Matt Hewson
Parents and little ones alike can enjoy watching some of Australia’s best circus performers when the award-winning show Children Are Stinky comes to the Bellarine.
A past winner of the Best Children’s Show at the Adelaide, Perth and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals and now in its ninth year of production, Children Are Stinky is set on a 90s children’s show that is beset by a terrible smell.
Show hosts Lady Stink-a-lot and Mr Smelly Pants (ex-Circus Oz performers Josie Wardrope and Sam Aldham) set about to solve the stinky problem, prompting children in the audience to prove themselves clever and creative.
The show’s creator and Circus Trick Tease founding member Malia Walsh said the show was all about helping children feel empowered.
“It’s a secret lesson about bullying and standing up for yourself,” Walsh said.
“The kids soon realise they can stand up for themselves. We say, kids aren’t just stinky, they’re also lazy and unimaginative, and then they get really amped up about it and one by one we cross those things off the list.
“They get really excited by the end of it; they sort of walk out of the space with their chests out and their heads held high. It’s a great reverse psychology lesson.”
Walsh said she conceived of the show after becoming a mother and going to “quite a few” children’s shows.
“As a parent who was usually forking out the money, I thought you know what, I’m going to make a show that has something for the adults as well,” she said.
“It’s a little bit like how the Simpsons entertain all the different age groups. (Children Are Stinky) has high-skill acrobatics and incredible circus for the teenagers, then you’ve got some fart jokes for the littles ones, and there are some little side-eye, fun jokes for the adults as well.
“It’s made by parents for parents and their kids. And it’s all wrapped up in a really great moral lesson for kids, too, so it’s a really fab afternoon.”
Children Are Stinky is at the Potato Shed at 11am on Thursday, April 4.
