Alex Hines has ADHD. It seems right now that ADHD is everywhere, but she wants you to know that she had it first. Although now it doesn’t make her feel that special anymore. She’s been seeing a psychiatrist and is looking for an upgrade.
While comedians’ experiences of neurodiversity in comedy are (as Hines admits) hardly new fodder for comedy shows, it’s very likely that it’s the unique perspective her neurodiversity brings that makes for the success of this roller-coaster of an abstract existential dread-dream of a show.
Part stand-up, part character sketch comedy, part musical comedy, part time travel saga, part she’s-lost-her-train-of-thought-where-is-she?
With a show title like Putting on a Show, Hines certainly doesn’t disappoint – there’s a pink satin-draped proscenium arch, props, costumes, quick costume changes, a digital screen where she appears from the future in video form (props to her video producer – we’re talking green screen and whiz-bang effects).
While on preview night, the connections between sequences and tech cues were still being ironed out, Hines has such quick-witted charisma, these moments allowed for lots of impromptu laughs as she commented on what was happening in the show (picking up a phone call cue arriving at the wrong time to let the caller know the cue was wrong). And, to be honest, some of these moments could have been scripted they were so brilliantly handled.
Read: Experience review: Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience, The Briars, Mornington Peninsula
While the success of Hines’ high-energy performance feels linked to a sense that at any moment the show may go completely off the rails, for all its twists and turns, there is a satisfying structure holding it all together, elevating the show beyond straight stand-up or sketch-comedy. Hines certainly is putting on a show – and I’d recommend going to see it.
Alex Hines: Putting on a Show will be performed at The Malthouse until 21 April 2024 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF 2024).
