J-Mania Part 1 - Jump Mania

The husband brought XX out today to fetch KK and finally, I get an undisturbed stretch of monopoly over the computer, so I better blog this before anything....

The last weekend has been nicknamed "J-Mania Weekend" by KK. For the first J on Saturday, we went to watch "Jump Mania" at the Rod Laver Arena in the city. This is my first visit to watch anything spectacular since coming to Melbourne and also my first time watching a live show on monster trucks and motor cross stunts. A girlfriend was surprised that I'm even interested in the first place. But why not, I've been playing enough computer simulated monster truck and motor cross games with my sons and it's not everytime we get to see real big monster machines up close perform stunts.

Waiting to pick up our tickets

We were excited enough walking up the steps as we entered the arena. KK had so looked forward to this day for the whole of last week and XX too was pointing excitedly at the giant poster, saying "Look, Mama, monster trucks!" But were we disappointed.





The show was supposed to start at 6pm. We didn't have any dinner before that as it was too early and we thought we could catch a late dinner at about 8pm when the show ended. But the show lasted 4 hours and ended at 10.15pm!! And what a draggy 4 hours. They started 15 mins late, took their time introducing all the machines and vehicles, had 2 intermissions in between 3 segments and had a guy who could sing and make sound effects entertain the crowd for 15 mins each time they restarted.

Had to cover XX's ears to protect against the deafening noise

Each segment was similar to the previous and featured the various monster trucks rolling over the same 2 rolls of cars - over and over again - until they became flat metal sheets. Hubby said it reminded him of the sugarcane juicing machine, you put the sugarcane through over and over again, until there's no more juice left. I laughed like crazy. That's exactly what the organisers are doing, desperately trying to squeeze every bit of juice out of the show.

This is at the beginning when cars still look like cars

Some kids on motor bikes came riding out in every segment, doing nothing but silly things like trying to knock each other off their bikes and throwing things at each other. Some people were laughing at their antics but I'm not very amused at their unruly behaviour. An odd looking tank/car came out making a hell lot of noise. That was KK's favourite but again there were no stunts, just noise. The kids on bikes tried to play soccer with a giant ball and then in the next segment, some cars tried to do the same. That was quite funny, to see them go forward, reverse, go forward, reverse, just to push that ball to the goal post. But is that considered skills?

Cars playing soccer

My real treat was the motor cross stunts. The 2 motor cross riders did dangerous stunts like arched their backs, took their hands off the bike, stood on the bike and did back flips with their bikes in mid-air. My heart will jump every time they did their stunt. There's so much skills and precision involved. If they don't do it correctly, things could go fatally wrong. That is what I call good entertainment. But even good stunts can get boring if you repeat it too often. I have to admit that by the third time I saw their stunts, my heart didn't jump at all. I will try to upload a video of the stunts as the pictures didn't turn out too well.






The finale was a "destruction" segment where cars knock each other until their bumpers fall off, their boot fail to exist and basically cannot move anymore. The winner is the last vehicle 'standing'. That sounded promising. There's something sadistically exciting about vehicles crashing together :-P But as it turned out, given the small arena, the vehicles were crashing into each other at relatively low speed, so it took forever before the winner emerged. And there was no explosion. Meanwhile, there were plenty of exhaust and dust generated. I almost felt nauseous.





The organisers would have got a much better review from me if they had cut off half the crappy, time-wasting, cheapskate, repeat performances (so I still have time to go for dinner) and concentrated on packing in some real kick ass stunts. And an outdoor venue would have been better for such noisy machines that gives lots of exhaust and kicks up plenty of dust.



We were very tired by the time we reach home at 11pm. I must compliment the kids for behaving very well during the whole night, even though they must be exhausted. But nothing will ruin our mood, for the next day is KK's birthday celebration!