Miss Behave's Gameshow
Cabaret Festival
Be prepared to do what it takes to help your team win at this hilarious, disco-themed gameshow – and you can leave your phone on.
As the audience files into the Space Theatre, iPhone users are instructed to sit on the right and “other phone” users and those with no phone to the left.
What is happening is that the audience is being divided into two teams. Yes, this is a real gameshow that requires audience participation.
You might think the method of dividing the audience is biased, with iPhone users obviously making up the greater team, but Gameshow host Miss Behave will make things fair, or unfair, depending on how the show rolls. While the aim of the game is the same at every Miss Behave’s Gameshow the rules can change on a whim and your experience will depend very much on the dynamic of the audience on the night.
Miss Behave (the alter-ego of producer and performer Amy Saunders) is dressed in 1970s disco-style gold-sequinned knickerbockers and turban, and her timid knock-kneed assistant “Harriet” with full moustache and nerd glasses wears the shortest black leather shorts with white ankle socks, school shoes and a pink plush toy animal backpack.
While the audience settles into their seats and wonders if they have the right kind of phone, Miss Behave and Harriet are still fussing around setting up their props, hand-drawn signs on recycled cardboard and stacks of old cartons.
Miss Behave opens the show by throwing sweets to whoever puts their hand up and offers prizes to those who have the courage to stand up and claim them. This is a warm-up for the game show that absolutely encourages rivalry and self-promotion.
Miss Behave is the quiz master and points are scored for right answers, wrong answers and thinking outside the square. The subject is popular culture and the audience is encouraged to use their phones to advantage or actually do anything they like to gain extra points.
Between sets, Harriet’s shy mincing turns to high-energy tongue-in-cheek mimickry, taking off the dance routines of stars such as Beyonce and Sia to great delight from the audience.
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Miss Behave and Harriet are really funny, but the audience proves even funnier. The format of the gameshow allows some fluidity, and given the opportunity, people can go a little bit mad and do the most unexpected things. But Miss Behave teases out the audience then manages the mayhem with a mastery that is quite remarkable.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what type of phone you have, what you will take away from Miss Behave’s Gameshow is an experience of pure unbridled fun. Highly recommended.
Miss Behave’s Gameshow is showing at the Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, until June 18 as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
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