Late Night Letters and Numbers, April 29, 2012 *

The John Curtin Hotel, Carlton, Thursdays until April 19, 2012

Reviewed by Joe Calleri

Published online in Herald Sun on March 30, 2012 4:10PM

Stars: *

Viewers of SBS’s game show, Letters and Numbers, should feel right at home with Late Night Letters and Numbers.

For those unfamiliar with the game show’s format, contestants are challenged by first forming numbers from nine letters, and then asked to arrive at a particular three digit number by adding, subtracting, and/or multiplying a series of other numbers within a tight time limit.

Five comedians, Brenna Courtney Glazebrook, host Nick Caddaye, Ben Mackenzie (who acts as board master and who appeared on the SBS show) and contestants Neil Sinclair and Tripod’s Scott Edgar, have stolen the game show’s concept, but failed to do anything worthy, witty or playful with it.

Rather than satirise the TV show mercilessly (the TV show is somewhat dry and unappealing, except if you have a predilection for mind games), the comedians while seemingly amusing themselves on-stage, forget to actually engage their audience.

The end result is an unfunny, hour-long, repetitive shambles.

The sole highlight of this performance was the impressive anagram solving and numerical skills displayed by several audience members. Hence the single star this show receives.

Stars: ★