Melon the Human is one of the street performers or buskers at the 2020 Perth Fringe World Festival. I was invited on Saturday night to photograph his performance. As always with Fringe you just never know what to expect especially with a name like Melon the Human! A quick google search to see what I was attending showed a man who performed with a cube, a couple of figure 8s and a broom. I still wasn’t sure what I was in for!
The venue – where you can find Melon the Human busking.
My first problem was finding the performance location! After a quick wander around the Woodside Pleasure Garden I found a blackboard advertising Melon the Human at 8.55pm. Awesome. I was in the right spot. Or so I thought. At 8.40pm a man with a giant cube walked briskly past accompanied by two big security guards. Hmmm how many men can there be performing with giant cubes? Honestly this is Fringe, there could be any number!
Decision time! Do I try and follow him just in case or is that creeper weird? I decided to risk being creeper weird and follow him. Small problem; in the 30 seconds it took me to make that decision (and 10 extra seconds it took to get my camera bag off the bench) the man, the giant cube and the two security guys had disappeared. Seriously? How did they disappear?! Turns out they had ducked into the Mermaid Tank area and that is where Melon the Human would be performing for the street performance.
The performance was an eclectic mix of circus arts, a giant cube that he spun around his body and on his head, the figure 8 things that probably have a special name but I have no idea what and don’t even know where to look or what to put in a search bar to try and find it out, a broom and some serious flexibility.
The figure 8 things
The act started with the figure 8 things. The photos do not do this part of the performance justice! It was mesmerising to watch.
The broom
Next in the show came the broom. Not only was he spinning, throwing and catching the broom, Melon the Human added in dad jokes and puns awarding him more laughter than groans so he read his audience well.
The finale – the giant cube
The finale of the show was the giant cube spun at speed around his body and balanced on his head. There is a rule in performing, you have to make the easy look hard and the darn near impossible look easy. He made spinning the cube and balancing it on his head look easy so I can only assume that mere mortals like me would find it just a bit harder than impossible!
For more information on Melon the Human’s street performance at Fringe you can check out the Fringe website. For more of my photographs at Fringe check out my blog as well as my Facebook page and Instagram account.
