Comedy Olympics to restart live entertainment at Wollongong Town Hall

After months of gloom, some light-hearted comic relief has been chosen as the first show, with a night of improvised fun for the Comedy Olympics.

The show is unscripted mayhem from Rising Arts Productions, with the audience choosing the direction of skits - similar to TV's Thank God You're Here or Whose Line Is It Anyway.

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"Everyone's been desperate to get back in and see a theatre show, to see comedy," said creative director Jarrod Riesinger.

"Something like this is the perfect gateway back, where it's a little bit light-hearted and a little bit silly and everyone can forget about all those isolation blues we've all been experiencing."

Comedians will be split into teams, with many recognisable faces from the Illawarra stand-up comedy circuit.

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Each group will perform in the hope of winning the audience over and being awarded a gold, silver or bronze award by the judges.

"Before each skit we get suggestions from the audience, so it could be as simple as 'what's a weird location to go on a date', or 'what's a prized possession'," Riesinger said.

"Those suggestions form the basis of all of our scenes. So the audience gets to pick and choose what they want to see our comedians enact off the top of their heads."

The show was originally planned for earlier in the year to coincide with the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics. It was picked to reopen the venue due to its ease to put together quickly in response to changing pandemic restrictions.

Rising Arts Productions are the same company who brought the Shame of Thrones comedy night to the Illawarra in 2019.

Other events in at Merrigong venues for September and October include The Voice winner Chris Sebastian in concert, Puppetry of the Penis and the world-premiere of Circa's new contemporary circus work, Sacre.

The Comedy Olympics is at Wollongong Town Hall on Friday, September the 11 at 8pm.

For tickets and more information visit: www.merrigong.com.au

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