It could get messy
For the past five years, West Aussie entertainers Luke Ryan and Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd have had a blast as the hosts of Nickelodeon's children's game show Camp Orange. So when I suggest the now 30-year-old duo may be getting a little old school for the network's primary school demographic, the WAAPA-trained performers and best mates burst into laughter.
"Well I didn't think that, but I do now, thanks," Nixon-Lloyd says in mock shock.
"Yeah, we're getting old," Ryan agrees. "I just turned 30 and that's a scary age in kids' entertainment! When you turn 30 it's like 'jeepers creepers!' But the thing about Nickelodeon is that they're so supportive of us. They allow us to have that Peter Pan thing going on, where we don't have to grow up at work. We just get to be big idiots."
Big idiots is exactly what they will get to be, again, as Nickelodeon's third annual Slimefest gushes into Sydney and Melbourne this weekend with more concerts, games and icky sticky slime than ever before. More than 9000 screaming kids will get to enjoy free rides, games and non-stop performances from the likes of Ricki-Lee, Dami Im, Cody Simpson, Alli Simpson, Justice Crew, Sabrina Carpenter, The Collective, Timomatic and Savage.
"This is going to be the experience of a lifetime," said The X-Factor winner Im. "I'm not afraid to get messy, bring it on!"
Perth viewers will be able to catch the best bits of all the gooey action with a 90-minute special on Monday.
"We're really pumped because we're doing two cities this year," says Nixon-Lloyd, who has co-hosted the sludge-fest with WAAPA theatre arts graduate Ryan for the past two years in Sydney. "We're doubling the fun and we've got a great mix of local acts and great international names. It's going to be good clean messy fun!"
The emphasis, Nixon-Lloyd says, is on mess, with the annual slime-a-palooza aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the most kids slimed - ever!
"When we've been doing rehearsals, we have to keep stopping as they bring in forklifts carrying these big megalitre containers full of slime," Manjimup-raised Nixon-Lloyd explains. "And they bring in unending supplies of the stuff. After 70 or so containers I thought 'yeah, that's enough,' and then they bring in 70 more! So yeah, it's a lot."
"And in past Slimefests," Geraldton-raised Ryan adds, "the goo was distributed in inventive ways, such as a slime guns, a dunk tank and a slime shower. But Nickelodeon is working on increasingly creative ways to deliver dollops of goop. A slime cannon is in discussions.
"And there's a real possibility that we could tour it to our home town of Perth next year, because I really want to see that new Perth Arena covered in slime."
The duo made the move from Melbourne - where they were often roomies - to Sydney last year to be closer to Foxtel and Nickelodeon's HQ.
"It's been really great doing Camp Orange, lots of web stuff and Slimefest. We're involved in all the writing of things and are much more hands on," says Nixon-Lloyd.
The pair also perform various hosting gigs and stand-up comedy as solo and comedy duos. As for Camp Orange, there's no stopping the veteran hosts.
"It's just so much fun to do," Nixon-Lloyd says. "It's all about messing around and being a big kid.
"It's not mean-spirited. It's just great fun. We love doing it."
