Young Australian comedians and impertinent oenophiles Sweeney Preston and Ethan Cavanagh are sitting in their downtown Fort Lauderdale Airbnb on Thursday, hours before their Broward Center debut of \u201cIn Pour Taste: A Comedy Wine Tasting Experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
They are among the few people in South Florida this week escaping the heat \u2014 they flew in Wednesday night from their hometown, Melbourne, where temperatures in the region were over 110 degrees. It\u2019s a problem for which they have a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re drinking as much wine as we can to forget about it. If you drink enough, the scales will tip and it will probably fix itself,\u201d Preston says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Pour Taste,\u201d a hit from New York to Toronto and, most recently, Las Vegas, is a wine tasting led by local experts, with irreverent \u201chelp\u201d from Preston and Cavanagh, popular fixtures on the Australian club and festival scene.<\/p>\n
At the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, the audience will be seated in the intimate Abdo New River Room in a chummy arrangement of 45 four-top tables, with performances on Thursdays to Sundays, through Jan. 25. Each ticket includes five wine tastings and a personal charcuterie board (vegetarian and alcohol-free options available).<\/p>\n
Among the local wine mavens scheduled to take part are Jayne Perez and Matt Newport of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, A.J. Mindermann of The Wine Group and Ferrian Carletta of Constellation Brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Pour Taste: A Comedy Wine Tasting Experience\u201d has launched the new boundary-pushing\u00a0Broward Off Center series<\/a>, which focuses on immersive productions and audience participation.<\/p>\n In advance of their opening, we posed a few questions via Zoom to Preston and Cavanagh, both 27 (Preston turns 28 in a week). And they had answers. (The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.)<\/p>\n Q: Where did the idea for this show come from?<\/p>\n Cavanagh: We wanted some free wine, and we just worked backward from there, to be honest. Now, three years later, here we are, on the other side of the world.<\/p>\n Preston: We started the show in a 27-seat wine bar in Melbourne, Australia, and they essentially said to us, \u2018Boys, we\u2019re opening this new venue. Would you be able to do some sort of activation?\u2019 And we said, \u2018Can we get 60 bottles of free wine in exchange?\u2019 \u2026 Here we are in Fort Lauderdale. [Laughs]\n<\/p>\n \u2018As much as we love Americans, I think the Australian sense of humor drives you people up the wall sometimes, because it is so sarcastic.\u2019 \u2014 Sweeney Preston<\/p>\n Q: Who are these wine experts who will be on stage with you? Was it hard to find a serious wine expert who would be good at this?<\/p>\n Preston: We\u2019ve got a wonderful roster of different people joining us over the coming weeks. Is it hard to find these people? Not really. People who like wine love talking about wine. For them, it\u2019s another day at the office, with us as an interrupting factor. They just do their thing and we do our best to derail them.<\/p>\n Q: We here in South Florida try to be hospitable with newcomers. Can we get you anything?<\/p>\n Preston: You\u2019re sounding very Canadian right now. I\u2019m not sure if they\u2019ve invaded you or the other way around.<\/p>\n Q: You were just in Las Vegas, where the Hard Rock is building a Guitar Hotel. Were you aware that the first one is here?<\/p>\n Preston: No \u2026 I\u2019m looking at it now [on his laptop]. We should do a night\u2019s stay there. That sounds incredible. Can you hook us up?<\/p>\n Cavanagh: Obviously when we were leaving Vegas, they were kind of like halfway building the Hard Rock hotel, and so it\u2019s not fully hard yet.<\/p>\n Preston: It was a bit of a flaccid hotel.<\/p>\n Q: About this heat wave in southern Australia \u2014 did you know if you search \u201cSydney\u201d and \u201cheat,\u201d you get a bunch of pictures of Sydney Sweeney?<\/p>\n Preston: It\u2019s so funny because I remember a couple of years ago, Sydney Sweeney went to Sydney to see the Sydney Swans play AFL, Australian rules football \u2026<\/p>\n Cavanagh: She also then sells seashells by the seashore \u2026<\/p>\n Preston: For name recognition, it\u2019s great. I\u2019m thrilled to be the second-hottest Sweeney in the world. It\u2019s stiff competition, but \u2026 She\u2019s the best. I really like her, and she\u2019s doing great things for Sweeneys.<\/p>\n Q: We have put Greenland in our shopping cart. If America suddenly got the itch for a bigger island, is Australia for sale and what would it take to buy it?<\/p>\n Preston: You know what, I don\u2019t think America could handle Australia. We\u2019re too much of a bratty little child. We would say too many C-bombs and you would all get offended. \u2026 You\u2019d learn your lesson very quickly. Australians, we\u2019re a very proud people, but we\u2019re also sarcastic people. As much as we love Americans, I think the Australian sense of humor drives you people up the wall sometimes, because it is so sarcastic. I reckon you would put it straight back on the shelf after putting it in your shopping cart.<\/p>\n Q: Where does the tour go from here?<\/p>\n Cavanaugh: We\u2019ve actually got our sights set on Washington, D.C., because I\u2019ve heard they are building a very exciting new venue for us to perform in. There\u2019s a great ballroom, one of the best ballrooms. There\u2019s going to be nothing like it in the history of the world. Mexico is going to be paying for all the wine, so it\u2019s going to be great.<\/p>\n IF YOU GO<\/p>\n WHAT: \u201cIn Pour Taste: A Comedy Wine Tasting Experience<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 4 and 7 p.m. Sundays, through Jan. 25.<\/p>\n WHERE: Abdo New River Room at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n COST: Tickets start at $112.10 (includes five tastings and a charcuterie board)<\/p>\n INFORMATION: BrowardCenter.org<\/a><\/p>\n Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at\u00a0bcrandell@sunsentinel.com<\/a>. Follow on\u00a0IG: @BenCrandell<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t