Anthony Bourdain wrote about Waffle House with the kind of admiration that Adelaidians talk about Rhino Room: a bright, unpretentious refuge where you can walk in at any day and be taken care of. Rhino Room Late Show, indeed Rhino Room as a whole, carries that same warm-beacon energy.

It’s a place of safety and nourishment for Fringe nights when you’re a bit inebriated, when you want to keep the party going, feel the need for laughs, or when you just need to sit in the dark and let the room do the work. The lineup changes every show, so you get the festival in full flight: established acts dropping in, new voices having a crack, and the unpredictability that keeps it feeling alive.

And unlike a lot of Fringe venues that vanish when the bump-out trucks arrive, Rhino Room is open all year. The festival might be seasonal, but this place keeps the laugh supply stocked.