Viral Youtube star and English sketch comedian, Adrian Bliss sprints out onto the Beckett stage at Malthouse Theatre in a giant orange inflatable ball and light-up undies. He is ‘Little Atom’; literally a tiny atom that we’ll be following across time and space as he searches for meaning. So goes the plot of Bliss’s first live show, Inside Everyone. For any one of the millions of followers across Bliss’s Instagram and YouTube accounts, it’ll seem like a pretty typical gambit for the comedian.
Bliss has carved out a unique little corner of the internet for himself with a brand of historical and fact-based sketches delivered in the driest deadpan you’ve ever heard. Think of any common idiom or turn of phrase and Bliss has likely made a sketch out of it, thrown it into a specific period of history or made a part of the body sing it. It’s part dad joke, part absurdist sketch comedy, and part history lesson – for that reason it has a certain adorkable charm. Like any good dad joke, there’s an earnestness behind the intelligent wordplay that is incredibly endearing. It was this combination that made Bliss soar to fame during the pandemic, propelled by our collective desire for easy escapism. It’s also why much of his material seems to have aged.
Inside Everyone is Bliss’s attempt to transition from online star to onstage comedian. For one hour we follow this ‘Little Atom’ as he stumbles through iconic moments of history; from the extinction of the dinosaurs and Shakespeare’s rise to fame, to the birth of Jesus and the death of Van Gogh. But like everything with Bliss, there’s always a unique twist. With a coat hanger side stage packed with outlandish, and beautifully made costumes, he becomes a self-conscious brontosaurus eager to look hot in their fossil record, or Mary failing to file a complaint to God, or Van Gogh’s ear-turned-art critic.
Title cards, tight lighting design and intentional audience interactions help translate Bliss’s often restrained delivery style and physicality to the sold-out Beckett Theatre. It’s clear that Bliss and his team are incredibly savvy theatremakers. Just when his style of comedy seems to be teetering on unbearably twee, he’ll suddenly introduce a bawdy pun or risque premise; a showstopper sung by a sperm that never was, or a pants-less Shakespeare presenting at an awards ceremony. Part of what is unique about Bliss is the way he seems to be ahead of the categories that might pigeon hole him. And, though he apologised for opening night mishaps, moments when he was forced to ad-lib after a lost costume or missed catch were among the show’s highlights.
Ultimately, it’s an easy hour to watch, but too often does Bliss’s twee style overstay its welcome with overlong sketches and saccharine ballads. The note of hope Bliss tries to strike at the end - a general call to “follow your heart” – pulled the show dangerously close to the realm of children’s edutainment. There’s much for fans to enjoy here all the same, and perhaps some history lessons to learn for the uninitiated.
Inside Everyone is playing at the Malthouse Theatre until April 21 and tickets are available over here.