Stand-up career

Hills first appearance in comedy scene was in 1989 at the Sydney Comedy Store. He did breakfast radio on SAFM in Adelaide, as well as stand-up gigs and, by the mid-1990s, he decided to focus on live comedy. His first solo show premiered in 1997 and was called "Stand Up and Deliver", taking its name from an Adam and the Ants song. He has travelled widely, performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Montreal Just For Laughs festival.^[26] He has been nominated for three consecutive Edinburgh Comedy Awards for his 2001, 2002 and 2003 solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.^[27]

The title of his 2001 show, "Go You Big Red Fire Engine", was coined during a 1999 performance in Melbourne. Hills asked an audience member to yell his name to the audience and for the audience to yell it back, but instead the man yelled "Go you big red fire engine!"^[28] The phrase quickly became an audience chant, and Hills promised he would make it the name of his next show because, he says, "it was such an uplifting and genuinely silly moment."^[29] "Go You Big Red Fire Engine" later became the name of a second stand-up show and a comedy album. It also appeared in a Detroit newspaper, on a Swedish website, and was yelled by Senator Natasha Stott Despoja in the Australian Parliament.^[28]

Hills' artificial right foot is commonly used as a source of humour in his shows and the comedian has been known to remove it and pass it around. However, he had been performing live comedy for over a decade before he made reference to his prosthesis on stage, and it was only after "Go You Big Red Fire Engine" was nominated for a Perrier Award in 2001 that he began incorporating it into his act. Hills says he felt he could too easily have become a novelty act and that he "didn't want to be known as the one-legged comedian ... I wanted to prove myself as a comic before talking about this".^[30]

At his festival shows, Hills regularly performs alongside Leanne Beer, an Auslan sign interpreter, a move sparked by a performance he did in Adelaide at a disability art conference.^[31] An interpreter had been provided at the show, and Hills found that it not only allowed the deaf audience members to enjoy his material but was also an entertaining and fascinating experience for the hearing audience members. "Now I have hearing people who will only book [for sign interpreted shows]", he says.^[4]

Some of his influences include Chris Addison, Greg Fleet, Rich Hall, Daniel Kitson, Ross Noble and David O'Doherty.^[32]

Television career

Hills hosted the music trivia show Spicks and Specks from its premiere in 2005. In late-2007, he joined the show on a national live tour dubbed the "Spicks and Speck-tacular", with appearances in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle and Perth.^[33] In late 2011 and early 2012, the show hit the road again for Spicks and Speck-tacular – The Finale, appearing in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Wollongong, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. He has also made appearances on Australian shows: Rove Live, The Glass House and The Fat, as well as the UK shows: Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week, QI and Ask Rhod Gilbert.^[34][35] Additionally, he appeared on the first TV edition of BBC Northern Ireland's Great Unanswered Questions.^[36] He conducted backstage interviews at Australia's 2005 and 2006 Logie Awards and was one of three presenters at the 2007 awards.^[37][38]

In September 2008, Hills co-hosted the ABC coverage of the 2008 Summer Paralympics.^[39][40]

In July 2009, Hills appeared in Thank God You're Here; he also appeared on Good News Week.

Hills presented his own weekly talk show, Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight, on the ABC from early-2011.^[41] In 2012 it was renamed Adam Hills Tonight and ended with its third-season finale on 31 July 2013.^[42]

In 2012, he was part of the UK Channel 4 TV commentary team for the London 2012 Summer Paralympics,^[43] and hosted a daily alternative review of each day's events, The Last Leg with Adam Hills, with Alex Brooker and comedian Josh Widdicombe.^[44] The show was renamed The Last Leg, and was adapted for a weekly schedule to cover a comedic wrap-up of the week's events. The Last Leg has since been renewed for multiple series each year, with the 300th episode airing in March 2023.

In 2013, Hills hosted the panel game Monumental for BBC Northern Ireland. In August 2013, it was announced that Hills would present a special one-off revival episode of Channel 4's quiz show, Fifteen to One.^[45] This was broadcast on 20 September 2013, as part of the channel's 1980s-themed Back to the Future weekend of programmes.^[46] He was credited under the name "Adam C. Hills" in a tribute to the original presenter, William G. Stewart. In 2014, Hills returned to present four more celebrity specials; a full daytime series was hosted by Danish-born comedian Sandi Toksvig.^[47]

In 2014, Hills co-starred in Die On Your Feet, an Australian TV series starring several real-life comedians as fictional comics at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

In 2016, Hills voiced Buddy Pendergast in Thunderbirds Are Go.^[48]

In February 2022 he began hosting the Super League coverage on Channel 4.

Other work

In 2002, Hills released a single titled "Working Class Anthem", in which he sang the lyrics of the Australian National Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", to the tune of "Working Class Man", a famous song by iconic Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes. Around 40 comedians contributed to the song, which made the independent top 10 in Australia. All proceeds went to the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council, an organisation supported by Barnes and Jon Bon Jovi that supports firefighters. Hills has performed the song several times on television, including a performance honouring Barnes' guest appearance on Spicks and Specks.^[49]

Between 2003 and 2005, Hills wrote as a columnist for the BBC's disability website Ouch!.^[50]

Hills published a memoir, Best Foot Forward, in 2018.^[51] His first book for children, "Rock Star Detectives", was published in February 2022. A second book in the series, titled "Murder at the Movies", was released in February 2023,^[52] and a third book is currently in the works.^[53]

In 2019, Adam Hills: Take His Legs was released, a sports documentary that follows the birth of the Warrington Wolves physical disability rugby league team from its creation, to the first PDRL World Club Challenge. In August 2023, a sequel documentary about the inaugural PDRL World Cup was released, titled Adam Hills: Grow Another Foot.^[54]

Also in 2023, Hills narrated and executive produced Amputating Alice, a documentary about the journey of British Paralympic swimmer Alice Tai, who competed in the 2022 Commonwealth Games less than a year after having her right leg amputated.^[55]

In March 2023, Hills partnered with Scott Hallsworth to open a permanent Freak Scene restaurant in Parsons Green in London.^[56]

Charting singles

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.

Television