Sam Simmons’ Shitty Trivia is an hour full of frenetic comic energy. This mix of two-line gags, short set pieces and absurd costume changes is built around sets of funny trivia questions. These mostly take the form of Q&A gags, like a set of dark Christmas cracker jokes. They illicit a range of reactions from wry grins to unbridled laughter. One or two garner the embarrassed giggle and moan only associated with genuinely off-colour humour (this is not a show for anybody who is doggedly PC).
Simmons’ questions are interspersed with a variety of activities including dance, craft, and asides about what he’s wearing and why. The best of these intermissions are a series of introspective conversations with himself, reflecting on how things are going both in the show and his life more generally.
Not everything in the show is solid gold material, but the standard is generally high and the pace is so fast that there is no chance of the audience getting bored or annoyed. If you didn’t enjoy that joke, well there’ll be anther one along in a second. If this section doesn’t float you boat, don’t worry, the whole format will change in a minute. Colour and movement, that’s the trick. Simmons keeps a firm hold on the audience’s attention simply by always having something new happening on stage.
This quick progress covers one or two weak jokes, but that all fits neatly within the theme of Shitty Trivia. Most of the content is still pretty funny and there are many, many moments when the whole tent is falling about laughing. Simmons engages with his audience but rather than taking the popular tack of mocking his front row, he instead brings the whole tent over to his side, asking questions and skillfully working the responses into his act. By the end of the show, everybody is on Team Simmons.
Shitty Trivia keeps you grinning and chuckling throughout. This is, quite literally and mathematically speaking, laugh a minute comedy.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Sam Simmons – Shitty Trivia
Presented by Token Events
The Garden of Unearthly Delights – Romantiek
15 February – 17 March
Adelaide Fringe
www.adelaidefringe.com.au
15 February – 17 March
