Adam Hills

Published on Monday 5 July 2004 01:09

ADAM HILLS ***

THE STAND, EDINBURGH

WE HAVE become wearily familiar with stand-up comedians who use members of the audience for target practice. Australian comic Adam Hills takes the technique in an altogether more interesting and benign direction by having paying punters perform parts of the show for him. Only someone versed in the relaxed ways of the lucky country could think up such a scam.

Not that anyone was complaining when Hills got a pharmacist on stage for a bit of James Brown-style call-and-response.

An audience member becomes a rock god for three minutes, the crowd gets a warm glow. It’s the ultimate comedic win-win scenario.

When he isn’t getting people on stage, Hills goes off on gentle riffs inspired by the nationalities of folk in the audience. One tangent, brought about by the presence of a family from Denmark, took us to the Swedish chef in The Muppet Show, and the Swedes’ preference for referring to him as "the Norwegian chef".

Performing with a chirpy Aussie bonhomie, one senses Hills could continue in this vein all night. He isn’t a joke-teller. He doesn’t have to be, he has conversational humour down to a fine art.

He’ll be back for the Edinburgh Fringe with a show entitled Go You Big Red Fire Engine II. He may get you on stage to tell you what it means.