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[0:00] Tori Bullard: We would like to acknowledge the Thorowall people of the Eeura Nation and the Warundari people of the Coolin Nation.

[0:06] Tori Bullard: We pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land on which we work, live, and record, and strive to continue in the tradition of Australia's first storytellers.

[0:15] Tori Bullard: We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

[0:17] Tori Bullard: Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

[0:23] Tori Bullard: Hello and welcome to our new mini sode series, bedtime stories.

[0:29] Tori Bullard: Basically, we're taking those bedtime stories that you guys know and love from the end of our episodes and putting it into their own mini sode.

[0:37] Tori Bullard: For those that are new to the podcast, a bedtime story is a stage mishap, something that goes wrong, maybe a costume malfunction. Maybe you end up like making it on stage. Who knows? And we get all of our guests to give us a little bedtime story. So without further ado, we have Otis here from Peter and the Starcatcher. Otis, can you give us your bedtime stories?

[0:58] Otis Dhanji: Sure. Um let's go with um okay, yeah, I got a good one. So we were doing the show one day, it was a matinee. It was a school day, so we had all the school kids in, and it was pretty full, and we it was a pretty smooth sailing act one. Very smooth sailing act one. Gives you um the sense that we were just gonna power through and it was all gonna be good. Um, but we were literally about three minutes away from finishing act one and getting through that. Um I was on stage with Colin for this sort of final little bit of drama, like right at the end. Um where I give him the trunk, and there's a lot of like this is a there's a lot of space here on the stage, and there's you know very little interruption, and wet and he's just doing his sort of comedian thing and riffing and and and and in the right through the middle of that, the fire alarm in the building goes off.

Yeah, and with the full fire alarm voice. And you know, like when you're acting in a like a show, like it just it's such a I've been trying for so long to describe in writing what the experience is to get snapped out and back into real life from there because it's so weird and strange. But anyways, this happens, and then it announces that it was actually just a test alarm. Um it was just a drill at the Melbourne Arts Center. Um, yeah, and and all like you know, no one knew what to do. But for the first, like it was a poorly done drill because it didn't say it was a drill until like a good 30 seconds in. So I really just thought there was a fire somewhere, and we were just gonna have to sprint.

Um yeah, and I just remember a kind of like a uh uh eye contact with Colin of just like what the hell is going on? And his eyes were like absolute wide-eyed. Um and he was smiling, like you know, you've got to appreciate comedian, can always just find the humour in that. And he just said once it was done, he was like, folks, that was not part of the show, and we just moved on, and that was that. Um, but yeah, that was a pretty um pretty wild experience.

[2:58] Otis Dhanji: And to be ripped out of your like current reality so violently, because there's no like warning for a fire alarm, obviously, because it's meant to snap everyone into action, but to just be so violently ripped from it and just not like it would be so disorientating as well.

[3:17] Tori Bullard: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

[3:19] Otis Dhanji: Oh my god. So we just went on with the show and just all laughed about a backstage immediately after. What can you do? You know. But yeah, I'm sure there was some emails sent. There was someone from the arts center was sacked, possibly. Um, who knows? Especially mid-show, like a mid-show fire drill. Random time. It was a poor time, it was a poor time. Organising it. They're like, yes, it's just the perfect time for this to happen. Interrupt all the shows happening.

[3:42] Tori Bullard: I love that you had to like stay on stage as well. Like there wasn't even like it's like, okay, are we continuing? Uh what's going on? Okay.

[3:52] Otis Dhanji: Yeah. That was actually like one of three moments where the whole show had to kind of stop and we had to have like one of the um backstage crew kind of come out and tell us what was going on. There were like two other ones that were yeah, they had to sort of stop the show and restart it again. Um and the the most recent one, I was j it was just me on stage at the time when they had to stop it. So I just like sort of was standing on top of the trunk and I just sort of like jumped off and walked away and then the curtain went down and when it went back up again I had to just be there in front of the audience.

[4:21] Otis Dhanji: And that was really weird because it was like that was the best thing about acting is that it's not me that's in front of the audience, it's it's a character. You know, I have a shield in front of me. But when the the thing went up and I was just standing there, it was just they were just watching Otis, having no idea what to do, like how to start this show up again. So I just I don't know, I just got them to cheer and and just snapped into the character and I don't know, we just we just went on. Yeah, that's life theater for you.

[4:48] Tori Bullard: I love it, I love it. That's awesome. Well that does bring us to the end of our bedtime story for today. Thank you, Otis, for sharing that beautiful bedtime story with us.

[4:58] Tori Bullard: And don't forget to check out part one of our two-part series with Otis. It's already live right now, and part two will be going live next week.

[5:08] Tori Bullard: So make sure you check that out. But until next time, guys, stay happy, healthy and safe, and we'll see you next week.