Read The Room at the 2020 Adelaide Fringe!

Buy tickets to Read The Room here: www.jasonchong.com.au/tickets

It’s been 5 years since I performed at a festival. 2015. Holy smokes. Weber, who I did “Blowhards” with had another child. It’s probably in it’s early 20s by now.

A lot has happened – I worked for 2 years as Broadcast / Digital Manager at Channel 44 and another year as the Digital Content Producer Mix1023. I learnt heaps and worked with some great people, but the hours meant not much performing for ol’ Chongas.

In 2019, I started a room called The Black Box Experiment – www.theblackboxexperiment.com.au where I worked with a new Adelaide creative each month to develop a TV show idea in front of a live audience. Then we’d film the last show of the month with the help of Channel 44 and end up with a TV pilot. There are some really good shows in there and I really should have posted about it here, but you can see how it all went at the BBX website.

Read The Room is one of those shows. It’s an idea that I’ve wanted to try for years, and it’s kinda the reason why I set the whole Experiment up. And it turns out it’s really good.

Here’s the gist: I ask curly questions to the audience, and they answer them through their phones (because technology exists now!). Then contestants on try to see if they can pick which way The Room swings. There are variations on that theme – “would you rathers”, moral dilemmas, comparing this crowd to the national average, but essentially it’s REALLY fun – the audiences have been really positive about it, and I’m loving hosting it.

I’ve got a really fun sizzle reel (below) that I’ve started pitching around to production companies and TV networks, but in the meantime I’ve chosen to do a 2 week run at the Adelaide Fringe to get the show in front of more people and tinker with the format even more.

So here we are! Starting on Valentine’s Day and running for 2 weeks, you can catch Read The Room in Gluttony. Every show will have different guests, and new questions, so if you enjoy it, you’re more than welcome to come again!

On Wednesday Feb 19th I’ve got an Auslan interpreter coming along which will be a first for me, and towards the end of the season, I’m going to live stream a show so you’ll be able to cast your votes from OUTSIDE The Room. I’m still locking down a date for that one, so like my page at www.facebook.com/jasonchongcomedy so you’ll get updates and that’s where the video will be.

I’d love to hear what you think of it – it’s the thing that I’m most passionate and excited about at the moment, but come help me make it even better for TV!

And of course, it’s more fun with more people in The Room voting, so bring your mates too!

You can get tickets here: www.jasonchong.com.au/tickets