Myra Du Bois’ show Be Well was advertised as calling “out to the disadvantaged, downtrodden and tyrannised of the world with her manifesto for mental health: AdMyrism! But are you ready to receive the call?” This show was to be “Myra DuBois lays her healing hands on the masses in this; her wellness sermon.”

But when you come to the largest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere and find yourself in a theatre 10 minutes from the airport with an audience that barely fills a quarter of it, you pretty much are left to improvise. Very early on Myra made no secret that this was not what she expected, and she was ‘phoning it in’.

However the audience didn’t seem to mind. Myra does not take herself too seriously and has for the past 15 years clearly learnt to adapt to whatever circumstance life throws at her. And her last show of the Adelaide Fringe called for her to dig deep and pull no punches.

It was a hot night and clearly audiences who would ordinarily adore this artist decided to stay home. Which was sad as you can tell straight away that Myra loves to play to big crowds. Her wit was charming and despite playing to a small audience she sang and told stories that kept everyone laughing.

The whole reason why I went to this show was to find the joy and laughter in her wellness sermon and despite it not really being there I still left with cheeks sore from smiling and eyes glistening with tears of laughter. This show was not all that was advertised but then I felt Myra was sold a ‘must perform at’ Festival that didn’t exactly live up to what it had advertised either.