Tim Rogers’ Fringe show at the Fortuna Spiegeltent is a delightful 90 minutes of Fringe magic, mixing cabaret, comedy and interviews, all through the guise of a fictitious community radio show.

Beginning with commentary of a never-ending cricket match in the township of Bohemia Heights, the show progresses at the charmingly pleasant pace of an engaging test match, drawing the audience in and taking us on occasionally unexpected turns.

Rogers is host of the show, but is supported by a talented ensemble and a range of guests. In fact, the You Am I frontman does very little singing or playing. Aside from a few odes to the missing station mascot dog, most of the performing is left to the exquisite sounds of indie-folk duo the Broads, with voice-over and sound-effect artists filling out the performance. It all gels rather well, with much of the humour coming from Rogers’ love of language.

Amongst all this, Rogers interviews his guests on the ‘radio’ show. On the opening night it was Frank Woodley and Ben Marwe, frontman of Adelaide rock outfit Bad//Dreems. Both interviews were insightful and full of humour, with Rogers demonstrating real rapport with his guests. The other featured act on the bill was from Fringe show, Circus Trick Tease, and in lieu of an interview, Rogers commentated the tricks for the ‘listeners’ in radio-land to great comic effect.

This kind of variety show works really well at Fringe, allowing many of the best elements of festival season to come together in one performance, but only if there is a sense of cohesion to bring it all together. Thankfully, with Rogers we are in safe hands, along with the wonderful group of performers that share the stage.

There is only one more show to go, tonight at 6:30, so don’t miss out! Tickets available here.

4 1/2 stars

By Matthew Trainor