By Jessica Taurins
Presented by Grouse House and Aunty Donna, ‘The Most Upsetting Guessing Game in the World Live’ is, somehow, simultaneously incredibly amusing and incredibly unsettling at the same time.
It’s great!
For those who haven’t seen the show, it’s fully available on YouTube now, and you can go and take a look. Go on, I can wait.
If you choose not to watch that, which, fair enough, the general concept of the show is this: there is a party, with a host, and some guests. The guests, unbeknownst to the host, all embody bizarre traits, some of which can be physical, or mental, or involve other people at the party. The host, based on what the guests do, has to guess the traits. Simple enough, right?
Well, you would be wrong. Some of the traits start off easily enough, like “allergic to”, but end with something so batshit that it’s almost impossible to guess without spelling it out – which of course, nobody is allowed to do. Some of the traits are multiple full sentences of absurd, unrelated pieces of information, ending in word games played with the host so they can guess an obscure name, or entirely related to one specific location that would be completely unguessable if the host didn’t live in Melbourne.
Again, it’s great.
With game host Mark Bonanno, party host Mish Wittrup, and guests Gillian Cosgriff, Broden Kelly, and Zac Ruane, the insanity of it all simply can’t be contained.
The audience are advised not to interfere with the show by shouting out answers, but otherwise there are no rules. We laugh, we cry, we cringe when Wittrup gets so close but can’t pull together the phrase ‘contract year’ despite all the incredible clues provided… it’s a great event.
Kelly and Ruane, as two thirds of Aunty Donna, are well used to the kind of absurdism that permeates their shows. Wittrup as well has worked with the trio for some time, most recently in ABC show Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe, but she was also in an episode of the Upsetting Guessing Game online.
Cosgriff on the other hand, seems brand new to it all, but was the glue that held the entire thing together. When Kelly and Ruane were too focused on the wrong things, Cosgriff would pop in with an innocuous sentence that somehow filled in all the gaps in Wittrup’s brain and helped her solve the horrible, unsolvable prompt that is “Zac is wearing Lynx Lavender: for the menopausal woman”.
As Wittrup discovers each prompt, her infectious enthusiasm bursts into the audience and cheers erupt from the crowd. It was like the world’s strangest AFL game where people would scream for the smallest step forward to discovering some other bizarre thing in someone’s brain.
Due to the one-hour time limit on the show, some prompts are rushed through at the end, but it’s no less funny to watch the team scramble. Everyone steps in with improv to help out, even if the prompt isn’t theirs, and the teamwork and camaraderie is immaculate given that they’re trying to help Mish understand what cream crown is. (It’s not a thing, that’s what it is.)
‘The Most Upsetting Guessing Game in the World Live’ is what it says on the box. It’s a game, it’s live, and it is pretty upsetting both for the players and the audience, who have to desperately keep their mouths shut so as not to give anything away. But on the whole, the show is a laugh riot and well worth catching on YouTube as the entire run is completely sold out for this year. Perhaps next year.
