Adam Hills, Hammersmith Apollo - comedy review

Hills has much to say and an unquenchable desire for full-on fun, mixing serious subtexts with seamless audience interaction. Life-affirming, laugh-affirming comedy at its best
23 September 2013

Newcomers to Adam Hills may have thought he was rushing through his gig last night because of a late start after a ticketing kerfuffle.

In fact, the upbeat host of C4’s talking shop The Last Leg always speaks fast onstage because he has much to say and an unquenchable desire for full-on fun, mixing serious subtexts with seamless audience interaction.

It did occasionally feel as if the chatty Australian was circling around clichés, from air travel to reality TV to parenthood. People with babies are like people with Apple Macs, he noted, because they are always talking about them. Gradually, however, a new philosophy, “Happyism”, emerged as he recalled close encounters with Kermit and the Dalai Lama. Hills fulfilled a dream by touching a Muppet and found “Buddhist comedy enlightenment” hearing the Dalai Lama tell a joke.

To be honest he was probably already pretty enlightened, as his heartfelt material about prejudice underlined, but the feelgood tone helped to justify the neat all-singing finale.

Hills’s diversity credentials were further enhanced by sign language interpreter Catherine King, who added bonus visual punchlines when translating smutty asides. The signs are definitely positive for Hills. Life-affirming, laugh-affirming comedy at its best.

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