Concrete Playground

We all remember that time you stole Georgia Hutchison’s shoes after PE, and she came out of the shower all kind of confused and it took her ages to realise they were actually out in the playground being poked by curious ibises.

She was kind of a mean kid and everyone had a good laugh and it was fine and all, only next time, you might want to think about funnelling that commendable spirit of larrikinism towards something a little more meaningful. You know, maybe help cast light on apartheid? Or protest against your country’s involvement in a morally and legally dubious war? Or draw much-needed attention to the scourge of unscrupulous advertising and engineered consumerism?


If you’re short on ideas, Iain McIntyre’s How to Make Trouble and Influence People: Pranks, Hoaxes,Graffiti & Political Mischief-Making from Across Australia has a few. McIntyre chronicles two centuries of “creative resistance” in Australia with historical snippets, 300 photographs and 14 interviews with pranksters including The Chaser comedians (on breaching APEC lines in 2007), BUGA-UP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions) and Dave Burgess (who, along with one Dr Will Saunders, cheerfully decorated the Opera House with an anti-war manifesto back in 2003).

If you need any more coaxing to get into the trouble-making spirit, McIntyre will be launching his tome at two Sydney events: first at Berkelouw Books in Newtown, with a little help from politician Dr Meredith Burgmann (Mother Inferior of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence) and musician Simon Hunt (Pauline Pantsdown); and second at the Red Rattler, where he’ll be joined by Rachel Evans (No To Pope Coalition) and Dave Burgess, plus a bevy of musicians and projectionists.


6pm on 3 December, upstairs, Berkelouw Cafe and Bookshop, 6-8 O’Connell St, Newtown. Free.

8pm on 5 December, Red Rattler, 6 Faversham St Marrickville. $10.