Adam Hills: How my dad's cancer convinced me I had to be funny

'When the doctors could do nothing, I could still make him laugh'

Adam Hills has opened up about losing his father to leukaemia in 2013, just as he was starting out as host of The Last Leg.

In a wide-ranging interview for the Talking With Cancer podcast, Hills talked about feeling fortunate to have been at his dad’s side when he died, building the confidence as a comedian to talk about his prosthetic leg on stage, and feeling validated in his job while his dad was ill.

Speaking to entertainment publicist Katie Phillips, who hosts the podcast, Hills started by recalling how The Last Leg continued after its initial run at the 2012 London Paralympics. After the series ended, Channel 4 asked him and co-hosts Josh Widdecombe and Alex Brooker to record a segment for Stand Up To Cancer.

Hills said: ‘We made each other laugh for like 20 minutes, and the chemistry was really there… That just proved that we didn’t only have to talk about Paralympics. We just talked about cancer for 20 minutes, and we made it funny, but we also made it good and made it worthy.

‘There was only one other TV show I’d done where I’d had that chemistry with people – a show in Australia I hosted called Spicks And Specks and that ran for seven years, and we did 300 episodes. So I felt like we were on to a thing. We went to the channel and they gave it a crack.’

Turning to his father’s leukaemia, he said: ’I remember when I was back in Australia later on in 2012, over Christmas, and my dad’s still going through the illness at this point.

‘I had this afternoon when I went straight from the airport to the hospital and just spent a whole day with my dad. I was telling him about all the things that I’ve been doing over in London, and he was generally with it at that point. So I got to explain to him about The Last Leg and the Paralympics and how it had taken off, Channel 4 wanted to make more and we were about to make another series… all of this stuff.

‘"After we had a little Christmas Day and I said goodbye to him, he looked at me with real determination, and he said "Good luck in London." He said it as if it was almost like a final thing. In my head, I think he knew then that he was on the way out, and I’d like to think - and I’m probably projecting but I might not be - that he also knew that I was on the right path and that things were going to work out for me.

‘"Good luck in London" was almost like he was saying "that’s where you should be" and "it’s going to be fine".

‘Every now and then, before an episode of The Last Leg, when the music is playing, the opening titles are playing and the audience start applauding just before the camera comes on me… every now and again I’ll just remember my dad saying "Good luck in London", and it just reminds me that this is where I’m meant to be.’

Hills talked about gaining an added sense of purpose as a comedian in his dad’s final days – because while the doctors were no longer able to do anything for him, he till able to make his dad laugh in his hospital bed.

He said: ‘My dad’s friend once said to me, "I guess this must be really hard for you as a comedian… you probably won’t want to be funny for a while, but I’m sure it’ll come back.’"

‘I remember thinking, "No, this has made me more convinced that I need to be funny". Partly because I wanted to talk about it, but I remember there being a moment where I saw my dad in intensive care, when he was at his worst. He just shook his head saying, "There’s nothing more we can do". I remember thinking "I can still make him laugh’"

‘As a comedian, you always think, "I probably should have done a proper job... I probably should’ve been a doctor, I probably should have saved lives." But at that specific moment the guy standing in front of me, trained as a specialist in his field, couldn’t do anything for my dad. Whereas I could. I could still make him laugh or smile in his last moments."

Hills’ dad had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma 15 years earlier , which he fought through, but went into remission.

Hill said: ‘He was fine, and he went into remission and then there’s that moment that I know a lot of people who go through cancer have, which is when the doctor says, "I don’t need to see you any more". And that hit him harder than anything because he was like, "well, how do I know I don’t have cancer?"’ It wasn’t the relief that you’d think it would be.’

Elsewhere in the conversation, Adam also spoke about being born without a right foot, and how it took him 13 years to talk about his prosthetic leg on stage, once he’d built his confidence as a comedian.

He said: ‘When I started out doing comedy, I was at the Sydney Comedy Store one night, hosting the early and late shows. There were about five people booked in for The Late Show and about 40 people from the early show stayed on so they had all seen all my material. I didn’t want to do the same jokes, so I tried to talk about whatever I could, and I made a joke about having one leg.

‘I remember afterwards one of the older comics - he was a bit full of himself - but he made a point to me, and he had a good point. He said, "You’re not good enough to talk about your foot yet. You’re still working out how to be funny and what you want to say and how you want to say it. You need to wait until you work out how to be really good at comedy and work out what you want to say about your foot, then you need to talk about it.’" It was really smart, and I didn’t talk about it on stage for 13 years."’

The full conversation is can be heard here as the final episode in the third series of Talking With Cancer. A fourth will follow later this year.

Phillips started the podcast last year after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in February of that year, to documenting her treatment and talk to others who have been hit by the disease about how it has affected their lives.