A visit with Gary Eck and the moon
By Samantha Elley
It’s not every day you get to hear about the moon coming for a visit, but that was what happened to Casino Christian School students when author and standup comedian Gary Eck came to visit last week.
As part of Beef Week celebrations, Gary read his latest children’s book, The Day the Moon Came to Stay to a group of very invested and intrigued Kindie and Year One students.
“I kind of see myself in a sense as a story teller,” he said.
“Everything I do has some sort of narrative. I am a stand up comic by trade.
“I’ve been doing it for 30 years and that in itself is micro-storytelling, telling short jokes, long jokes.
“I’ve always aspired to longer form stuff.”
From the days of Tropfest, where he won with his short film The Money in 2014, to his work in Happy Feet 2 with George Miller, Gary has always been involved in telling stories.
His recent work has been involved in telling stories to children, including the animated series Ginger and the Vegesaurs, which can be viewed on ABC Kids.
“We are in our third season, which comes out in June,” he said.
“It’s the number two show on the BBC, just behind Bluey.”
His latest book, which he was able to read to the students at the school, is entitled The Day the Moon Came to Stay.
“This one, I remember when my son was about three and there was a big full moon,” he said.
“I was holding him and he was looking up at the moon and he was trying to grab (it).”
“Then I thought ‘what if the moon came here and it was only six feet tall?’.”
From there, as Gary said, the story wrote itself where the main character, Billy, sees the moon is sad and so sends an invitation to the big celestial being to come for a visit.
A captivated audience of young listeners giggled and watched as Gary narrated the story, showing the effects of what happens when the moon visits.
Afterwards, he proceeded to show how you send a message to the moon via the Zoomer Boomer 3000 paper airplane.
The book, written by Gary Eck and illustrated by Nick O’Sullivan, is available online via Amazon.
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