Adam Hills: Shoes Half Full
Note: This review is from 2021
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review
Adam Hills had intended to bring his brilliantly titled show about positivity to last year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival before global events intervened. Now, having spent almost all of the last 12 months in various levels of lockdown he’s ready to unleash his pent-up rage on the world.
Just kidding - of course he isn’t. Hills has one of the warmest, most affable stage presences going, and he isn’t about to let a global pandemic temper that nice-guy persona or the through-line of his latest set: that there’s too much shouting going on in the world and everyone needs to calm down and take a breath.
Not the most revelatory message perhaps, but a commendable use of the platform that Hills has built for himself as a household name in Australia and the UK.
A self-described ‘50-year-old idiot’, Hills wrestles with his understanding of trans issues, following up some mildly dicey dad jokes on the topic by specifically calling out Anna Piper Scott’s outstanding MICF show, Queer And Present Danger, about her trans experience and how it helped enlighten him.
He also marvels at Islamophobia and particularly its prevalence in areas with no exposure to the religion and its adherents. Never hectoring or patronising, Hills makes smartly constructed pleas to members of his audience unwilling to engage with either topic to make some room for demystification.
Elsewhere, there’s some obligatory Covid material, powered by typically pristine crowd work, musings on the ethical dilemmas of playing in a disabled rugby league team (based on the reaction of the audience when he revealed his prosthetic leg, apparently not everyone is aware that Hills was born without a foot) and some above-average ‘kids say the funniest things’ gear. Not the most challenging material – a recurring rhyming bit strays the wrong side of twee – but certainly crowd-pleasing and expertly delivered.
Even when engaging with weightier cultural issues, Hills maintains a light touch, and while the bedrock anecdote about how we need to say no to the noise sometimes (which features a mariachi band) doesn't totally work, it’s certainly memorable.
Overall, plenty to be positive about.
Published: 9 Apr 2021
Latitude has staged live versions of TV shows before…
19/07/2015
Adam Hills’s Clown Heart oozes confidence. A confidence…
15/04/2015
Brighton Comedy Festival 2014 opening gala
Tesco had to close a supermarket in storm-lashed Brighton…
11/10/2014
One of the most widely-reported highlights of The Last…
14/04/2013
The Muppets Gala at Just For Laughs Montreal
It has to be one of the best opening sequences in TV……
27/07/2012
Festivals throw comics together, providing rare opportunities…
5/06/2012
Because it’s backed by uber-agent Addison Cresswell…
9/10/2011
Montreal Just For Laughs 2011: One-Stop World Tour
Seems like the Just For Laughs Festival is closing…
28/07/2011
At times acts can get bogged down in a heavily themed…
29/08/2010
Adam Hills’s audience rapport has always been his…
18/04/2010
An Adam Hills show is always a festival highlight,…
1/01/2009
Not even a nightmare 49-hour trip from Australia to…
1/07/2008
By near-universal consensus, Adam Hills is The Nicest…
20/06/2007
Directly after the O’Comics and in the very same…
1/01/2007
A strange thing happens to comedians when they acquire…
1/01/2007
Adam Hills is human Prozac; a surefire pick-me-up for…
1/01/2007
Most Australians, if very few Brits, will already know…
1/01/2007
Whenever there’s a play about stand-ups, you know…
1/01/2005
Adam Hills: Go You Big Red Fire Engine 2: Judgemen
For Adam Hills, Go You Big Red Fire Engine is less…
1/01/2004
Adam Hills is probably the most loveable comic on…
1/01/2003
Adam Hills: Happy Feet Perrier nominee
You've gotta love Adam Hills. Supremely friendly and…
1/01/2002
Adam Hills: Go You Big Red Fire Engine
This is just so much pure, unadulterated fun - an…
1/01/2001
Products
DVD (2017)
Adam Hills - Clown Heart - Live
DVD (2013)
Adam Hills:Happyism
DVD (2013)
Channel 4 Comedy Gala 2013
CD (2004)
Go You Big Red Fire Engine
Past Shows
Edinburgh Fringe 2015
Comedy Gala 2015: In Aid of Waverley Care feat. Adam Hills & Marcus Brigstocke
Agent
We do not currently hold contact details for Adam Hills's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.