Review: TOD Talks at Studio Underground

Review by Tatum Stafford

Having seen it on the Fringe World line-up for years, I was excited to finally give TOD Talks a go on their Sunday evening show – and it was definitely a fun way to spend an hour. 

The premise for TOD Talks is simple; five comedians have to give a ‘TOD’ (aka TED) talk each, but there’s a catch – none of them know what the subject of their talk will be about. During their talk, the presenters have to speak to a series of PowerPoint slides that they’ve never seen before (and that are truly chaotic), and have to make use of a random prop, that they must tie into their topic. For obvious reasons, the show is dubbed ‘a masterclass in shit talking’. 

Our MC for the evening was Owen Merriman, one of the creators of TOD Talks and someone who clearly respected how difficult the task that lay ahead of the night’s volunteer speakers was. 

On the night I attended, the line-up featured Zeppo, Macshane, Hana Priest, MrSikkant and Kate Smurthwaite. The topics ranged from adulthood and Bunnings sausages, to pushing Elmo under a bus, and each speaker put in admirable effort to make the audience laugh and connect seemingly unconnectable slides. 

Zeppo took out the win for the night (thanks to a clever bit of audience participation in judging), and blew the audience away with an incredibly witty and convincing speech about the ‘magic’ of Bunnings snags. Shout-out to Hana Priest, who revealed that she volunteered to take part not because she was a comedian, but because she was a fire performer who thought this sounded like a challenge. Huge respect!

An improvised TOD talk is no easy feat, and it was clear the audience were on the side of the performers which gave the show a really human, wholesome, supportive vibe that was really lovely to be part of. Kudos to Owen and the team who created this show, it’s clear why it has become a Fringe staple and I’ll definitely be back to see it in future years. 

Image Supplied