“Terrible ideas, improvised” is the all-too accurate slogan for this TED Talks spoof that sets up comedians, improv artists and other guests to present themselves as experts on a surprise topic that is partly chosen by the audience. The line-up changes each night, but this time MC Owen Merriman began the evening by introducing contestants Robyn Perkins, Max Paton, Katie Currie, Cirque Songstress and Stephen B Platt who warmed up with a game of Lingo Bingo. Each artist was assigned a made-up word that may or may not have been used in an actual TED Talk. After providing a definition for it, they then had to guess if the word had been used; their success also deciding the order of performance for the evening. From Addictionary to Sprummer, the exercise gave a peak into the creativity of each artist and prepped the audience for the presentations to follow. Audience ideas completed each partially written topic, resulting in outlandish presentations on How I became a world expert in playing dead, Why you should try bird watching on a first date, and How I used straight men to create my global empire, amongst others. The presenters each spoke for up to 5 minutes, referencing a PowerPoint slideshow they’d never seen and having to use an irrelevant prop like a lantern, stress ball or tambourine to demonstrate their point. As one would expect in such a venture, note every joke lands, but most do, with some artists faring better than others. Each provided plenty of laughs, with just a few tense moments of hesitation by the less experienced guests. Surprisingly, it was Western Australian university lecturer Stephen B Platt, not a performance artist, who won the evening by audience vote with his lecture on How I smuggled Ryan Reynolds over the border. His quick wit and zany storytelling style was unparalleled as his tale twisted and turned in line with the random PowerPoint slides he had to speak to. TOD Talks is an improv exercise that entertains to a large degree but will vary from night to night depending on the skills of the guests and the topics they have to sprout about. No doubt, there will be many laughs each night but there’s always the potential for lots of cringe-worthy moments too. Either way, it’s adults-only entertainment of the lowest, laughable class.