A three-time winner of WAM Jazz Song Of The Year, Western Australian jazz musician Harry Mitchell has performed with notable artists such as Vincent Gardner, Jerome Jennings, Kate Ceberano, Veronica Swift, George Garzone, Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones), Katy Steele (Little Birdy) and Damien Leith.
In 2017 he was awarded Young Australian Jazz Musician Of The Year at the Bell Awards. In 2018 and 2019 he was awarded WAM Best Pianist.With four albums released with his quartet/ quintet groups as well as three trio records with his group featuring Ben Vanderwal and Karl Florisson, Harry arrives at the 2020 Perth International Jazz Festival next week with his Quintet to present new material from their upcoming release 'Emergence'.
Here, Harry indulges us with his love of abstract sports he thinks should be in the Olympics.
1: Competitive eating
The current record is held by Joey Chestnut. He ate 71 hot dogs at the 2019 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in 10 minutes, 3 shy of the world record he set in 2018 by eating 74 hot dogs."I was feeling good today," Chestnut said minutes after eating nearly 21,000 calories worth of food. What a spectacle that would be.
2: Chess Boxing
As the name suggests, competitors in chess boxing combine the disciplines of chess and boxing.Each round of chess is followed by a three-minute round of boxing. You can win by a KO or by checkmate.
3: Competitive roller shutter sales
I invented this one after being endlessly harassed by a roller shutter salesman.The rules are:
• Each contestant gets one hour to sell as many roller shutters as possible
• Contestants can call the same number as many times as they like
• One sale = ten points, one hang up = minus one point
• Buyers have a ten-minute cooling off period. If they cancel the sale in that time then there are no points awarded.
4: Slow Cycling
This is a thing in the Netherlands. The rules are your feet are not allowed to touch the ground and your bicycle needs to stay within the provided boundaries. To win you must come last.5: Competitive snare drumming
I invented this one too. Similar to the beep test for fitness, the beep in this competition is the metronome.Contestants must play semiquavers at 180 beats per minute, with the click increasing by 2 bpm every minute. It's about endurance and speed.
The last person still drumming in time at the highest bpm is the winner.
