Mess and stunts

MAGICAL DUO: Husband and wife team David Ladderman and Lizzie Tollemache bring two magic shows to Gisborne at Smash Palace on Sunday, November 25. The Messy Magic Adventure (pictured), for all ages, will be at 1.30pm and Seven Deadly Stunts will be at 7.30pm. Pictures supplied

What drives someone to walk on broken glass, swallow fire or juggle a chainsaw?

In Rollicking Entertainment’s Seven Deadly Stunts, real life married couple David Ladderman and Lizzie Tollemache celebrate seven notorious stunts from carnival history, along with stories of how and why they exist.

The couple put their bodies — and their marriage — on the line.

Performing these seven stunts live every night requires total trust. Tollemache and Ladderman hope to make it through the season with no major injuries.

The couple brings Seven Deadly Stunts to Gisborne on Sunday. November 25, as well as Messy Magic Adventure, a show for children of all ages.

In Messy Magic, ‘Spray’ and ‘Wipe’ are two cleaners hired for their most exciting job ever — cleaning a magician’s house.

But when they accidentally let the magic out of its box, everything turns topsy turvy.

Tollemache is a sideshow stuntwoman, theatre maker and the creative director of Rollicking Entertainment Ltd.

After spending six years as an improviser with New Zealand’s longest running comedy show, Scared Scriptless, Tollemache now performs around the world at events as diverse as the Dubai International Comedy Festival, WOMAD, the Rugby World Cup, Edinburgh Fringe and World Buskers Festival.

She is also a motivational speaker at universities around the UK and Australasia.

Ladderman is an actor, circus performer and theatre maker.

He was a founding member of The Loons Circus Theatre Company in Lyttelton, working with them until the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. Since then, he has performed for New Zealand Opera, The Cricket World Cup, The World Buskers Festival, The Court Theatre, The Hobbit World Premiere and The NZ International Comedy Festival, while touring his solo show, Battle of the Bastards internationally.

In 2013, he formed Rollicking Entertainment with Tollemache.