FRESH from his triumph as host of Channel 4's critically-acclaimed The Last Leg, Australian funnyman Adam Hills has a North West date on Tuesday.

He is hitting the road with highly-anticipated new show Happyism, following a two week limited run at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and will appear at the Lowry, Salford Quays.

Adam contributed to the success of Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics last summer with his nightly appearances on The Last Leg, a mix of comedy, guests and Paralympics highlights.

Adam, who was born without a right foot and wears a prosthetic foot, said: “Something special happened during the Paralympics. It was a thunderstorm. We went into a field, held up a golf club and thankfully lightning struck it.

“Channel 4 took the Paralympics very seriously and devoted a lot of time to it.

“If they hadn’t made such a great job of it, we couldn’t have made fun of it on The Last Leg.
“But we were never mocking the disabled — we were celebrating their achievements.

“We were saying, ‘Here is a person doing something extraordinary, and here are some funny things about it’.”

The comedian, whose debut UK stand-up DVD Happyism will be released by Universal Pictures on 18 November, enjoys the relationship he has with his audience.

He said: “I don’t victimise people, I celebrate them.

“The great thing about playing to a live audience is that you create something that can only exist in that room on that night.

“At a show in Edinburgh, a woman in the front row turned up with a three-foot inflatable Mickey Mouse made entirely of balloons.

“I rested the mouse on the front of the stage so the woman didn’t have to hold onto it. Then halfway through the show, one of the balloons popped – and it happened to be the mouse’s right leg.

“I said, ‘This is amazing. Mickey Mouse is now disabled, and he’s missing the same leg as I’m missing!’

"The audience knew they were seeing something that would never happen again.

“They were the lucky ones who just happened to be in the room that night.

“If you ask someone in many years time if they remember that night, they’ll reply, ‘I’ll never forget it!’

“That’s what I love about stand-up.”

Adam, who has been commissioned by Channel 4 to present two more series of The Last Leg, will be at The Lowry at 8pm on Tuesday.