A spaceship has landed in Newcastle.
It's planned to be used for a show called The Intergalacular Sci-Fi Spectacular.
Ella Heathmore, co-director and performer in the show, said the spaceship would be stored in Newcastle until the show in October.
The spaceship will adorn and illuminate the show's venue, which is known - fittingly - as The Hangar.
Light and colour can be projected onto the spaceship.
"The whole thing comes to life with projections. You can almost make it look like there's someone driving it through space," Ella said.
"We're lucky to have that as part of the venue to set the scene when people come in. The guys at XYZ Dimensions [who built the spaceship for a Sydney event] kindly offered it to us to use."
The show is part of the New Annual festival, set to be staged by the City of Newcastle in September/October in Civic Park.
"It's a sci-fi-themed cabaret variety show," Ella said.
The show was first held in February, delayed from last October due to the pandemic.
She said the venue - The Hangar - was "like a mini festival".
"There's food trucks, sideshows and a bar."
The show has a crew of 10, with each performer having developed their own act.
"They're all insanely weird. It's not your average cabaret show," Ella said.
In the first act, a girl bursts out of a cocoon, strips off, then gets into a bowl of green porridge and pours it all over herself.
"It was really wild. I don't think it was what people were expecting. News travelled fast and the second weekend completely sold out. It was really successful," she said, of the February shows.
"We want to tour the venue and show to other places around Australia. That's the ultimate dream. We're at the very early stages of making it come to life."
A War Joke
This from Fred Saunders, of Waratah West.
"Here is a wartime joke doing the rounds in London," Fred said.
A Yank GI walks into a London pub and asks for a beer. When it arrives, he complains to the bartender.
Yank: "Hey Limey, this beer is warm."
Bartender: "It should be, it's been waiting two years for you to come and drink it."
Ouch!
A Bee Joke
This from Glen Fredericks, of Adamstown Heights, following our recent story on bees.
The scene: Glen goes into a pet shop and asks for 12 bees. The shopkeeper counts out 13 and hands them over.
Glen: "You've given me one too many."
Shopkeeper: "That one is a freebee."
Meanwhile, Glen has always wondered who the first person was to look at a beehive and think, "those bastards are hiding something delicious in there, I know it".
