When Australian comedy great Akmal Saleh started out in Sydney in 1993, the scene was rough.

“It was a very different type of comedy, you know. You were very limited in what you could do… back then it was very blokey,” he says.

“The guys who grew up in Sydney, who learned their craft there, tend to be a little bit rougher, a little bit ruder, whereas the Melbourne guys are a bit more theatrical… because they know they’re not going to get an ashtray to the face.”

When he first came to Adelaide Fringe in the mid ’90s, Akmal discovered something entirely different. Touring a sketch show that he devised and performed in collaboration with three fellow comedians, he found a welcoming and open atmosphere that stood in stark contrast to many of his other experiences.

“I think, honestly, it’s the best festival in the world, in my opinion, because I’ve done Edinburgh a few times and it’s always cold – I mean that atmospherically, not weather-wise. Everyone’s business-like there, whereas in Adelaide it’s small enough to really give it that festival feel.

“It’s much cosier.”

Not Dead Yet – Akmal Saleh’s poster image for the new show he will premiere at this year’s Adelaide Fringe.

While – on its surface – cosiness might sound like a positive but relatively unimportant attribute, many in the comedy scene agree that Fringe’s unique atmosphere make it a hugely influential event on the Australian comedy circuit.

Comedian Ross Noble is an Adelaide Fringe regular and former ambassador for the event.

British-born and Victorian-based comedian Ross Noble says the Adelaide Fringe provides a rare meeting point – giving established comedians an annual chance to work alongside each other.

“When you first start and you’re in the comedy clubs, you never know who you’re going to end up on the bill with, so you meet all of these diverse individuals,” says Noble. “And then if you’re lucky enough to be successful and you start working in theatres, you never see other comics unless you’re doing television or charity gigs.

“So the brilliant thing about Adelaide is you have all of these comics turning up. It’s a great chance to catch up with mates… there’s great weather, great restaurants, loads of fun people and then great audiences at the end of the night.”

Adelaide Comedy co-founder Craig Egan, who also co-runs the Rhino Room and has been a key figure in the South Australian scene for more than two decades, says this cross-pollination at Fringe is essential for helping up-and-coming performers build their careers.

it’s a breeding ground for pushing people in ways their mind might not have gone before

“I always talk about the J curve of learning that happens after the Fringe,” he says. “You watch young comics making their way through the scene, doing pretty good, and then the Fringe comes and they’re exposed to all the ideas in the world.

“They go out, they perform more than they ever have… so all of that exposure, that flying time, that exchange of ideas, that all really helps, I think.

“And there’s all these little late shows and showcase shows and other bits and pieces, where you get a chance to sort of push things… there’s improv shows, there’s challenge shows, there’s all different kinds of little spots where you get challenged to think in a different way or write on a topic. So, it’s a breeding ground for pushing people in ways their mind might not have gone before.”

Since relocating from Frome Street to a larger Pirie Street home in 2017, Rhino Room has cemented its position as the unofficial hub of comedy in Adelaide.

During Fringe, when larger venues such as the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony also feature big-name comedy acts, Egan deliberately curates his Fringe programs to include a mix of established, local and national emerging talent. Across both the Rhino Room and the Marion Hotel, he hopes to offer audiences diversity while maximising the possibility for collaboration and development between comics.

Craig Egan at the Rhino Room. Photo: Jason Vanderpeer / That Photography Place

This year, among his more than 80-show program, is emerging Adelaide comedian Vida Slayman, who will perform her first solo show during Fringe. Titled Comedy of Terrors, the work riffs on her experiences of war and of bringing up kids, finding surprising analogues between the two.

Slayman began her stand-up career in 2020, starting out as a complete beginner in her 40s. While consistently “showing up” for open mic night after open mic night and becoming a Raw Comedy state finalist have helped build her career, she says performing in a group Fringe show in 2022 was another sharp accelerator.

“Having that first Fringe last year taught me a little bit about the business side of things – what you need to do to sell tickets,” she says.

“It taught me about how to work together as part of a team in that particular context; it taught me much more about audiences and how stuff that works in this context that might not work in another context, so kind of adapting my material.

“I’m still fledgling and starting out, but I’m a lot further along than what I was.”

Vida Slayman’s 2023 Fringe show will riff on her experiences of war and of bringing up kids.

Egan says Fringe is also an opportunity for promoters like himself and emerging comics like Slayman to build audiences that help sustain the Adelaide scene through the less-frenzied months around February and March.

Since launching Adelaide Comedy in 2000, Egan has been hosting at least one or two regular comedy nights each week at the Rhino Room. He says the spirit of adventure that overcomes Adelaide audiences during Fringe can help transform the comedy-curious into the comedy-committed.

“People are going to come out to see the famous act but then they’re going to get exposed to the local acts along the way as well, so that was always a really positive part of it. Through the Fringe, new people take a chance at coming out and seeing us, hearing about who we are, and all of that, and we always need that new audience coming through.”

The open-minded nature of Adelaide Fringe audiences is equally important for the more established comedians, many of whom will use the extended run near the start of the year to refine their new material.

This year, Akmal will premiere his show Not Dead Yet, which (along with poking fun at what he says is the potential for his career to die at any moment) will find the humour in classically morbid topics such as death and religion.

My best material comes from improvising and working off the crowd

While he is careful to point out that he would never want to experiment on an audience, Akmal says Fringe punters are primed for adventurous material.

“It’s an arts festival, really, so people come in not expecting comedy necessarily, so that’s a good place to kind of work the material and the thing is you always work on your material anyway.

“Even when you get to Melbourne [International Comedy Festival] and you’re getting full houses, every day and every night you’re fine-tuning, you’re trying to improve it, so it never stops being tinkered with.

“My best material comes from improvising and working off the crowd.”

Noble has been performing at Adelaide Fringe consistently since his first tour here in 2000. He agrees that it’s an excellent place to try out new material, but says the nature of his performance is such that his material is almost always as surprising to him as it is to his audience.

In February and March, he is bringing the world premiere of Jibber Jabber Jamboree to Adelaide Fringe. The four-week run, which marks Noble’s 21^st stand-up tour, sees him continuing his return to extended seasons at the Fringe after several pre-pandemic years of playing fewer shows in higher-capacity venues.

This flexibility is built into the Fringe model, and allows comedians to incorporate the festival into their schedules in a way that suits their ever-evolving careers and the broader performance environment.

“For a few years, I would just come in and do a couple of shows – I would play at Thebarton [Theatre] and I did the Entertainment Centre one year… which was actually really good fun,” says Noble.

“But the past two years, because of COVID… you had no idea what was happening in terms of capacities being reduced and being allowed to travel and all that sort of stuff. So, in 2021 and 2022, that’s when I decided I would go back to doing the full run because moving around became a bit tricky.

“This year it should be more straightforward – we’re back at 100 per cent capacity and at a great venue.”

Among all the specific characteristics that make Adelaide Fringe an essential part of the Australian comedy eco-system, there is also the simple fact of its existence.

For comedy lovers across the country, including the comics themselves, it’s an event that allows them to spend weeks engaging with an artform that brings them joy and catharsis.

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“People want to be uplifted and people need a little bit of a relief,” says Slayman. “Comedy serves a very important function.”

The 2023 Adelaide Fringe runs from February 17 until March 19. Adelaide Comedy’s Fringe program is available to view here. Vida Slayman will perform Comedy of Terrors from February 28 to March 4 at Alley Cat at the Rhino Room; Akmal will perform Not Dead Yet from February 17 to March 19 at The May Wirth in Gluttony, and Ross Noble will perform Jibber Jabber Jamboree from February 17 to March 19 at The Flamingo in Gluttony.

This story is part of a series of articles being produced with the support of Adelaide Fringe.

Read more 2023 Adelaide Fringe stories and reviews on InReview here.