Mosquitoes

DECEMBER 2012 - M-U-M Magazine 27

Two Canadian magicians deliver a magic show that sucks...on purpose.

Three-hundred-fifty high school students from ten different schools filed into the auditorium at David Suzuki Secondary School for a new show that blends magic, comedy, and social justice: Mosquitoes Suck. It was designed as a way to create awareness among youth about international and social justice and to offer them a call to action. The goal is to raise money for Spread the Net, which provides insecticide-treated bed nets that provide nighttime protection from mosquito bites. The show was written and created by David Peck and Matt DiSero.

The performance at the David Suzuki Secondary School was slightly over the top, with guest speakers from the Peel District School Board, outreach orga-nizations Spread the Net and Taking it Global, and video segments with singer Fefe Dobson and political satirist Rick Mercer. (By a freakish magic coinci-dence, Mercer earned much of his fame on a show called This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which was a spoof of This Hour Has Seven Days, which was created by Patrick Watson, who co-wrote and directed David Ben’s shows The Conjuror, The Conjuror’s Suite, and Tricks.) This also marked the first time the show was joined by the music group Neverest. (The Canadians are too polite to call them a boy band.)

Turn back the clock to 2007. Friends David Peck and Matt DiSero were discussing a mutual friend and ventriloquist, John Pattison, who had contracted malaria while traveling abroad. Malaria is a parasitic disease that, while treatable, is incurable and causes recurring symptoms that Pattison says, “make you long for the stomach flu.” The disease kills an estimated two to three thousand people daily, many of whom are children.

What began as a conversation on the couch turned into a pilot performance in 2009. Support and sponsors came over time and included the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the primary govern-ment grant-making organization for the province.

Malaria is transmitted primarily through mosquito bites and is a serious threat in tropical regions across the world. What makes the Spread the Net campaign so attractive to students is that there is a measurable impact. Ten dollars buys a mosquito net that can protect a family of five for up to five years. Even a fourth grader can do the arithmetic to see how many lives are saved through their efforts, proving that kids actually can make a difference.

DiSero works full time as a performer at corporate events and conferences and on cruise ships. On stage he still sublimates early influences like Herb Morrissey and Jay Marshall. His wardrobe and hairstyle are, purposely, reminiscent of David Tennant, the tenth Doctor Who.

During the show, he provides most of the magic through his corporate material; the tricks involve cigarettes, a bull whip and the color of teachers’ underwear. The theory was that the modern high school student is too savvy to be sucked in by traditional

magic-with-a-message style tricks; they spot it coming a mile away and tune out. The material is meant to be for entertainment

purposes only and keeps the audience alert and attentive.David Peck, on the other hand, comes across as the

more thoughtful and serious of the pair. Peck began in magic at age nine through a handful of mail order tricks from the back page of a comic book and eventually upgraded to the Arcade Magic Shop in Toronto and Morrissey Magic, where he worked summers behind the counter in his twenties. Since then he has pursued work as an electrician, earned a Masters Degree in Philosophy, and now works primarily doing a combi-nation of teaching at Humber College and organizing

a variety of philanthropic activities in the developing world through an organization called SoChange, which

he founded in 2008. He delivers the facts-and-figures side of the show, something made much easier through multimedia.

Although he seems somewhat professorial on stage, Peck is every bit as silly as his counterpart.

The video that opens the second act shows him dressed in a business suit in a hotel room when his concen-tration is disturbed by the faint buzzing of a lone mosquito. In fine cartoon tradition, the live Peck tears the hotel room apart and goes on a swatting spree that takes him to the brink of madness. The moral, which no one notices because they are too busy laughing, is that if one bug can make a differ-

ence, so can you.The organizers are proceeding with trepidation.

With six months of governmental funding left, they are faced with the challenge of creating a self-sustaining ini-

tiative out of the show. The future seems to lie in some combi-nation of school support, outside sponsorship, and the ingenuity of students’ fundraising efforts. The central fundraising pillar currently is a sales drive of fair trade coffee – like selling candy bars, but for grownups. Social media is also front and center, with an online video game in which students score points by finding mosquitoes with QR codes.

The future may ultimately lie with the creativity of student-led fundraising activities. In addition to supporting Spread the Net, they are also coming up with creative ways of exterminating the mosquitoes themselves. So far the leading project: playing really loud Justin Bieber music.

For more information on the Mosquitoes Suck Tour, visit their website (www.dontbiteme.ca).

Magic with a message...that sucks by James Alan

If you ever thought you were too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito. – African Proverb

Matt DiSero (above) and David Peck (below) performing.

From left: David Peck, three members of the band Neverest, and Matthew DiSero