Why I love Adelaide: Christian Hull

Christian Hull is an Australian comedian and creator who has accumulated over 600 million views on his plethora of hilarious videos and gained a loyal following of over two million followers on social media. Christian has spent a lot of time in Adelaide, having produced breakfast radio shows for SAFM before his own channels grew. One of his first viral videos was called 'Growing Up In Adelaide' and it got over two million views. He is also a regular performer in the annual Feast Festival which starts this week and has events across the CBD until 28 November, including hubs at The Treasury 1860, Sparkke at the Whitmore and The District at Skycity. Christian will be returning to Adelaide this month to perform his new show What a Mess as part of Feast.

I moved to Adelaide in 2011, wow 10 years ago! I was there for about three and a half years. I lived in Unley in this tiny one bedroom and I absolutely loved it. Just opposite the Park Lands on Greenhill Road and I worked next door. I moved to Adelaide to work at SAFM and I lived next door to the station which some people are like, ‘ew, why would you do that!’ But, when your life is radio, it was very handy and also so central. And I really love spending my time in Adelaide. There is a lot going on. Everything happens in March. Obviously, that'll always happen. For me, I thought it was an easy city. The city was a grid, it was so easy to get around. I could jump on the tram to Glenelg go to the beach. You go down to Noarlunga, it's so beautiful around there. And I just really loved it.

I'm trying to give an appropriate one... There were a lot of festivals and I always loved going to the Garden of Unearthly Delights. The Garden was just so magical and it was so close to home – pretty much the entire month of March was spent in the Garden. A lot of times, mains streets would shut down and there would be a festival with lots of food vendors around and I think living so close to the city, there was always something on. People ask ‘what’s going on?' in Adelaide, but there was always a little pub opening, a new whiskey bar was there. You'd have all the festivals and it had really great comedy. And I just hanged out at Rundle Mall and spent all the money that I earned at Harris Scarfe. I also used to love going into the Park Lands across the road, I used to just sit in the park and read or eat.

Adelaide was an amazing experience. SAFM was insane. So I was I was quite young, mid 20s and I got my first big radio job and I've moved from Newcastle to Adelaide so it was the first real sort of city that I was living on my own in and it was just so much fun. It was so hectic, but radio was a 24/7 job. We met a lot of classic Adelaide personalities like Hans. Old Matty Gilbertson, what a larger than life character, he was hilarious. And that sort of really started my career in producing and working on breakfast shows, I met a lot of great people, formed a lot of connections and basically learned everything that I know now in terms of running my own business. It was pretty much learned back in Adelaide.

CIBO obviously. Hutt Street was a great place to sit and be fancy. It's in a beautiful sandstone, alfresco dining area and I used to walk there, have a coffee and a ham and cheese croissant and do some work or just watch countless YouTube videos. It's just in a really picturesque part of the city. There are so many little hidden gems around Adelaide now. When i was last on tour, I was taken to Whistle and Flute cafe and loved it! The atmosphere is really lovely.

Soonta on Waymouth Street, it's a hole in the wall place in the middle of the city with the most delicious Banh Mi. I only found out about this place a few months before leaving Adelaide for Melbourne and I was there every day for lunch. I would religiously walk there from work and it would take me like half an hour and as a fatty, that's commitment but it was so good. Oh my god, I miss that place.

Majestic Minima Hotel, it's in a really nice location on Melbourne Street in North Adelaide. Nothing super high end, but the rooms are nice and its a short walk to places without being in the chaos.

So obviously, being a New South Wales person, I've never heard of them before. And I mean it's just a simple concept. It's apricot in chocolate, but that just doesn't exist in the rest of Australia. I do not know why, it's so delicious. And I first discovered them at Easter when they put them into the hot cross buns. Oh my god, it's the most delicious food I've ever had. The Fruchoc buns are so good and we would get sent just boxes of them to the radio station and the reason why I'm so overweight, is because it’s all I lived off. Oh my god, I can understand why they're so popular and I've been to the factory and it's amazing. They're such a classic quintessential Adelaide thing. That and saying 'lay-go' (Lego) and daRnce (dance) which annoys me a lot but you know.

I love the pigeon. Every time art work goes in, everyone throws their hands up and asks why did you do this. Here's the thing I want to ask – when the Malls Balls went in right, surely when they went in people like WTF, what is this! But now when you think Adelaide, you think Malls Balls, one singular tram (now two) and Fruchocs right? I actually really love the pigeon, the geometric shape. I really enjoy all the crazy sculptures. And now you have another meeting point! The Malls Balls was the only place that people would say, we’ll meet there, now it’s the pigeon.

I love the Adelaide audiences, they are loose. You do get spoilt for comedy, especially across the festivals, Feast and Fringe. I wouldn’t say Adelaide is an easy laugh but they’re so receptive to welcoming everyone in, so I really love performing there. And also I just love coming down to visit. Comedy is just really rewarding. It changes my mood when I'm trying to be funny, and people actually find me funny. It's a real pick me up. And with the whole world at the moment, it's sort of really great to not look over there at the fire and try and make people feel a little bit better with everything that's going on. 

I would have very low expectations going into coming to see my show. I describe it as less of a comedy show and more of an onstage meltdown. So it's a lot of stories that have happened to me over the last year and a half in in COVID. Just real disasters that have happened unintentionally. That's why it’s What a Mess. Because the last two years have been just a mess and I will share that mess with you. I do get sort of naked a little bit. That's definitely not an incentive to sell tickets, just as a pre-warning.

Anything with Hans, I absolutely love him.

It's incredibly important to keep everything top of mind. You know, we've achieved so much over the last few years, we've got marriage equality and more rights. When you look at it from back when I was at school, so much has changed. You know, the younger kids are a lot more open and honest. Because of all these festivals and because it's so widely accepted now, people feel a lot safer. So we need to keep that sort of momentum going and these festivals do that. They provide this safe environment for queer performers to do their thing and there are some out-there shows, they’re so good. Being a part of a festival is a lot less daunting than just going out on your own. And so that's why I think Feast, the Mardi Gras and a lot of the pride festivals around Australia are so vitally important.

Get a photo with the pigeon and post about it. I would like to drive around – North Adelaide is stunning, I’d love to go up around there. I just love exploring. I’m excited to see how much it's changed. SAFM aren’t where they were anymore and now they’re in a big fancy building, lots of developments, lots is happening. And I should come back in March and then just really get that full on Adelaide taste with every conceivable possible thing happening.