Best of 2006: Adam Hills

A fundamentally decent person with a wonderfully positive message

★★★★★
archive review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
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Published 09 Jul 2007
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Anyone who can sit through an hour of Adam Hills and not come out with renewed sense of optimism and joy is not worth knowing. This is because Adam is a fundamentally decent person with a wonderfully positive message. In a world full of cynicism and hate, where smiling for your passport photo is prohibited and celebrity is the new divinity, it is rare to find someone with just one wonderful message. Be happy. It’s as simple and complicated as that. Find vegetables amusing; slap your belly every now and then or yell, ‘GO, YOU BIG RED FIRE ENGINE’ with gusto and glee. This isn’t a show packed full of smart one-liners, crude references to genitalia or political ridicule, the staple of many a stand-up today. In fact, there are no more than a handful of jokes in the whole show, although the ones that we do get are delivered with perfect timing, enthusiasm and a reassuring smile. What you get for your money is a lesson in how to be happy by a more than likeable Australian with an incredibly infectious smile. To cure your festival blues, forget Prozac or £80-an-hour psychiatrists. Just carry with you an amusingly shaped carrot, a picture of Adam Hills’ smile, or even a bit of bubble wrap. Adam’s show has been completely sold out for the last five years, and judging by this performance he is in no mood to break a trend.