The tastefully retro cafe,
E is for Ethel was the setting for the Fringe stand up comedy hour. Our delightfully floral, bubbly hostess, Suzie (comedy by
Four Stripes team, Caitlin Armstrong and Maddie Nixon) generously passed out plastic cups and offered a wine degustation of sorts. Three courses of comedy with the perfect pairing of cheap, nasty flashback inducing Goon.
Wait, you don't know what Goon is? Oh, but you do! You've just blocked it out of your memory, like I had. I had successfully blanked out numerous mindless experiences from my youth. And then there was '
The Show Must Goon.' And it all came flooding back like a Tsunami of hangover-worthy artificial, fruity, overly sweet cask wine, aka Goon. And if it still doesn't sound familiar you really need to go see this show.
Youthful memories. Wine tasting. A sense of solidarity.
You may or may not have experienced the horror of humiliating lovelorn, tipsy(mildly stated), clueless moments in your youth. Suzie certainly did. And she takes us on an intricately detailed, graphic, no-holds-barred, "please make it stop" rollercoaster ride of her early life with the actual three courses of wines that accompanied her there. I personally politely declined the third. You can't help but be polite as she is such a lovely lady the way she generously shares all those moments.
Caitlin Armstrong on stage in more sane times.
As effervescent Suzie's life story progresses, she transitions effortlessly into some quirky serenades, or what she calls, her ukelele interludes - the soundtrack of her life. She is a good ukelele player incidentally, and has a beautiful voice. But her true talent is that rare ability to relive for us all the awkward, horrifying scenarios that have made her the empowered wonderful person she is today, hopefully.
The Show Must Goon recyclable, reuseable tickets.
Our heroine brings up all those chunder inducing moments, and so much more. And by 'so much more' I mean this would be considered by some people WAY TOO MUCH information.
We laughed, she cried, we felt bad that we'd laughed, our hearts broke for her and her hapless love story, our stomachs churned and then churned some more. 'The Show Must Goon' is quite a cathartic experience.
The Show Must Goon, only till Feb 22. Get your tickets
Go and live vicariously through Suzie if you never got up to all that mischief. Go and see her show if you did, to reassure yourself that what you thought was shameful about your youth really wasn't all that bad at all in comparison. If you are about to enter the world of parties and all that, go see her show for some well-timed hints and tips about what not to mix with bubblegum cordial, and so much more.
'
The Show Must Goon' is playing at
E is for Ethel in Melbourne St., Nth Adelaide from Friday, Feb 13 to Sunday, Feb 21.
Book through
FringeTIX.
Be warned, I am not kidding when I tell you this is graphically told. Let Suzie explain.
