Early in his opening night set, triple j drive time host Michael Hing told the capacity crowd at the Rhino Room how, at a previous Fringe at the old location, he played to a crowd of two in the beer garden. Times have changed now that he graces the airways of the national youth broadcaster, but not entirely for the better.
The Triple J text line during the show he co-hosts with Lewis Hobba, Hobba and Hing, he said, was 50 percent friendly banter, 40 percent Triple J Unearthed bands trying to flog their music, and about 10 percent racial abuse. He's even been accused of being a Chinese spy.
Tragically, the audience needed no convincing of the reality of this experience, after Hing engaged in some audience interaction with a drunken couple from Port Adelaide that was cackling towards the front of the stage.
When he inquired about why they came to the show, the male yelled back "we're here to see an Asian comedian". Hing handled it deftly. When his partner incoherently asked why Hing doesn't give out meat trays (as former locally born Triple J breakfast hosts Ben and Liam did), he responded "I can't understand you", which led to the reply "I speak fluent Chinese". Hing then joked, "well I don't", which segued into a bit about how white Australians often like to impress him by saying hello in Chinese, assuming he will understand.
Hing's show veered away from new material partly because of the racist heckling, partly because of how much the rest of the audience was enjoying his older stuff, and partly because devoted Triple J listeners just wanted to get updates on things they'd heard him say on the radio.
While there was some new gags about going to therapy and the best way to live a carbon neutral life, there were also uncensored versions of his trips to sex shops during the COVID peak and his follies when trying to decorate his girlfriend's apartment with items that match the blue couch.
Even in the best of circumstances, Hing's set was a killer hour of comedy. That he delivered it in the face of racial abuse, was extraordinary.
By James Murphy
     
#ADLFringe #adelaide #Comedy