Dave Hughes

Clocking up 33 years in the Australian comedy scene, comedian Dave Hughes’s observations have become part of Australia’s zeitgeist. Loveable larrikin “Hughesy” has been a regular fixture on the comedy circuit, television and radio since he started his career at 22 in Perth, Australia.

A self-confessed media whore, Hughes has hosted numerous television and radio shows, including, Hughesy, We Have a Problem, The Masked Singer, Talkin’ Bout Your Generation and The Hundred with Andy Lee. Most recently he participated in an AFL legends game raising funds for charity. It was this football game and the aftermath that made him go viral. If you believe Hughesy, he is convinced he was targeted by much younger and larger players. He was brutally injured, spending time in the intensive care unit with 5 broken ribs and a punctured lung. The whole experience is hilariously retold with his iconic candour.

Hughes leans into his awkward delivery and his self-deprecating humour makes him relatable. It’s like spending an evening with an old friend as he has a good old fashioned whinge. He has this rawness that makes the audience comfortable. The laughs were plenty as he talked about parenting his 3 teenage kids, married life and his 2025 stint in the jungle in I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!. Hughes is a vegan, but was forced to eat a bull’s penis as a challenge to feed his cast mates. As the audience grimaced at his retelling, Hughes laughed at the absurdity of it all.

Adelaide experienced a downpour on the night I attended. The performance tent was scattered with buckets catching excess water. Hughes likened it to performing in a rainforest.

Hughes describes himself as a man of the people and loves nothing more than saying hello to fans, as he demonstrated after the show. For those on the fence about whether Hughes is funny. It was obvious that his humour is not censored in a Fringe setting and the constant laughter and cheers from the audience were testament to this fact.

Kerry Cooper

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