After having to cancel his first weekend at Adelaide Fringe, Dave Hughes addresses his absence due to COVID (he was a close contact) and it's unsurprising the effects of the pandemic are intertwined into almost all of the topics he discusses over the next hour.
Staged at The Boboli at The Garden Of Unearthly Delights (26 February), Hughesy comments how great the audience are and repeats his catchphrases – "It's great to be here" and "I've never been more pumped up" – while discussing cloth versus paper masks, the risk of being spat on in the front row, and state premiers sucking up the attention during COVID times.Dave is an endearing, awkward everyman, having become more successful via television ('Hughesy, We Have A Problem' and 'The Masked Singer' get mentions) but fame has lead to haters and negative comments online, with even his kids occasionally chiming in.
The show title 'Trending' relates to Dave posting things on the Internet that people then disagree with that go viral.
He informs us this show is "stuff I can't do on the internet" like the reason 'Bondi Rescue' has not been made during the pandemic and having rescue animals as pets.
It is telling that in the final part of his show, he shares an argument with his wife about the brightness of his Kindle screen which he then recants, clarifying the interaction didn't occur quite as he described with his side of the dialogue actually being internal.
As humorous and entertaining as Dave's online experiences are, perhaps a closer consideration of what he posts on Twitter and some external filtering may lead to a downturn in his going viral negatively, but perhaps that would not be as beneficial to an audience eager for his idiosyncratic outlook and delivery.
