A group of circus performers in the Perth Fringe Festival, Western Australia have made wheelie bins famous. The Melbourne based trio ‘Trash Test Dummies’ are booked for six shows at the festival which starts later this month.
The group have signed up to a further 23 shows in Adelaide before going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Their act includes wheelie bin acrobatics, hiding in them and bin surfing. They put their popularity down to being three normal guys with an imagination meaning a lot of younger boys can relate to them. They are also quite mischievous which appeals to the younger fans.
They initially came up with the concept whilst studying at the National Institute of Circus Arts and have since expanded their routine to become a full 50 minute feature packed with “lots of slapstick and lots of gags”.
The trio say they wanted to make the show as much fun for them as it is for the audience. The show is mainly aimed at children but the group have tried to make inside adult jokes that children won’t get to entertain the parents too. Their audience ranges from 3 year old children to grandparents.
The act was praised highly at the previous Adelaide Fringe Festival and won the 2014 Circus Show Down competition at Melbourne’s Gasworks Arts Park. Praise included the unique idea of using wheelie bins and getting people talking about them in a different way.