Natalie Barr was left screaming during Sunrise on Thursday morning when she was hit with a shocking surprise live on TV.
The Seven Breakfast show host, 56, received a large Christmas present from co-host Matt ‘Shirvo’ Shirvington, hidden under a sheet and a bow on a table.
But when she pulled off the red velvet sheet in her surprise, Nat screamed when she discovered that there was a contortionist performer underneath.
The fun started when Shirvo, 46, giggled as he joked: “I think it’s time to see what’s under Santa’s sack now.”
He then gestured to the red sheet covering a huge mass that looked like a box on a table and said, “Go for it. I couldn’t be happier about this.”
“That sounded really weird,” Nat laughed. “I have no idea what this is.”
Natalie Barr, 56, was left screaming on Sunrise on Thursday morning when she was hit with a shocking surprise live on TV
As she grabbed the edges of the sheet and prepared to wipe it off, Shirvo warned her to “be gentle,” prompting her to ask, “Is there a person?”
“No, what are you talking about?” Shirvo said.
But Nat screamed as she ripped the sheet off, revealing it was actually a person tangled in a human knot, “What the hell is that?!”
“It’s a human,” Shirvo said as the contortionist untwisted his body and began to exhibit a shocking display of flexibility.
“It’s what?” Nat cried. “Oh my goodness, God. Oh, sugar. Oh wow. Oh my God. It’s a person.’
The light-hearted moment comes after Nat opened up about the ongoing debates over Australia Day, calling on the government to decide whether it should be celebrated.
Her comments followed the ruling by Australian Venue Co, which owns more than 200 pubs across the country, saying the January 26 public holiday is causing “sadness” and “pain” for many customers and that it would not be the national holiday .
‘Here we go again. This happens every year,” Nat said during an interview with Labor senator Murray Watt on Monday morning, before asking him if he supported the pub company’s move.
The Seven Breakfast show host received a large Christmas present from co-host Matt ‘Shirvo’ Shirvington, hidden under a sheet and a bow on a table. But as she pulled off the red velvet sheet in her surprise, Nat started screaming about what she discovered
“It’s a human,” Shirvo said as the contortionist untwisted his body and began to display a shocking display of flexibility
‘It seems like the culture war starts earlier every year. We’re not even into January and it’s already started,” Senator Watt explained.
“I think it’s a decision for every company to decide what they want to do. This company has decided that they don’t want to have any Australia Day celebrations, but there will be plenty of other locations around the country that will.
“I’ll leave it up to those companies to make their decisions, and their customers will make their own decisions about where they go that day.”
But Nat was unimpressed by this response and called on the government to make a decision once and for all on that day.
‘Why would you leave this to every company? Do we need a ruling on this? Every year we tear our hair out because of the argument.’
Senator Watt reaffirmed his position, warning Nat that the Government risked violating people’s freedoms by telling pub owners what to do.
‘It’s annoying that we have a fight every year. Like I said, it’s even December and we’re getting into it,” he said.
‘But our government is not going to dictate to pubs what to do, we don’t live in North Korea.
‘We’re not going to get a government telling pubs what to do on certain days of the week.’
Venues boycotting Australia Day include Bungalow8, Cargo, Kingsley’s Woolloomooloo and Parkside Hotel in Sydney, as well as the Esplanade Hotel, Prince of Wales, Duke of Wellington and Garden State Hotel in Melbourne.
The Claremont Hotel and Bassendean Hotels in Perth, the Regatta Hotel, the Boundary Hotel and Fridays riverside bar in Brisbane will also avoid the festivities, as will the Parkside Hotel and the Colonist in Adelaide.