Presented by Adapt Enterprises Pty Ltd
Reviewed 21 February 2020
Late Night Comedy is back for Fringe 2020 featuring local artist and promoter, Ross Voss, as emcee, crowd ‘fluffer’ and glue for the show. This year, it again features a line-up of rotating comedians, both local and special guests in town for the Fringe. What’s great about this is that every performance is different meaning you can go several times and see different acts at each performance.
The line-up for its Friday night debut included local comedians Brian Pritchard, Pam Pudney, Gav Beyer and feature act, Malcolm ‘Mad Dog’ Cummings. Voss performed his own comedy between sets to keep the energy high, regaling the audience with tales about why his stage name is ‘Voss’ when his full name is Vossvotekas. He’s heard many interpretations of his surname, including ‘Voss-va-tea-cups’, so he’s shown mercy and made it easy for everyone.
Brian Pritchard kicked the night off with his vast array of one-liners. He did wonderfully well simply to remember so much material and covered topics as diverse as Princess Diana, to what 30 years of marriage can do to you, to having sex with you mother. Yes, people, it’s a late show!
Pam Pudney hails from Mount Gambier and her set was really for the older women in the audience. Pam loves late night shows at the Fringe because, generally, the audience is quite drunk and it’s easy laughs for her! She touched on topics ranging from menopause to dating in later life to looking after the grandkids. A great set from Pam.
Gav Beyer delivered a polished set that entertained the audience with tales of his disgraceful, drunken young adult years, to the reliable husband and father he is today. His story about the process of having a vasectomy had the audience in stitches and heckles from the crowd indicated many wanted more from Gav.
Feature act of the night was straight from the 1970s. Dressed in a tight Hawaiian shirt, bell-bottomed jeans and simply terrible wig, ‘Mad Dog’ Malcolm Cunnings brought the class of Ron Burgundy to the show. This act was when everyone realised why it was a late show — there were parts that were so controversial that I didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe, which is possibly the point. He risked a crowd riot with his original song ‘Menstruation The Musical’, with a portion of the audience threatening to boo him off stage and the other half laughing hysterically. At the end of his set, one man commented that it was the best $20 he’d ever spent.
Late Night Comedy was a great way to end a night out at the Fringe and if you’re looking for dinner before the show, the Astor has awesome food, including a $10 specials menu. While I can’t comment on what you might get on another night of Late Night Comedy due to the rotating line-up, Friday was awesome and I’m sure future shows will be of a similar calibre. Four comedians plus Voss-va-teacups for twenty bucks is a good deal these days, it provides a sampler with something for everyone and if you like what you see, you can always look up the artists’ individual Fringe shows. Support locals during our Fringe, I say, and go get your funnies on at Late Night Comedy.
Reviewed by Samantha Bond
Twitter: @SamStaceyBond
Rating out of 5: 4.5
Venue: Astor Hotel
Season: Fri & Sat nights, 21 Feb – 14 March
Duration: 60 mins
Tickets: $20
Bookings: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/late-night-comedy-af2020
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