The Performer

Best known for his work on ABC Radio, Tug Dumbly is one of Australia’s most broadcast and recognized performance poets. His comic poems, songs and monologues have entertained and delighted audiences at performances and festivals both nationally and abroad, including New York, Montreal, London and Edinburgh.

Tug has released two acclaimed spoken-word CDs through the ABC and twice won the Banjo Paterson Prize for comic verse. He can currently be heard performing his weekly Tug Report on ABC radio (Sydney 702)

The Performance

Over the course of an exhilarating hour Tug will delight, entertain and thoroughly engage the children, bringing poetry and performance to life for them in a highly animated and hilarious manner.

Starting with tongue-twisting treats a la Dr. Suess and Lewis Caroll’s nonsense masterpiece Jabberwocky, Tug moves on through a dazzling array of his own works, including his marvellous menagerie of animal poems such as Big Pets, Your Cat Would Eat You if It Could and Old Man Flathead, (which has recently been included in an anthology for schools by Heinemann Books.) His poem about a plague of pesky parrots - Apparently in Paraguay - is an alliterative delight, and Nothing Rhymes with Orange! absurd fun.

Tug’s improvisations based on audience suggestions and songs such as Hip-Hop-Potamus and Woofer the Wonderdog ensure the children eagerly participate in words and actions.

Above all else, Tug shows that playing with words and language is FUN! and that the possibilities of what poetry can be are vast.

Comments