Let’s be honest: Adam Hills is not outrageously funny. He is not one of those loud comedians who base their acts in shouting or insulting the audience, swearing constantly for comedy effect or moan about life and its miseries.
Hills is, in fact, completely the opposite. His humour is very subtle, he enjoys the company of his audience, he respects them and has a laugh with them, not at them. His shows are full of personal anecdotes and hidden messages. When you come out of his stand-up act you feel positive, re-fresh, hopeful of a better world. He enjoys life, lives it to the full, and makes the most out of it. And it is exactly those reasons that make him one of the greatest.
Joymonger, his new show, is all about the power of happiness, how we can change things for the better, and how people do have a say in the world, even if that world doesn’t want to listen to them. But the theme of the show is irrelevant when Hills is on stage. It is his charisma, his persona, which attracts such a mass following. Hills takes the time to sing happy birthday to three members of the audience, talk about Zoe, a little girl he became godfather to in last year’s Fringe run (he even rings the father to see how the little girl is doing in a complete act of spontaneity) and accompanies latecomers to their seats, while bantering away with them about their names, professions and reasons for being late.
Hills is warm, funny, caring and inventive. The audience is behind him on hundred per cent and when, at the end of his one hour act, he talks about his disability and follows this by dancing on top of the roof of a car at the tune of ‘Footlose’ (oh, the irony! The man knows how to laugh at himself) he gets a deserved standing ovation. Adam Hills is a master of positive comedy and feel good factor; he’s a shot of fresh air in an otherwise angry world.
5/5
Adrian G. Velazquez
