A COMEDY show turned into a night spent with unbelievable freaks for our journo, Sonny Coombs.

What a marvellous time to be a South Australian.

Adelaide is absolutely electric during February/March with the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Clipsal, WOMADelaide, Adelaide Writer's Week and much more.

This year a friend and I bought tickets to see comedian Cal Wilson's show Undercurrents in the Garden of Unearthly Delights.

The former Channel 7 Slideshow regular gave us a look into her kooky world, joking about everything from her family life, localised Adelaide digs and a few eyebrow-raising jokes with political undercurrents.

Cal is clearly a seasoned professional and was well-equipped to handle one drunk straight-from-Clipsal heckler.

We then ventured out into the Garden which has a great atmosphere and I felt welcomed despite not being a trendy, Triple J-listening hipster.

After a stroll we decided to venture into the Sideshow Wonderland freak show which was so wrong but so memorable.

You could just walk up, buy a ticket for $10 and enter the next show, each of which went for about 20 minutes.

We were greeted by the Guinness World Record-holding Space Cowboy, who promptly shoved a sword down his throat.

He returned later in the show with a pile of weights attached to cables with fish hooks on the end.

He opened up his vest to reveal nipple rings, from which you think would be painful enough to lift weights.

However, it got worse -- actually, better in a weird way -- when pulled his eyelids back and inserted the fishhooks in his eye sockets!

After lifting the weights off the floor using his eye sockets the crowd erupted with applause. He proceeded to swing the weights from side to side as if it were normal.

Other memorable performances included hammering a nail into one's nose cartilage and a burlesque dance with massive snakes.

The best way I can describe the show is like an eclipse of the sun -- you know you shouldn't look but you just can't help yourself.

The Adelaide Fringe Festival is on until March 15.

 

THE Copper Coast could soon have the only pet cemetery in South Australia.

 

PARTICIPATION in sport and physical recreation has declined, according to figures released by the Aus­tralian Bureau of Statistics.

THE Australian Red Cross blood service mobile donor centre will no longer visit Ardrossan, Maitland or Yorketown as part of a major overhaul.

Yorke Peninsula Softball Association and Northern Yorke Peninsula Tennis Association junior and senior finals start on Saturday.

 

IN honour of season two of the Real Housewives of Melbourne premiering on Sunday night I have taken the time to review some of the other instalments of the show.

I spent the past few weeks studying the first season of each instalment I could get my hands on. I'll admit I had trouble obtaining the short-lived Real Housewives of DC and international series such as the Real Housewives of Isreal, Athens, Vancouver and France.

The show follows the extravagant, drama-filled lives of wealthy women.

It started with The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2006. Within six years there were seven US city instalments of the show.

 

Real Housewives, from worst to best:

7. Orange County

My least favourite for the fact it is the first instalment and producers were still working out the direction of the show.

6. Miami

I didn't dislike this instalment but it was obvious some of the storylines were fabricated and some of the characters were just out for their 15 minutes of fame. During the reunion special all was revealed and the claws really came out.

5. New Jersey

Everything is better with a New Jersey accent. I'd contribute the show's success to housewife Teresa Giudice who changed the direction of the franchise when she flipped a table and ranted against another cast member. She is so vital to the show there has been talk of shelving the show while Teresa does a stint in prison!

4. Melbourne

I wanted to make this number one because it is home grown but, while watching, I realised how bogan Australians are. These women claim to be all class but it's clearly the opposite. The producers handpicked a great cast. They threw a cat among the pigeons by including psychic Jackie Gillies, wife of Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies, who has no filter.

3. Atlanta

Atlanta is full of huge personalities and features a predominately African-American cast. The characters are over the top but that just adds to the entertainment value.

2. New York City

What happens when you put five women with superiority complexes together? You get drama, drama and more drama especially when you mix "old money" with a pretentious social climbers.

1. Beverly Hills

Probably the most glamorous and affluent housewives of the franchise. These women have overinflated egos and aren't afraid of conflict. British restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump's dry wit adds to the excitement while Kelsey Grammar's now-ex wife Camille is the clear villain and provides excellent viewing.

THE heat rule for sport scored a hat-trick as temperatures again exceeded 38 degrees on Saturday.  

 

  A PROPOSAL to divert traffic away from Port Wakefield during the Easter period has been scrapped.