Milligan competition launched

Desmond Milligan visited Pretty Beach Public School on May 29 to launch a competition recognising the life and work of his late comedian brother Spike Milligan.

Students were encouraged to use the works of the late comedian as inspiration for some "comic and crazy verse" of their own.

The best of the best will be performed at a special event organised by the Bouddi Society, in association with the Spike Milligan Committee.

"Comic and Crazy Verse - a Competition and a Cavalcade" will see the Wagstaffe Hall come alive in October, a stage for budding comedians and poets to strut their stuff.

There'll be dramatised presentations of various kinds of comic and crazy verse, featuring the winning entries as well as poems by well-know comic authors such as Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and, of course, Spike Milligan.

The competition is open to schools in the Peninsula area.

Students can enter long or short verse with or without illustrations, performance verse or a song.

Teachers are being encouraged to use the writings of Spike Milligan as stimulus material, perhaps starting with the special Spike Milligan collection at Woy Woy Library.

Entries close August 29.

Press release, May 28