The Thrilling Adventure Hour ends its live tours in New Zealand

The Thrilling Adventure Hour ends its live tours in New Zealand

Marc Evan Jackson, Molly Quinn and Ben Acker

One of the stars of Castle, currently premiering on TVNZ OnDemand every Monday, is getting ready to tread the boards in Auckland and Wellington.

Molly Quinn, who plays Alexis, Rick Castle’s daughter in the hit TV ONE show, is in New Zealand as part of The Thrilling Adventure Hour show, which plays its last ever live shows in the capital this weekend.

The show, which began 10 years ago, is the brainchild of two American writers, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, who wrote a screenplay for a space western called Sparks Nevada and asked some of their actor friends to read it for them.

That then evolved into a regular troupe of players, including Paget Brewster who appeared on TV ONE’s Criminal Minds and Marc Evan Jackson who plays the titular character in Sparks Nevada and who appears on TV2’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Now 20 of the original cast and crew have landed in New Zealand for their last ever live show dates.

The show, which used to play every month at a club in Los Angeles, is described as a stage show in the style of an old time radio broadcast, and has included an array of guest actors including Oscar winner JK Simmons and Kiwi actress Melanie Lynskey. Currently, there are around 200 podcasts available.

Evan Jackson says they’re excited to bring the show to New Zealand and its fans, even though they don’t know what to anticipate from an audience down under – but they guarantee it’ll be great fun.
“The show’s tremendous fun to do, it’s an awesomely convivial back stage hang out. It’s not really coming to an end though, in my mind, it’s evolving into its next phase.”

Scripts for the show are usually handed to the actors relatively close to performance, something which Quinn, a five year member of the troupe, says keeps them all on their toes.  

“For me, I love the turn around. If you give me a script weeks in advance, I am going to work on it every single day – and it’s not good, I probably shouldn’t. It’s like this on Castle too, we don’t get stuff until the day before which drives me insane. But it’s the writing of the Thrilling Adventure Hour, which means I don’t have to worry about it – it’s extremely  rare to get this, it’s one of a kind.”

Creator Acker expects the audience will embrace their old style show, which includes fans cosplaying as their favourite characters.

“Being in a room with these actors doing this show, you get caught up in the energy, watching people reading from scripts – it feels like The Muppet Show. We are as big a fans of the fans as they are of the show.”

The Thrilling Adventure Hour plays its Improv nights in Auckland today at 7pm and 9pm, and its live show at the Logan Campbell Centre tomorrow at 8pm, before heading to Wellington's Opera House for shows on Friday and Saturday. 

All ticket info: www.thrillingadventurehour.com/downunder

Shows tonight (Improv at Classic Comedy), Wednesday (Logan Campbell, Auckland) & Saturday (Opera House, Wellington). Tickets available for all. 

Get more information and tickets here.