TV’s favourite doctors are arriving in Adelaide this week with a gigantic brand-new show Operation Ouch Live: Quest for the Jurassic Fart!
Dr Chris and Dr Xand are going to take their Adelaide audiences on a dino-mite adventure to unearth the most dangerous, most powerful, most important fart in history – the Jurassic Fart!
Twin brothers Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken are Oxford University trained doctors who currently practice medicine. Dr Chris is an infectious diseases doctor at University College London Hospital, and is one of the BBC’s leading science presenters and a New York Times bestselling author. Dr Xand’s main interest and expertise lies in Public Health Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Anthropology, and he is the resident doctor on BBC’s Morning Live.
Glam Adelaide had the opportunity to talk to the doctors about their stage show, the smash-hit TV series and what sparked the idea for the TV series in the first place.
Dr Chris:
“One of the nice things about the show is that we do try to make hospitals and medicine and operations less frightening for kids. The BBC were incredibly helpful when they were working with us, as it is something they were very keen on. In fact, it wasn’t until we came to Australia that we realised that many in our audience live with chronic medical problems and find the show is somewhat helpful. So that’s been a very nice unexpected thing about the show. Of course, a lot of the show has also been built around us obviously being able to do experiments on each other because we’re brothers.”
Operation Ouch has just started filming its fourteenth season, with season thirteen soon to air here in Australia. With so many seasons behind them, numerous specials, podcasts and now sell-out stage shows, we asked the doctors if they ever thought the show would have the global success it has had.
Dr Xand:
“When we first started, Chris said if we do this well it’ll be the best thing we ever do. I think he really understood very early that doing children’s television just gives you this opportunity to do something more creative and more interesting and more valuable than lots of other things. We were very lucky. We started filming the show 14 years ago and it’s had a lot of longevity in a way we didn’t really expect. We didn’t think we’d be on stage in Australia, however! Every time we get on stage in Oz we’re kind of blown away by it.”
Dr Chris shared his thoughts as to why shows like Operation Ouch are important to educate children in how to contact emergency response and to give them a general understanding of how hospitals work.
Dr Chris:
“A big part of health is not being embarrassed about going to see a doctor or a nurse, or going into a hospital and getting checked up. There’s a part in this live show where we put a camera inside Xand’s body, but we also show some footage of when Xand had a colonoscopy. So we try and encourage the kids to encourage their grown-ups to do things that we know save lives, like have colonoscopies and do their poop tests. Getting kids to understand their bodies and respect their bodies, and respect other people’s bodies, certainly feels pretty important to us as parents. And I think that’s the feedback we get from kids. Because everyone in their life, whether it happens when you’re old or when you’re young, most of us, we are all going to face medical problems, and we’re going to have to deal with doctors and hospitals. So demystifying it does feel like a worthwhile way of spending time.”
Operation Ouch Live: Quest for the Jurassic Fart! will be at Her Majesty’s Theatre, this Thursday 23rd of January for three performances.
Dr Xand:
“We are on a quest for the most ancient fart – the largest, biggest, most rare and precious fart produced in 70 million years. You will get about as close as it’s possible to get to seeing a real dinosaur live on stage. Terrible things happen to Dr. Chris throughout the show. We set fire to farts, of course – there’s something for everyone.”
Dr Chris:
“Whether you’re there as a 90-year-old with great-grandchildren or you’re there as a nine-year-old, you will get something out of the show. So it’s pretty participatory and involving…And mainly, it’s very undignified and humiliating…well at least for me.”
Dr Xand:
“Of course we don’t just talk about farts – we’re talking about digestion, healthy eating and fibre and the microbiome. But there is one thing about farts people feel, and that is that they can be really embarrassing. One of the things that we try to focus on in the show is the shame and embarrassment and how these things can stop us doing things that we all need to do. I hope by the end of the show everyone in the room is a bit more equipped to face a stressful or embarrassing situation and deal with it and come out stronger as a result of it. So there’s that kind of scrub block running through the whole show.”
Families all over the world have fallen in love with Operation Ouch, and my family is no different. It has sparked many dinner table conversations and has become regular family viewing. My nine-year-old daughter couldn’t miss the chance to ask the doctors a question of her own. After careful thinking, Miss J was keen to find out from Dr Chris and Dr Xand what has been the most gross experiment or thing they’ve done to each other on the TV show.
Dr Chris:
“There are two really big things. One of them was when we tried to put a nasogastric tube into Xand’s stomach to show that we could suck up stomach acid, and then he was extremely sick. Putting things at the back of your throat can make you sick, so he vomited. We filled about a bucket with vomit before we managed to film the TV show. But then there’s also an experiment we filmed early on where we were showing that most of urine is made of water, and we were distilling the water, so boiling it off and then condensing it, to show that you could drink this water very safely…but we got the experiment wrong and just boiled all of my very concentrated urine into the thing I had to drink. The BBC rules are that we have to show trust with the viewer, where you can’t lie about stuff, so I then had to actually drink the foul concentrated urine in order to prove the experiment. That was a very gross day out indeed.”
Kids of all ages will be blown away by the T-rific educational and entertaining blend of science and fun. This roarsome show will be packed with all-new crazy experiments that will take you back to the age of the dinosaurs as the doctors explore the fascinating world of science like never before. It’s a blast from the past that will make you laugh-a-saurus and gross you out all at the same time!
Operation Ouch Live: Quest for the Jurassic Fart!
Thursday 23 January, 2025
Show time: 1.30pm / 4.00pm / 6.30pm
Further information and tickets can be found at: https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/operation-ouch-live
Photo credit: Mark Senior
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