The Byron Shire Echo December 27, 2017 49