I recently received an invitation to enrol in some IT training in the region. It was nice to see even a certain globally recognized IT Management professional is a fan of The Wiggles song, “Hot Potato”.
The world’s most popular children entertainers, and possibly Australia’s greatest export visited Dubai over the weekend. They had quite a whirlwind tour performing just three shows over our weekend. I took my two boys on Saturday to watch the final show in a packed Palladium – just over the road from our place.
Unfortunately Murray – the red wiggle – was absent, due to a pressing family commitment, so we were introduced to a new red wiggle in Bobby – apparently Australia’s greatest surfer. But otherwise all the characters were there.
I knew what to expect, Elle had gone to a previous show in Australia, and told me how the event goes at such a frenetic pace. But it must be seen to be believed, particularly when you know their ages. It was interesting when they did their usual gag of Jeff falling asleep so the kids can scream “Wake Up Jeff!”. However while Jeff was standing there ‘asleep’, instead of telling kids the instructions on how to wake Jeff, Anthony mentioned Jeff ‘s tired because he’s getting old. He then proceeded to tell a story of what had happened earlier in the day. Judging by Jeff’s giggles he knew what was coming. Apparently Jeff got news from Australia that he had received his Senior Citizen’s Card. Apparently Jeff was dancing around the hotel room repeatedly singing “half price at the movies”. By the end of the story Jeff was visibly laughing, so Sam interjected telling kids that Jeff must be having a really funny dream. Once the kids had succeeded waking him up, Jeff jumped up and hung upside down from a bar, again singing “half price at the movies”.
The Wiggles are a real class act. Even a minor mistake was extremely smooth, and then highlighted to make an even more entertaining moment. It happened when Henry the Octopus couldn’t stand on the thight of a couple of wiggles and fell. Captain Feathersword couldn’t stop laughing, and explained it was just so funny – and they made the three do it again when the song had finished.
They are also expert at seamlessly introducing local influences to their show. Apparently they fell in love with our fruit dates – a traditional local treat – and were re-considering the lyrics of their song ‘Fruit Salad’ so it would become just “Dates”. And after doing “Incey Wincey Spider” quite a few times, Anthony cut it off abruptly and said, actually it doesn’t rain that much here – which received a lot of laughter.
It was good to see quite a mix of people attending. The Wiggles are a real world wide phenomenon, and it was present in the crowd. While it was mostly Western looking families, you could easily spot a few locals were present in their Konduras and Abayas.
I saw a couple of guys from the office at the end of the show, one of the guys apparently insisted on going it was just lucky that his wife and kids were interested in coming along also.