Adam Hills
With his new show Inflatable, Adam Hills might be full of hot air - but promises Andrew P Street that he won't be a let-down
Adam Hills is looking remarkably chipper for a man who's been doing a whole mess of press for the entire day. "I've quite enjoyed myself today," he smiles. "Normally these things are a pain in the arse, but to sit in one place and have a muffin and a glass of water is nice; sitting here having people ushered in to speak to me. It's like a job interview. So: where do you see yourself in five years?"
Hills is presenting his new show, Inflatable, as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival, although he's still giving it a final polish. Sydney saw a version recently when Hills did a set at the Marble Bar, "but there's another little bit that I'm trying to write at the moment, an exchange between myself and my imaginary son – not that I have kids or anything, I'm just projecting forward – that I'm trying make work. It's not so much making it funny, it's kind of a touching moment and I've never done that before so I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull it off. It's hard to do that in a club atmosphere because it's raucous and everyone's drinking and then you go 'I'd like to take a moment...'
"I was talking to Daniel Kitson about this: when you've got a solo show and you're really trying to create a narrative and take it somewhere, it's really hard to chop it up into 20 minute segments and do it in a comedy club. Sometimes it's actually counterproductive because it's very hard to make it work in that environment, and if it doesn't work you lose confidence in it – and it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a good bit, just that it doesn't work in a club."
Which begs the question: how does one work out what to put in a show like Inflatable when the only place to try it out is in a theatre? "Exactly!" he exclaims. "When I first started out doing solo shows the premiere would be the Adelaide Fringe Festival to 100 people a night, so I'd work it up – it'd be rough at first, but it would get good and find its shape. And then I'd bring it to the Melbourne Comedy Festival and again, it would get better and better and better, and then I'd take it to Edinburgh and be reviewed two weeks into the festival, and I started to get great reviews. And so then next year the reviewers came on opening night, so then I'd be like 'OK, this show has to be up and running by opening night in Edinburgh' – and then it just got earlier and earlier," he laughs. "And now I start my tour to 1000 people per show from opening night, so I've got to be sure that show's in tip-top condition."
The larger venues and audiences also means that the sort of playful audience interaction he managed at Marble Bar is far trickier. "Yeah, but I've tried to find a way to still do it. Actually, last time I played at the Enmore people kept coming in late, because you can never get parking around the Enmore – so everyone that came in late I made sit up on stage. And then Katie Noonan came in, and I was like 'well, I've made everyone else get up on stage...'" he laughs. "So at that stage I decided to make a choir out of them."
As you do.
"Exactly. We did 'Mah Na Mah Na' and Katie did the do-do-do-doo-doos. It was great."
Punters, maybe you should think about getting to the show nice and early. Possibly by train.
Adam Hills: Inflatable plays at the Enmore Theatre on Fri 17 and Sun 19 April and Fri 1 and Sat 2 May.
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