Anisa Nandaula is a rising star in Australian comedy. She made the switch from poetry to stand up during the Covid-19 pandemic and has since opened for Chelsea Handler in Handler’s 2024 Australian tour.

Nandaula has previously toured in Adelaide with her first comedy show You Can’t Say That in 2025. This year, Anisa Nandaula brings her second show No Small Talk to Rhino Room for the Adelaide Fringe 

Despite the name, No Small Talk, she opens with friendly banter and crowd work, using the chat as the framing for the full show. The focus on connection felt key and like an effective tool for the main stories as it presented as an elevated and charming version of a friend retelling their adventures.

Once the rapport was established, Nandaula centres the show on her and her family’s background growing up and living in Queensland, and a later trip to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. 

There were immediate, playful cultural contrasts that used the longer form travel storytelling as the setup that were then cut by blunt Australian humour. There was also a poetic undercurrent in the overall rhythm of each story with a repetitive pace to the imagery and building to the story before the sharpness of the comedic punchlines that break the rhythm.

Nandaula played with tropes and stereotypes in a well-crafted manner that maintained lightness in the comedy but, if wanted, could still be pushed into dark comedy without breaking the overall flow. In that direction, there was a brief joke on a family member’s ill health that could have been teased out further and opened up more about her familial connections.

No Small Talk is an entertaining and welcoming comedy show that focuses on using audience interaction as points of connection rather than cheap call backs. Nandaula’s comedic writing and style provided for strong pacing and room to breathe. The quick punchlines were used sparingly to good effect and tone shifting while the elements of storytelling in comedy were the main event.

Nandaula is performing No Small Talk at two venues during this Fringe. Later this year she will feature on the 2026 edition of Taskmaster Australia.