NUMBSKULL
Valhalla, 152 Vivian Street, Te Aro, Wellington
10/03/2021 - 13/03/2021
Production Details
This cocktail quiz show is the first stop for a guaranteed fun night out! Let fate decide where the wheel will land as we watch our contestants stumble through questions of history, science, culture, and more surrounding iconic cocktails from around the world and throughout pop culture.
Join us for a night of drinks, trivia, and more than a few bad puns while we have some fun and raise money for a good cause! This show is meant to be a safe and fun environment to get together, laugh, and try some new cocktails.
It is extremely important to the team at Numbskull that we stress safe and responsible drinking.
Guest Judge: TBD
Other Performers (contestants change each night):
Barbeque Boys: Sean Dugdale-Martin, Austin Harrison, and Dylan Hutton
VS
One Way Ticket to Mars: Abby Lyons, Amy McLean, and Ashton Marla
Valhalla, 152 Vivian Street, Wellington
10th-13th March 2021
7:30pm
Tickets can be purchased at the door or via this link: https://fringe.co.nz/show/numbskull
Emily K. Brown is a director/performer from Chicago who has been living in Wellington since 2019. When she isn’t hosting this cocktail quiz show, you can find her working as a 111 Emergency Operator or binging true crime podcasts in her free time (since she apparently doesn’t get enough of that at work…). She is also a proud member of the Wellington Footlights where she has most recently performed in their 2020 Revue: Silver Linings: Songs from the Silver Screen. Other past credits include: This is Our Youth (director), 4.48 Psychosis (director), and Dogfight (director). If you have enjoyed her in Numbskull and want to see more, you can see her production of Tennessee William’s Suddenly Last Summer with Wellington Repertory Theatre in August 2021.
Theatre ,
Do cocktails make you prescient?
Review by Margaret Austin 11th Mar 2021
Is there such a thing as a cocktail quiz show? Yes, apparently, and it’s called Numbskull. I’m an early arrival at Valhalla, and tonight’s contestants are receiving their briefing. I make my way cautiously through the dark to the bar, and note the presence of what I would have called the sound and lighting board if I hadn’t been rescued by its operator who tells me it’s a music mixing desk.
Hmmm… so cocktails aren’t the only things being mixed this evening.
Our MC, Emily K Brown, presides at the stage end of the darkness and introduces her two teams: three Milky Detectives (male) and three Deliriously Driven (females). There’s a wheel at stage back featuring names of twelve cocktails, and stage front holds a tableful of bottles – alcoholic and non – plus Valhalla’s resident cocktails expert. She’s the judge.
We’re to experience three cocktails-in-the making. Each pair of contestants has three minutes to produce their idea of whatever the spinning wheel instructs. First up is a Tom Collins. A Milky Detective spills half a bottle of gin over himself in his enthusiasm. Luckily, he’s bare chested – well, he’s got braces – and receives an assiduous mopping.
The three minutes up, and our MC and judge offer their reactions. Never mind accuracy of ingredients; it’s the alcoholic impact that counts. It’s acceptable, evidently, and everyone gets the chance to agree. Then it’s on to the trivia, which must relate to Tom or Collins. We get to learn that Colin Firth turned down his role in Bridget Jones’ Diary to begin with but changed his mind later. Perhaps after a cocktail or two?
There are two cocktails to go, and more trivia. At what other kind of occasion would you learn what two animals it takes to produce a mule, the monk Rasputin’s first name or which plays Anton Chekhov did not write?
What I learned is that designated drivers get free drinks (non-alcoholic). Oh, and from this morning’s Dompost, that Wellington is hosting a highball cocktail and spirits festival in May.
As well as giving you an alcoholic buzz, do cocktails make you prescient?
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