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Did you hear the one about the comedian who walked up and down in the rain during this year's festival, apologising to his audience for the slightly late start to the show? Or the one about the comedian who will only start his show once everyone is seated comfortably?
That comedian is the one and only Adam Hills. Officially the nicest man in comedy, on and off stage. Hills has been appearing at the Edinburgh Festival since 1997, since his less-than-memorable debut show "Three Men and Two Dogs", which gained him the accolade of two stars. This year, with "Goody Two Shoes", he raked in five star reviews from just about every newspaper and website around. comedylounge met up with him in July, in his second home of Dublin city.
Three years ago, he was told by one promoter that he was 'too nice' to make it in comedy. Last year, that promoter came up and apologised to him. And rightly so. Adam Hills has carved a new niche on the tired comedy scene with upbeat, positive comedy. Hills is not afraid to explore any avenue in the search for humour, but never once does he cross over to the darker side of subjects, keeping to the tone and content light-hearted. A striking feature of all of Adam Hills' shows is the relaxed, happy ambience. From the outset, Hills creates a party atmosphere that leaves the audience feeling more like a gathering of friends. Adam Hills is nice. Adam Hills does nice better than anyone on the Fringe. "In the last four or five years," he explains, "I just decided right, I'm just going to try actually positive ad-libbing with members of the audience." So the positive approach is deliberately intentional? "I'd like to say 'No, it's just come out of the blue!' but yeah. After doing Edinburgh in 1997, I went to London and did a lot of gigs in London and saw a lot of comedians in London who seemed to be very cynical. It seemed to be really cool to be cynical and I thought I don't really want to do that. And also I'm Australian. It's too sunny there to get down about anything."
Bounding about on stage, it is clear that Hills enjoys every moment of what he does, and it is this enthusiasm that is so infectious. He has given some thought to this. "I'm sure there's some psychological reason for wanting to show off in front of a group of people. I think it's the only legitimate place where it's okay to show off. If I showed off like that at a party, people would throw me out of the party... That's why I like doing comedy. It's because it is the only time I get to show off and hog all the attention."
Taking delight from the everyday absurdities of life,
and finding humour in the most mundane of topics,
Hills gets the audience enthusiasm going from the
start, and creates the feeling of a party atmosphere
and a gathering of friends. This is essential to the
heart of his shows, as they always involve a lot of
audience participation. "At the start, I felt really
bad for doing lots of audience participation because
it kind of looks like I'm copping out and relying on
that because I haven't got any jokes, but what I've
realised is that that's what audiences what me to do."
Even when compereing the bear pit that is Beck's Late
N Live in the Gilded Balloon, Hills can keep the mood
light and breezy, a skill that is not held by many
performers. "I think it's all in the way your present
yourself on stage. I hope that when I'm on stage, I'm
not necessarily too aggressive or threatening and if I
do ad-lib with anyone earlier in the show I make sure
that I'm going positive and I'm not making fun of
them. If you're just enthusiastic enough", he laughs,
"people will do anything! If you have that look on
your face like 'What if no one gets up?!' then they
won't, but if you look like you're convinced that
people will get up then they'll do it, usually."
The creation of a boy band on stage is arguably one of the highlights of this year's show. Pulling four good looking young men out of the audience, Hills gives them a crash course in the basic rules of boy bands - the pose, the dancing, and the final turn-and-point. He says it is his favourite part of the show. "I love doing that, because at the end of it, I try and get the four of them to turn together, and when they do, the response from the audience is just over the top! And it's not for me! You look out at the audience and there's a whole room of people, hands above their heads, applauding four blokes on stage, and I kind of stand back because at the point, they're applauding four blokes that have got up out of the audience. So that's why I like doing that."
As far as influences go, Hills cites Robin Williams and Billy Connolly (who is also one of his strongest impressions among a range of comedians he does on stage, when he portrays Jesus Christ for the 21st Century as played by Connolly). Of today's crop, Hills is in no doubt as to who his favourite comedian is. "Rich Hall. Rich Hall is just my hero. I just think he's the best. I've done shows with him here and there and got to know him really well, and he's just one of the most generous people on the circuit. And for someone who's revered by so many comics, he's so not a star, he doesn't act like a star, he's quite happy to sit down and have a chat wherever he happens to be. So he'd be my favourite comic."
Keeping up the energy on stage for a full month during the festival must be a difficult job, particularly maintaining the vibe that surrounds 'Goody Two Shoes'. Hills laughs. "It's madness! Madness! I was showing some photos from the Fringe last year to a friend of mine, and there was a photo of myself and Will Anderson taken on the day after the festival ended, and she looked at them, and she went '.who's that with Will?' And I said 'That's me.' And she said 'Oh My God!' And then I looked at it and went 'Oh My God!' That final night there was probably all the adrenaline kicking in my system keeping me awake so the night after I'd finished my whole body must have gone into shut down mode and my eyes just looked dead." He has some methods of tackling the insanity the festival can bring on. "The best part is hanging out with all the other comics. You've got a whole month hanging out in a city that's got some of my best friends - Ross Noble, Dave Gorman. Dave and me did the best thing in Edinburgh last year. We went out to dinner. In the middle of all the madness, and all the Perrier judges coming along and all the reviews, he and I just went right, when you finish your show, when I finish my show we're going out to dinner somewhere. We found a quiet restaurant, sat down with a nice bottle of wine, we didn't . well, we did talk about comedy but we just kind of ignored the festival, and went, urgh, where am I?! That's so much better!!!"
Looking to the future, Hills still has some big plans. "I've written proposals for a couple of TV programmes which are still. I just sound like every stand up comic, don't I?! So as far as anything I think I'd be devastated I didn't achieve. I think I've pretty much done that. I get to go on stage and I get to say what I believe in and I've had some cracking shows and I've had some lovely audiences and I think that's what I've always wanted. I wanted to be a stand up and I wanted to do stand up comedy, which is what I'm doing so anything else is a bonus now."
With ideas already in the pipeline for next year's Edinburgh show, it looks like Adam Hills is on a steady roll to bigger and better things, something that is well deserved.
Review of Goody Two Shoes
Adam's Official Site