It occurs to me that all three former members of the beloved Doug Anthony All Stars have been in Adelaide in the last few days. Paul McDermott has been doing his excellent PLUS 1 show at Rhino Room, while Richard Fidler (the guitar player) was at Adelaide Festival’s Book Week last weekend and this week Tim Ferguson is premiering his brand new show Smashing Life (Motivation For Idiots). It’s show to save us from those who want to save us from ourselves.

We have all seen those self-help guru’s and improve yourself books (How To Win Friends And Influence People, The Secret, Tony Robbins, etc), the late night infommercials enticing people to unlock the secrets to power, money, success by encouraging you to first unlock your wallets. There can be no doubt that some people get something out of these things, but how many? Ferguson starts off pitching like one of these cats, before ripping the Scooby Doo-style disguise from the real villainy. It’s a great premise for a comedy show and the material is crackin’. The COVID seating makes the tent feel a little sparse, but Ferguson does a bang up job, introducing us to various self-help gurus, Cliff The Rescue Cat and some initially effusive graduates of his course.

These days Tim Ferguson is in a wheelchair and living with progressing Multiple Sclerosis so, in many ways, he is a great exemplar of somebody overcoming adversity and being the best version of himself. It is possible that a motivational speaker talking about the charlatan behaviour of motivational speakers might actually turn out to be quite motivational in the end.