Magic with a message...

that sucks
by James Alan
If you ever thought you were too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito. African Proverb

wo Canadian magicians deliver a magic show that sucks... on purpose. Three-hundred-fifty high school students from ten different schools filed into the auditorium at David Suzuki Secondary School for a new show that blends magic, comedy, and social justice: Mosquitoes Suck. It was designed as a way to create awareness among youth about international and social justice and From left: David Peck, three members of the band to offer them a call to action. The goal is to raise money for Spread Neverest, and Matthew DiSero the Net, which provides insecticide-treated bed nets that provide nighttime protection from mosquito bites. The show was written magic-with-a-message style tricks; they spot it coming a mile and created by David Peck and Matt DiSero. away and tune out. The material is meant to be for entertainment The performance at the David Suzuki Secondary purposes only and keeps the audience alert and attentive. School was slightly over the top, with guest speakers David Peck, on the other hand, comes across as the from the Peel District School Board, outreach orgamore thoughtful and serious of the pair. Peck began in nizations Spread the Net and Taking it Global, and magic at age nine through a handful of mail order tricks video segments with singer Fefe Dobson and political from the back page of a comic book and eventually satirist Rick Mercer. (By a freakish magic coinciupgraded to the Arcade Magic Shop in Toronto and dence, Mercer earned much of his fame on a show Morrissey Magic, where he worked summers behind called This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which was a spoof the counter in his twenties. Since then he has pursued of This Hour Has Seven Days, which was created work as an electrician, earned a Masters Degree in by Patrick Watson, who co-wrote and directed David Philosophy, and now works primarily doing a combiBens shows The Conjuror, The Conjurors Suite, and nation of teaching at Humber College and organizing Tricks.) This also marked the first time the show was a variety of philanthropic activities in the developing joined by the music group Neverest. (The Canadians are world through an organization called SoChange, which too polite to call them a boy band.) he founded in 2008. He delivers the facts-andTurn back the clock to 2007. Friends David figures side of the show, something made much Matt DiSero (above) and Peck and Matt DiSero were discussing a mutual David Peck (below) performing. easier through multimedia. friend and ventriloquist, John Pattison, who Although he seems somewhat professorial on had contracted malaria while traveling abroad. stage, Peck is every bit as silly as his counterpart. Malaria is a parasitic disease that, while treatable, The video that opens the second act shows him dressed is incurable and causes recurring symptoms that in a business suit in a hotel room when his concenPattison says, make you long for the stomach tration is disturbed by the faint buzzing of a lone flu. The disease kills an estimated two to three mosquito. In fine cartoon tradition, the live Peck thousand people daily, many of whom are children. tears the hotel room apart and goes on a swatting What began as a conversation on the couch spree that takes him to the brink of madness. The turned into a pilot performance in 2009. Support moral, which no one notices because they are too and sponsors came over time and included the busy laughing, is that if one bug can make a differOntario Trillium Foundation, the primary governence, so can you. ment grant-making organization for the province. The organizers are proceeding with trepidation. Malaria is transmitted primarily through mosquito With six months of governmental funding left, they are bites and is a serious threat in tropical regions across the faced with the challenge of creating a self-sustaining iniworld. What makes the Spread the Net campaign so attractive to tiative out of the show. The future seems to lie in some combistudents is that there is a measurable impact. Ten dollars buys a nation of school support, outside sponsorship, and the ingenuity mosquito net that can protect a family of five for up to five years. of students fundraising efforts. The central fundraising pillar Even a fourth grader can do the arithmetic to see how many lives currently is a sales drive of fair trade coffee like selling candy are saved through their efforts, proving that kids actually can bars, but for grownups. Social media is also front and center, with make a difference. an online video game in which students score points by finding DiSero works full time as a performer at corporate events and mosquitoes with QR codes. conferences and on cruise ships. On stage he still sublimates early The future may ultimately lie with the creativity of student-led influences like Herb Morrissey and Jay Marshall. His wardrobe fundraising activities. In addition to supporting Spread the Net, and hairstyle are, purposely, reminiscent of David Tennant, the they are also coming up with creative ways of exterminating the tenth Doctor Who. mosquitoes themselves. So far the leading project: playing really During the show, he provides most of the magic through his loud Justin Bieber music. corporate material; the tricks involve cigarettes, a bull whip and the color of teachers underwear. The theory was that the modern For more information on the Mosquitoes Suck Tour, visit their high school student is too savvy to be sucked in by traditional website (www.dontbiteme.ca). DECEMBER 2012 - M-U-M Magazine 27