Adam Hills Articles/Reviews

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--ra...521342929.htmlBuilt to speck

By Debi Enker
April 13, 2006

Adam Hills
Photo: Estelle Judah



Television's nice guy impresses wherever he goes.

THERE are technical difficulties. A problem with a camera sled at the ABC studios in Elsternwick has caused a delay in the filming of the music game show Spicks and Specks.

Team captains Alan Brough and Myf Warhurst wander around the fanciful set talking to their teammates, who tonight are pop singer Leo Sayer, comedian and radio host Dave O'Neil, country singer Melinda Schneider and New Zealand comedian Cal Wilson.

Meanwhile, the show's genial host, 35-year-old Sydney-born comedian Adam Hills, swings into action, doing one of the things he does very well, playing to an appreciative audience. "I didn't even know cameras had sleds," he remarks as he launches into a 15- minute impromptu routine to keep the crowd happily warmed-up for the filming to follow.

Hills' years as a stand-up comedian are apparent in the ease with which he fills the unscheduled space. He charms the audience with his good-natured gags and cheeky asides. He muses about strangely entertaining swear words and oddly named body parts. He mimics a heavily accented German tourist playing suggestively with his nipples. He bounces off information elicited from audience members. The visitor from Newcastle in Britain has him riffing about the Ashes series, the rugby and the differences between Australian and English sports fans.

He asks Sayer about the charttopping remix of his 1993 hit Thunder in My Heart, gets the audience clapping and stomping to We Will Rock You, and does a spoton impression of Krusty the Clown that gets a nod of approval from the youngest audience member, 10-year-old Simpsons fan Liam.

Hills looks like he's having fun and everyone else does too. And it's this apparently effortless display from the host of one of the ABC's most popular shows that neatly demonstrates why this guy is such great TV talent.

As veteran TV producer and director Peter Faiman says, "He's fast and funny and resourceful and he can light that show up." Also, critically, he plays well with others, whether they're his regular co-hosts, nervous guest panellists or the people who turn up on Tuesday nights to watch a show that they enjoy being recorded.

Years of stand-up have sharpened Hills' communication and ad-lib skills. That training has also helped him to shape the kind of comedy that he wants to perform: observational humour that highlights the quirks of human behaviour without stooping to making some unfortunate schlub the butt of his jokes.


He's warm, witty and immensely likeable, and what you see on TV is what you get when the cameras stop rolling: a genuinely nice guy. Just ask the people who work with him. "Hillsy is a great comedian and he's very generous as a co-host and a performer," says Triple J DJ Myf Warhurst.

"I'm sure that there are a lot of arseholes in this industry, but he's certainly not one of them. He's smart too: he's not a robot. I think we need that on our telly, people with a wide perspective on life, not just a suntan and a hairstyle."

Brough, who knew Hills from the comedy circuit before they were cast on the show, says he's "goodnatured, compassionate and funny".

Brough also notes that he's "thorough, dedicated and easy to work with", and wears nice suits.

ABC Television's head of arts and entertainment, Courtney Gibson, who offered Hills the Spicks and Specks job while he was living in London and flew him to Melbourne in January last year, four days before he had to film the pilot, says, "The wonderful thing about Adam is that he can be quite dark and dirty in ways that the whole family can enjoy. No one gets embarrassed. He's a sophisticated performer and he's versatile.

His appeal helps the show to attract more than a million viewers a week. "As a producer, thinking about what impact certain presenters might have, you think about the different demographics," says Gibson. "Putting it in bald terms, kids think he's fun, young girls think he's gorgeous and lovely, mums think 'Oh, isn't he nice?', nanas think 'I wish my granddaughter would find a nice young man like him', straight boys think he'd be a good mate and gay boys think he's cute. To have that broad appeal is priceless."

Gibson also notes that Hills learned early and well something that many hosts never grasp: "He understands the role of the presenter as an enabler: that you look good when the people you're working with and the people that you're interviewing look good. He has extraordinary empathy, people feel relaxed with him and he's incredibly respectful."

It was at last year's Logies that Hills' talents were noticed by people beyond his regular ABC audience.

He was the funny guy doing the interviews backstage with award winners, and cracking jokes about his lowly place as Aunty's representative - behind the scenes, not out the front with the big boys from the commercial networks.

He'll be backstage again this year and he's also up for an award, Most Outstanding New Talent, but there's a select band of supporters who reckon he'd be the perfect host for the event. "He's an exceptional talent," says Peter Faiman. "He could do the Logies on his ear. He's too smart to fail and I've rarely seen a person so comfortable under the enormous pressure of television."


Faiman knows a bit about TV talent, putting on a show and live performance under pressure, having worked for decades with Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton and Don Lane. When Hills got off the plane from London with a TV CV that featured appearances on The Fat, Rove (live), The Glass House and Stand Up!, Gibson enlisted Faiman to give the fledgling host a crash course in how to front a show and basic lessons in getting to know your format. Hills calls it "TV host boot camp" and affectionately refers to Faiman as The Alchemist or Yoda."

He deprogrammed my standup senses and told me stuff no one else would've told me," recalls Hills.

"He taught me that when you're doing stand-up, people are coming into your environment: they've come to see you in a big noisy pub and you're loud and you can take control. When you're doing television, you're in their lounge room, you've come to them, so you can't rattle through at the speed that you'd do stand-up.

"He also taught me to treat the show like it was a dinner party: to imagine that everyone on the panel knows each other, we've been having dinner for an hour or so and chatting, and the camera's just turned up. It doesn't know anyone on the panel, or what we're talking about, but it's there for the next half hour. So I need to do introductions, 'Oh, this is so and so, he's done this, and here's what we're going to do tonight.' So I always explain who we're talking about - 'Jackson Browne, the '80s guy who was running on empty' - and outline the rules of every game, just in case people have turned on for the first time."

Faiman says that Hills applied himself diligently to learning about how to master his new role. That discipline is consistent with the approach the 19-year-old Hills took when he decided to develop his childhood love of the comedy of Dick Emery, Benny Hill and Bill Cosby, and make his dream of doing his own material a reality. A journalism student at Macquarie University, he started doing openmic nights, but didn't initially tell his parents because he was sure they'd disapprove.

But once he set his sights on stand-up, he applied himself to learning about it with dedication, doing Wednesday open-mic nights at the Sydney Comedy Store and Mondays at the Harold Park Hotel.

Also testing their mettle and their material on Sydney's comedy circuit at the time were Peter Berner, Steady Eddie, James O'Loghlin and Jimeoin. On Saturdays, when the professionals performed, he'd go to listen and learn, then plead to be allowed five minutes on stage. When he was asked to try his hand at hosting a show, he discovered that he could chat to the audience with ease.


"The big turning point was realising that I could ad lib," he recalls. Hills developed his material into a solo show, building up to eight years at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

But the call from Gibson came at the right time: "It was starting to feel like a treadmill: write a comedy show, tour it, take it to Edinburgh, tour it a bit more, stop, start writing another comedy show. I felt that I was getting a bit stale. I was considering taking a year away, but not really knowing what to do."

The beauty of the Spicks and Specks schedule is that it requires Hills to work for six months. Then he can head back overseas refreshed and begin developing new material.

Melburnians will get to see the results of his recent efforts from tomorrow, when Characterful starts a three-week season at the Comedy Festival. "It's loosely based on the premise that there should be more character in the world, that we're in danger of becoming a bit bland," Hills explains.

When Spicks and Specks wrapped last year, Hills spent time in the US and returned to the UK, doing small gigs and building material from a 15-minute routine into a solo show. "The thing I learnt from Spicks and Specks is just how much I love doing stand-up," says Hills. "As much as I love doing the TV work, there's something extra special about having that hour to craft what I want to say and to take the audience on a bit of a journey. Now I'm enjoying that process, whereas, before, I was a bit over it."

Hills is likely to be the only comic at the festival who, in his promotional flyer, wears a T-shirt that says "Respect Your Mum", although the sentiment fits with the kind of humour that he's honed over the years. He discovered early that the bawdy sex jokes and heavy-duty swearing didn't really work for him."

I figured out at 19 that I couldn't really talk about sex because, firstly, everyone goes, 'What does he know about it?' and, secondly, in all honesty, at 19, I don't think I'd had sex yet. I realised that I've got to talk about what I know and what I knew then was living at home in the suburbs of Sydney with my family, so that's where the comedy's got to come from."

As he prepares for the Comedy Festival, works on Spicks and Specks and gets ready for the Logies, he is satisfied, self-deprecating and still searching. Reflecting on the kudos that came from last year's Logies, he observes, "It's easy to be funny when you're the underdog" and anticipates that he'll have to try harder now as people will have expectations.


Beyond that, though, he says, "I'm exactly where I want to be. There are more things that I want to do comedically, but I never see it as a career. It's a dream that I had as a kid that I get to keep dreaming. If I couldn't do stand-up any more, I'd do what I had to do. But as long as I'm allowed to keep dreaming, I'll keep dreaming."

As for the ABC, his current contract ends when the show finishes shooting late in May. "I'll see what happens, but I've no desire to leave Spicks and Specks. It's ridiculous fun and I have a real loyalty to and friendship with the people there. I think that certain types of talent are suited to certain networks and I think that, at the moment, I'm suited to the ABC. I'm doing a great show that I love doing, that's been successful and that people like. It doesn't make sense to leave after two years."

For its part, the ABC will be doing its best to make him stay. "We are blessed," says Courtney Gibson. "The show has been timely for him and timely for us. We're talking with Adam about the future and we want him to enjoy a long and happy life at the ABC."

Spicks and Specks screens Wednesdays at 8.30pm on the ABC Characterful runs at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from April 14 to May 6

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts-r...861319573.html


Hills' infectious energy powers this very good show.
Adam Hills keeps mum about the story behind his t-shirt.



GenreComedyLocationMelbourne Town HallAddress90-130 Swanston Street, MelbourneDate14 April 2006 to 6 May 2006Tickets$28-$32 ($25 Tue)Phone Bookings1300 660 013Online Bookingswww.ticketmaster.com.auDetailsTue-Sat 7.15pm, Sun 6.15pm.
COMEDY FESTIVAL REVIEW

Well-known TV faces - Hills from Spicks and Specks, Corinne Grant from Rove Live - both use the innocence of childhood as a backdrop for observations about the tremors that ripple through adulthood.

Hyper-friendly Hills introduces himself personally to a fair portion of the audience, and has a gag for every one of them. Clearly well travelled, he calls out for foreign visitors whom he warmly coddles before linking into strong material on "Australian-ness".

It sounds trying, but his fine mimicry and fresh material have the capacity crowd doubled over. Hills' infectious energy powers this very good show.

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...9-7582,00.html

Mr 'who are you' ready for TV's who's who

Sophie Tedmanson, Entertainment reporter

May 06, 2006
Taking a leap: Adam Hills in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: Kelly Barnes


THIS time last year, Adam Hills was at the Logie awards in Melbourne, flashing his ABC pass to convince confused soap stars and television executives that he was supposed to be backstage with a microphone and camera.



Tomorrow night, Hills won't need his pass when he returns to the Logies for the backstage broadcast.

This year, he is a double nominee and is being touted as a future host of what the industry refers to as its night of nights.

Hills, a longtime stand-up comedian and host of the ABC's music quiz show Spicks and Specks, admitted there was a lot more pressure this year. "Last year, no one had heard of the show or knew who I was," he said in Melbourne yesterday. "This year, people are saying 'I know who you are now, so you better be good'."

The Logie awards will be held tomorrow night at Melbourne's Crown casino and broadcast on the Nine Network.

Logies executive producer Margaret Bashfield said Hills, who impressed the audience and viewers with his behind-the-scenes broadcast last year, would be a "fantastic" future host of the Logies.

"He's not only very good at what he does, but he's delightful to work with, and he covers the entire demographic," she said.

"He has an exceptional delivery and manages to push the boundaries without being offensive."

Hills, 35, said he would like to host the Logies in the future - but not just yet.

"I'd love to - that's the biggest thing you can do on Australian television," he said. "But I think you've got to be ready for it, and it's got to be ready for you."

Hills is nominated for most popular new talent (alongside commercial TV soap stars) and the inaugural Graham Kennedy award for most outstanding new talent.

Spicks and Specks is also nominated for two awards: most popular light entertainment program and most outstanding comedy program. Hills said executives at the national broadcaster - which usually receives outstanding (industry-voted) news and current affairs awards but rarely gets a nomination in the popular categories - think the music quiz show's nominations are "a real coup". "ABC and popular are not usually two words that go with each other," Hills said, laughing. "So the ABC are chuffed about it."

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http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=98872

Somers voted worst male TV personality


Friday May 5 13:04 AEST
Dancing with the Stars has been a runaway hit for the Seven Network but some TV fans wish host Daryl Somers would simply waltz away.

Somers has taken out a top TV Fugly Award, a satirical version of the TV Week Logies.

The veteran TV personality, who will co-host Sunday night's Logie Awards in Melbourne, secured the title of worst male TV personality while Ten's Jackie O nabbed the worst female gong.

The Fuglies recognise "the worst that Australian television has offered" over the past 12 months, covering 15 categories.

"Daryl was a voters favourite right from the start and proves a show can succeed despite the fact it's host stumbles over his lines and makes mistakes consistently," Fugly Awards creator Anthony Dever said.

The awards registered 12,794 votes from people over the internet in 15 award categories ranging from worst television show to worst TV show, and most spankable TV personality.

Gold Logie nominee and two-time winner Rove McManus received a special award, marking the 50th year of Australian television.

He was voted Australia's all time most overrated TV star while Hey Hey It's Saturday, a show Somers hosted for many years, took out the most overrated TV show award.

Jennifer Hawkins won the most spankable TV personality award while Ten's Australian Princess was voted worst TV show.

Fugly "winners" are sent an authentic paper certificate to commemorate the achievement of being part of Australian television history.

The awards have been going for five years and Dever said not one celebrity has ever stepped forward for the three minute ceremony on the footpath at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

"It's not a glamorous affair, so they won't have to dress up," he said, urging nominees to reconsider next year.

"We won't mind if they swear in their acceptance speech and we will forever think they are the best for showing up."

Not all award categories were negative in the Fuglies, which are now in their fifth year.

Comedian Adam Hills won the award for most underacknowledged TV star while his show, Spicks and Specks, secured the most underacknowledged television show.

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article about the wonder of hillsy



SOME have called it a rip-off. But the success of the ABC's Spicks & Specks inspired Channel 7 to create its own quiz-trivia show, You May be Right.

Two weeks after the launch of You May be Right, however, it's apparent the shows are at opposite ends of the quality spectrum.
Spicks host Adam Hills, well backed by his regular support team of Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough, is enhancing his reputation as one of Australia's stars on the rise.

Spicks, which launched to little fanfare 18 months ago, attracts a national audience of 1.2 million, making it one of the ABC's most consistent ratings performers.

In contrast, the Todd McKenney-hosted You May be Right has the stench of rotten socks. In its first week on air, You May be Right attracted a respectable 1.1 million viewers, but by week two had plummeted to a miserly 720,000.

McKenney, a respected stage performer and judge on Dancing With the Stars, has been given a show that's too long by half and filmed on what looks like a $20 set.

If nothing else, the disaster that is You May be Right serves to illustrate just how good Spicks actually is.

Host Hills, a regular on the comedy circuit who has shone as a backstage interviewer at the Logies, is not one to gloat about success.

Spicks, he insists, is a genuine combined effort and succeeds because a hard-working team of 40 gets the show to air.

Hills hopes a third season of Spicks will go into production at the end of the year.

"I'm certainly up for it as long as Alan and Myf are, too," he says. "There's 40-odd people involved -- it's not about me.

"I wouldn't do the show without Alan and Myf. It becomes more and more apparent that they are the cornerstones of the show and that their (musical) knowledge pushes it forward.

"Myf has really relaxed and started to enjoy herself on the show and Alan has hit form and is making my job very easy. Their personalities drive the show.

"There are times the show might look easy, but it can be like that swan gliding above the water. All hell can be going on underneath. Clearly, there are times the audience has no idea what's going on behind my eyes."

A recent review of his live show described Hills as a really nice bloke. "Like tea and crumpets on a cold winter's day," the review continued, "Hills makes you feel that everything will be OK".

He was also described as having the savagery of a puppy wearing carpet slippers.

A gay magazine even named Hills as a "straight mate", which the comedian says is a huge vote of approval.

Hills has adopted an enjoy-it-while-it-lasts approach to praise because he's aware the tide could at some point turn against him.

"Someone said to me recently that they couldn't open a newspaper without seeing me," Hills says.

"I think the smart thing to do is just enjoy the ride while you can. And I will stay on the merry-go-round as long as I enjoy it, waiting for the day the critics decide to kick me off."

Hills has received offers from commercial networks to leave the ABC, but he has no plans to ditch the national broadcaster.

Spicks & Specks, ABC, Wednesday, 8.30pm

He reveals that he has also been approached about the possibility of hosting talk shows in the US and the UK.

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not technically an article but the lyrics to tim minchins hillsy song on spicks and specks

http://www.timminchin.com/2006/10/20/adam-hillsong

Hi guys.
I’ve had a lot of interest in the song I wrote for Spicks and Specks (TV show in Australia). You can see it in all its homoerotic glory by clicking

HERE.
You Northern hemisphere types who haven’t heard of the show or its host, Adam Hills, will be confused. (All you need to know is that Hillsong is the name of one of those huge, wealthy, obscene, exploitative church groups near Sydney, and that Adam is a charming, funny, good-looking Australian comedian… with one of his feet missing.)
Adam Hillsong (Not endorsed by the Hillsong Church pty ltd)
At night I dream of your quirky, intelligent face
I wistfully wish for your monopedal embrace.
But I am just a fan
You are the father of humanity
But if you’ll be my man
I would give a rib to be your Eve
Adam…
Hills are made for climbing and I’ll climb them all for you
And dem
Valleys you traverse I’m not averse to going down into
Wherever in your Eden you might travel I will follow.
And if a serpent holds an apple and entices me to swallow
I will not be tempted by the fruit the serpent proffers
Though I’ve never been that great at resisting offers made by
Adam…
Hills are made for climbing and oh boy I’ll do my best
But if the apple is too sweet and shiny to resist
I swear that I’ll try not to choke as with my guilt I grapple
But if inside my throat I feel a lump, it’ll be my Adam’s Apple.

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http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...-11869,00.html

SPICKS and Specks host Adam Hills is bringing a touch of Australian nobility to the music quiz show's Christmas special.
Joining Hills and team captains Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough will be a stellar line-up of comedians and performers, including megastar Dame Edna Everage.
"Having Dame Edna is a real coup," Hills says. "I worked with her in Dublin last year doing a corporate gig and she is amazing to work with. She will probably give us all a lesson in TV comedy.
"We've got a barbecue, a Santa and some elves, two choirs, a surf band and a big closing number.
"It's nice to be able to contribute to the festive spirit. Also, it gives you more of a connection to your audience. I mean, we are with them all year, we are all one big family and why should we bugger off just because it's not ratings time?"
Hills, who says the Christmas special will also feature Ross Noble, Debra Byrne and Frank Woodley, has just returned from a 26-day UK stand-up tour.
He was chuffed when, at the AFI Awards telecast, he was approached by Geoffrey Rush, who told him he loved Spicks and Specks..
Rush is not alone. Spicks, which premiered in 2005, was the ABC's fifth most-watched show this year and averaged 1.066 million viewers.
Hills says the greatest compliment came when Channel 9's Comedy Inc performed a sketch suggesting Channel 7 had ripped off Spicks with its ill-fated You May Be Right.
Spicks will return next year.
"The first year we just tried to make a TV show. The second year we felt the pressure to prove what we did the first year wasn't a fluke, which I think we did. Next year we're just going to relax and enjoy the process," Hills says.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...006022,00.html

(didn't include the whole article, just the reference to hillsy)

3 Adam Hills

Spicks & Specks, ABC

Why he's hot: When Seven announced it was doing the Spicks-inspired You May be Right, there was concern Spicks' appeal would be diluted.

The Seven show flopped and served only to confirm the talents of Hills and panellists Alan Brough and Myf Warhurst.

Spicks works well because Hills has a mischievous streak but is no smarta---. He has a razor-sharp wit but is clever enough to share the jokes around.

Prospects for 2007: Hills, Brough and Warhurst will be back with a new season.
The big question for Hills is

what he will do outside of Spicks. Deserves his own variety-chat show.

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http://www.dbmagazine.com.au/378/fi-AdamHills.shtml

Adam Hills.


Adam Hills laughs when I ask whether his upcoming Fringe show 'Characterful' represents a move away from his tried-and true stand up technique and a move toward, say, a more Con-The-Fruiterer-style of character-based comedy. "No, it's definitely still Adam-as-Adam talking about stuff," he assures me. "I've had a few people say that to me recently, so perhaps I should have rethought the name of the show. But there are a couple of ideas behind the name: one is that I became a Godfather last year..."

Culturally or criminally?

"In the cultural sense: I didn't pop a cap in someone's ass," he laughs. "So the show's kind of about what I want to show and teach my godson, and at the end of the day what I want to say to him is 'whatever you do in life, just do it with character'. It seems to be vanishing everywhere: in an interview Martin Scorcese was saying that in Hollywood he can't find actors because no-one in LA has character on their face anymore; they've all had it Botoxed out. There's a lot of blandness taking over, so basically the show is an hour of people and places that I've been that have got character about them."

It's a good time to remind us: from the first rumblings of the Intelligent Design "debate" to the Federal Government's definition of what constitutes a family, Australia's not exactly a hotbed of free-thinking individualism in 2006. "I agree! And that's what a lot of the show is kinda trying to say."

Careful, you'll overlap with Rod Quantock's show.

"Well, his is more political - mine's more about being personally characterful. Like trying to save the English language from a dumbing down; and even the phrase 'dumbing down' is itself a dumbing down," he chuckles. "There's a big rant [in the show] about trying to save the word 'surreal'. If nothing else I'm hoping that people come to the show and then start using 'surreal' to describe things that are in fact truly surreal, as opposed to 'I went up to the bar to get a drink and there was one already there waiting for me, gee that was so surreal.' Actually, when I first started talking about this on stage I then had to actually explain to people what surreal actually meant and what surrealism was, and then people went 'oh, right, now I see.'

"I was in England for three months last year, which is where I developed this routine, and there was a great moment where I was talking about various words that had made it into the dictionary, like the word 'bouncebackability'. Part of the reason it got in there was that a sporting commentator in England had said that if he used it often enough, it'd get in the dictionary. And I stood on stage in this place called High Wickham and I said that as far as I was concerned that was not an appropriate criteria for a word being in the dictionary, and this guy down the front put his hand up and said 'um, it's criterion,'" Hills laughs. "I said 'that is superb: you've picked me up on misusing the English language in a routine about the misuse of the English language,' and he said 'yes, that's called irony.'"

Andrew P Street