Festival preview: Matty Grey’s Grossed Out Game Show

• David Pollock
• 1 July 2015

This article is from 2015.

credit: Matty Grey

Matty Grey has hit pay dirt with the biggest gungefest in children’s entertainment. Time to don a hard hat as the Australian pores over the mechanics of his new show

Despite the success enjoyed by all seven shows he’s created in the last four years, Melbourne’s Matty Grey got into children’s entertainment by accident. Having relocated to Sydney and saving for a wedding with his partner Kat (she plays Professor Kit-E-Kat), he took a mobile DJ job. Finding himself booked to play a child’s party, ‘it turned out I was a hit with the kids, largely because I’m just a big kid myself’.

Fast-forward a few years and Grey has his biggest hit to date, the Grossed Out Game Show. It features kids being split into two warring teams, each led by a guest performer through a series of silly, high-energy games. Members of comedy troupes Umbilical Brothers and Axis of Awesome have taken part, as has Gary Eck, a writer on Happy Feet Two.

Grey’s favourite game is ‘Mars Attacks’, where a brave parent is bombarded with paper plates by the audience and has to catch them with kitchen tongs. Kat prefers ‘Mummy Bird’, where volunteers have to feed ‘lolly worms’ to the open-mouthed audience. The winning celebrity’s prize is to have less slime poured on them than their opponent.

‘You don’t need to be a particularly good sport as trash talk and creative cheating are a big part of it,’ says Grey. ‘But you do need to be able to let yourself go and be a big kid for an hour without worrying if you look silly. Kids are often underestimated by adults and the media, and coddled as if they’re delicate, fragile beings that may disintegrate if you explain a difficult concept to them. I shout at them, tell them they’re smelly and ugly, and they love it. Kids are pretty perceptive and understand more of the world around us than we give them credit for.’

Matty Grey’s Grossed Out Game Show, Assembly George Square Gardens, George Square, 0131 623 3030, 7–9, 14–16, 21–23, 28–30 Aug, 11.15am, £10 (£9; family ticket £34).