[COMEDY/Stand-up ~ WORLD PREMIERE ~ AUS/ACT]
by Adrian Miller.
You may have seen these two men from Canberra performing at Rhino Room during Adelaide Fringe 2021. Well, now Nick Schuller and Chris Marlton have decided to brave the conditions do it all again – but this time moving down the road to Gluttony with their new show Hidden Gems. We ask Nick Schuller why they have decided Adelaide is ‘okay enough’ to return:
“We only had two shows last year so were unable to form of definitive view on whether Adelaide is okay enough. We’ve got a whole week of shows this year so we should have a pretty good idea by the end of the week. Whether we come back next year is the real question.”
Last year your show was free. Have you recovered financially from that?
“Absolutely not,” Nick says. “It’s been a tough year. I’ve been designing NFTs in Microsoft Paint and Chris has been making RATs in his garage to make ends meet [laughs].”
How is this show different from the one you brought to Adelaide last year?
“So much has happened in the last 12 months that it would be impossible not to have a completely different show. Chris has a whole new suite of characters and I’ve got about two hours of material on anti-vaxxers.”
What have you been up to since you were last in Adelaide?
“I moved to Melbourne in June 2021, so since I was last in Adelaide I’ve been staring at the walls of my one bedroom apartment,” he says. “Chris made the much more sensible decision to stay in Canberra so he’s been driving around roundabouts in between bursts of staring at the walls of his one bedroom apartment.”
Chris’ humour involves creating a number of different characters. Is this spontaneous or carefully planned? Do you always know which characters will emerge at any given time?
“The characters that appear are always planned, with each one having a fairly clear idea of what’s going to be said. However,” Nick says, “the characters love to talk to the crowd, and the end results of this, while often very funny, are always unpredictable, adding an element of surprise and uniqueness to each show, for both the audience and for Chris. Once the microphone is in his hand, the characters often do and say things even Chris doesn’t expect.”
The Advertiser has described you as having “an intellectual brand of millennial humour.” Did you take that to be praise or criticism?
“I have a general rule that anything written by The Advertiser is meant to be criticism and I think that rule rings true in this case.”
So your styles of humour are quite different, but the show works because those different styles bounce off each other in interesting ways?
“Definitely,” Nick says. “Our styles are completely different but they complement each other well and give our show a unique dynamic that’s like nothing else at the Fringe.”
You are doing separate shows during the Canberra Comedy Festival in March. So, you don’t always work together then?
“We work separately most of the time. In fact, the only reason we’re working together at the Fringe is because my NFTs haven’t been selling and I couldn’t afford rego by myself.”
What is the Canberra comedy scene like?
“It is incredibly strong,” he says, “which is unsurprising given that you have to have a good sense of humour to put up with living there.”
What do you expect people will enjoy most about your show?
“This is an opportunity to see two of the next big stars in Australian comedy before we’re on TV,” Nick says. “People will enjoy looking back in ten years to the time they came to Gluttony and saw us before we had our Netflix specials [laughs].”
And will it appeal to people of all ages?
“If you like to laugh, you’ll like our show.”
Is there anything else you would like to tell us to encourage us to come along to see you guys perform?
“Our show is the under-the-radar hit of Adelaide Fringe 2022,” Nick concludes, “so don’t miss out!”
Nick Schuller & Chris Marlton – Hidden Gems performs at The Squeaker (Open Air) at Gluttony, from 9.45pm on Tue 1 Mar until Sun 6 Mar.
Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 and adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.
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Presented by Three Blind Men Comedy
