It seems that this year more than ever the Adelaide Fringe has become a festival of two classes. The large, world-travelled, mega-budgeted shows that grab only the best, highly trained performers from all around the globe. And then the acts for which the Adelaide Fringe was originally created: smaller, local artists, who put more money and love into their art form than they will probably get out. The ones whose shows are not highly polished but real, raw, and unashamedly themselves. The latter is the kind of show that Seedoeatreview particularly loves, and on Saturday night it came in the form of Liquored Up Late.

Maybe I should have guessed by its alcohol fuelled title, or maybe the show's motto ‘powered by pussy’ should have given it away, but I didn’t realise the type of show I was getting until the ‘no photos and no recording’ announcement was made. I had no idea how utterly ridiculous, sexually charged and outrageously fun Liquored Up Late would be. A lot of the time there was no rhyme or reason something was happening, it just did, and most of the time it left the crowds in fits of laughter. Yes, some of the transitions may not have been the smoothest, but how could you not enjoy a bit of cat burlesque from Bella Dejac, Sean Down Under singing songs about genitalia, or Vivienne Star getting the crowd to sing along to her country version of ‘my neck, my back’.

And just to break up the show a little, Liquored Up Late threw in a quiet, sensual segment of BDSM for good measure from Savannah Chase and Evelyn Cheek. As mentioned in an earlier review, which also included BDSM, the audience never seems to know how to react to these types of taboo performances. It just seems wrong to clap as someone is getting whipped (to me anyway) but the performers in this segment really made their act feel like one of love rather than just purely entertainment.

Liquored Up Late may not do things as cleanly as other Adelaide Fringe acts do, figuratively or literally, but they sure bring a hell of a lot of fun and laughs to the stage. This is the type of show that harkens back to the days of old-school Fringe, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously and brings everyone along for the sexually-charged ride.

FOUR STARS ****

Reviewed by Shane Berketa