Review: ADELAIDE FRINGE 2016: LATE NIGHT LETTERS AND NUMBERS Is Comically Quizzical

Reviewed by Christine Pyman, Wednesday 24th February 2016

Random number generators couldn't make Late Night Letters and Numbers more random or any more fun. Based on the long-running UK television show, Comedy Countdown, and its Australian spin-off, Letters and Numbers, each night of this show is different, with different guest Adelaide Fringe luminaries making up the panel, and new anagrams for the audiences to puzzle over. The event is held in the Science Exchange Auditorium at RiAus.

The show is a brain teaser, with the audience members pitching themselves against the guest panel, amidst lots of laughter and stand-up comedy, performed whilst sitting down.

Nick Caddaye hosts the show each night with a mixture of great charm, wit, and iron control as the dynamic changes according to the style of humour of the artists.

On this night, the participants were Jason Pestell (Break the Internet) as "the lovely Carol", the long-standing beauty in charge of putting up the letters and numbers on the board, Marcel Blanche de Wilt (Play) and Tessa Waters, who came straight from her performance in Over Promises at the Garden of Unearthly Delights, Gordon Southern (Adelaide Hills Cop II) and Alice Fraser (The Resistance).

The rivalry between contestants Fraser and Southern was intense, but friendly, with a catchphrase of "it's a tie!" called often, as an erroneous in-joke. Adjudicators Blanche de Wilt and Waters showed us how much fun can be had with a dictionary, and had the audience enjoying the impromptu interjections.

Prizes can be won, or not, so jump in, sit back, and sharpen your brains with a drink or two, and enjoy.

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