Keep It Under Your Hat

We Told You To Go To Ireland, Not Fireland

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Street performers are fairly common in the Southbank area of Melbourne and as you would expect, they are a dime a dozen during the warm summer months, when the sun rises early and doesn’t set until about nine o’clock.

Of course, it’s autumn now. And while the temperatures have scaled back slightly, even the nights are noticeably cooler but the evenings are still long and balmy. As you’d imagine, it all adds up to perfect weather for street entertainers.

I shot these images recently, while a couple of very gifted performers kept a holiday crowd in raptures. The two shots are very deliberately composed, because the first looks like a real helmet perched atop a piece of equipment.

It’s only when you get to the second image (below) that you see the dead giveaway that it’s not real - see the huge purple water gun on the left of the frame?

Now you can see, too, that it’s a plastic helmet. And everything is secured, by an extendable strap, to a suitcase-on-wheels. When the act is over, the "fire chief" packs up his gear and wheels the whole lot onto his next venue.


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