The magician Magic Mike (Not a stripper) will not be appearing at the controversial $400,000 gathering organised by the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
"I'm not performing," he told The Canberra Times.
Earlier, his name had been mentioned as on the bill for an evening of celebration of the launch of a new initiative in Catholic schools in and around Canberra, albeit with the signing yet to be inked in.
In the planning, the archdiocese had been aware of "reputational risk" because of the cost of the event at a time of general belt-tightening. It is not known if the event has since been pared down because of publicity over the $400,000 cost.
Former Marist College student Mike Webb (to give him his off-stage name) has been a favourite in Canberra. "Mike has proudly represented Canberra on Australia's Got Talent, performed live on all of Canberra's top radio stations, and sold out magic theatre shows at Limelight Cinemas," his website trumpets.
He has returned to the college to, as the college put it, "mesmerize (sic) the students with his incredible magic tricks".
But not mesmerise the archdiocese's celebration at the National Convention Centre on August 20 to celebrate the launch of the Apostolic Action Plan.
Magic Mike tags his stage name as "Not a stripper", by the way, because of the film, Magic Mike, which really was about a stripper. He said that he had sometimes been introduced at work functions as Magic Mike, but when the audience heard, "Please welcome, Magic Mike" some assumed a stripper had been booked for what they assumed was a rather straight-laced work function.
With a mastery of comic timing, he would play on the misapprehension by joking that he would take off his pants if the act went badly.
He remains loyal to Canberra. He is the seventh son of seven Canberra-born brothers and returns frequently.
After Marist College, he left for a gap year and fell in with a bunch of magicians in Britain. He returned to Canberra to do a degree in actuarial studies at the ANU. He worked in Sydney as a trader in finance "earning crazy money", as he previously told The Canberra Times, before deciding to quit and focus on magic full-time.
He was certainly high on the list of entertainers pencilled in for the celebration organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn to launch its Apostolic Action Plan. But that was before the $400,000 cost of the whole event emerged.
The Archdiocese has declined to comment on its plans for the launch event much beyond saying that the cost was "modest".
"The cost, which covers transport, accommodation costs, catering, venue hire, printing, and photography, is modest," the archdiocese's director of education David de Carvalho said
"The cost of this event is considerably less than the cost of a similar event in 2023 for the launch of the Catalyst program."
Under the Apostolic Action Plan, faith would be integrated more fully into the curriculums of Catholic schools in and around Canberra. "Faith oxygenates every learning area in the curriculum," Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese director, Mr de Carvalho, said in a video.
He quoted Pope Leo who said: "Faith is not a separate subject, but it is a breath that oxygenates every learning area."
"So, we don't want faith just restricted to RE classes, or prayers, or masses, as important as those things are. But our Christian faith imbues all aspects of the curriculum and the way we teach every subject. We want to encourage our students to see God's creation, the wonder of God's creation, in every subject that they-that they learn," Mr de Carvalho said.
