Award-winning New Zealand comedian Sean Collier is in Adelaide for the first time with a brand-new show Shitegeist.

Collier is a solicitor by day, comedian after dark who draws upon his upbringing in the regional town of Whangarei and the absurdity of today’s world for his jokes.

The small venue of The Attic on the top floor of the Austral provided an intimate setting for Collier’s first run in Adelaide. Immediately, Collier set the scene by outlining that his jokes will start dark and then get increasingly worse from there. There was such regular repetition of this as sign posting throughout the set that it built up to a promise that was difficult to meet.

There were a lot of quick jokes and observations packed into the hour. The rise of a conspiracy to reality, the timing of wars, and becoming a source for legal vice all mingled with hints of nihilism and the silliness of reality to create a base for the humour. It was a bit of a case of everything being broken so why not poke at it with a bit of stand up, which was a fun premise for the entire show.

Throughout the show Collier did note which jokes were new and being tested, and some of the stop/start nature between jokes did create a disconnect in the overall show. There were many good jokes and the sly punchlines were a standout when a rhythm did build.

Collier has a clear dark comedic talent, which particularly showed during the audience interaction. There was a smoothness in these conversations and a natural dark twist in the banter that could have carried through into the structure of the longer show.

The new hour of comedy in Shitegeist was ripe for crafting and framing. Collier’s dark edge in comedy wasn’t shy in its selection of topics to make light of and was able to load heaps of commentary into his jokes.

Shitegeist is on at the Austral until Sunday 8th March as part of the 2026 Adelaide Fringe Festival.