Funny Bones Trash

The team behind Funny Bones Trash have never met a fart joke they didn't like, or a magic trick that couldn’t be made better by showing the mechanisms behind how it’s done.

“Oh, there's a hook!” exclaims the five-year-old girl next to me, as performers Chris Peters and K-Bow stumble out of an illusion where a mug appears to be suspended by the stream of water poured from a bottle.

We see a milk carton change from green to red, only to be accidentally turned around and revealed to be green on two sides. A young boy from the audience is made to disappear, picked up and carried off stage.

It’s all delicious fun. The kids eat up every reveal, every “whoops”, every moment when they are made to feel in on a secret. They feel wonderfully intelligent, and they laugh and laugh at the two bumbling clowns.

Deeply imbued with the tradition of street performance, the work is less engaging when it strays from this track: an extended musical sequence using roles of tape to make props starts to drag. But when the performers find their feet again the children are straight back on board.

Peters and K-Bow find fun and excitement in the downright silly. Their magic tricks are clever; their reveals cleverer still. And yet, sometimes it's the simplest things that work the best. As Peters brings a broom to his lips and plays the bamboo flute it disguises, the girl next to me gasps: “Now that’s real magic!”