After 25+ years of reviewing Adelaide Fringe shows, Steve takes a sabbatical this year. But there’s one show he can’t help spotlighting: Rob Newman’s debut solo performance “Don’t Die Wondering”. Newman’s story offers something rare, a comedian willing to be deeply reflective about the journey that brought him to the stage at 60, shaped by a decade of hospitals and life-or-death moments.

This episode contains no SA Drink of the Week segment.

The Musical Pilgrimage features Steve’s own song about the Adelaide Fringe. Through “Centre Stage”, performed by Steve Davis and The Virtuosos, he offers a bittersweet love letter to a festival he’s watched change over decades. The segment includes his conversation with FiveAA’s Richard Pascoe about reviewing standards, five-star review inflation, and why the Fringe remains a jewel in South Australia’s crown.

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Running Sheet: This Adelaide Fringe Don’t Die Wondering

00:00:00 Intro

Introduction

00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week

There is no SA Drink Of The Week this week.

00:03:17 Rob Newman

Rob Newman appears on screen in full purple surgical scrubs against a hospital backdrop. It’s not a gimmick. Over the past decade, he’s spent considerable time in hospitals and operating theatres, told more than once to gather his family and say goodbye. These experiences form the bedrock of Don’t Die Wondering.

The path to standup wasn’t part of Newman’s original plan. He traces it back to a coffee conversation with Steve 10 to 12 years ago. “Your suggestion at the time was, come and try standup,” Newman recalls. “It’s a great way to get the confidence to do public speaking.” What began as preparation for property market speaking tours became something much deeper.

Steve shares his own early standup experience, driving across Adelaide to work with Glynn Nicholas, heart palpitating so strongly he could feel his pulse under his eyebrows. Newman agrees about the terror, offering perhaps the most vivid description of pre-show nerves: “It’s the best cure for constipation you’ll ever get in your life.”

But the terror serves a purpose. Newman describes managing the fear of judgment. “Not so much to lose it, but control it in the sense of embracing the fear of it,” he explains. That fear never entirely disappears. What changes is the ability to handle surprises, to relax into improvisation, to step away from verbatim scripts.

The conversation explores performing as yourself versus hiding behind characters. Steve admits he gravitated toward characters partly because “anything negative feedback that might happen is water off a duck’s back. In some ways it’s the cheat’s way out.” Newman has stuck with vulnerability. “Be yourself,” he says. “Basically unzip yourself and be vulnerable.”

Steve’s immediate response: “What’s your show rated?” Newman confirms it’s R-rated, though the rating speaks more to emotional honesty than shock value.

Newman’s been running around Adelaide dressed as a surgeon, offering free medical checks as promotion for the show. It’s playful promotion, but also a way of inhabiting the hospital world that shaped his perspective.

Newman’s journey through the comedy ranks has been patient and methodical. Starting in his early fifties, he’s spent years developing his craft before attempting a solo Fringe show at 60. The title “Don’t Die Wondering” carries weight when spoken by someone who’s genuinely faced that possibility.

Rob Newman was a grant recipient through the Adelaide Fringe Foundation.

00:38:30 Musical Pilgrimage

In the Musical Pilgrimage, we feature Centre Stage (The Adelaide Fringe Song) by Steve Davis & The Virtualosos.

After 25+ years of reviewing Adelaide Fringe shows, often two to three per night, Steve presents his own song about the festival. “Centre Stage” is what he describes as “still a love song to the Fringe and just a cheeky fringe type, steampunk, gothic reflection on the state of play.” The lyrics trace the festival’s shift from experimental counterculture to celebrity-driven programming: “You were fringe to me / You did not need celebrities / But now a household name comes and cash in on fame / And crowds out smaller shows that have more soul.” His reviewing experience infuses the verses, cataloguing years spent in theatres, on blankets in parks, and sweltering in church halls without air vents, always writing reviews “to help all thinking people choose emerging art in our town.”

The conversation with FiveAA’s Richard Pascoe addresses reviewing standards and the proliferation of five-star reviews. “There are some reviewers who are promised critics, et cetera, but there’s a lot of light dusting out there,” Steve observes. “They have become cheapened, like the money in Argentina during their inflation.” Steve’s reviewing philosophy was always accountability: “I had to write them knowing that you would go and buy a ticket and you need to be able to look me in the eye and say, yep, that was accurate.” Despite his criticisms of how the Fringe has changed, Steve’s message remains clear: attend the Fringe, take chances on weird and experimental shows, support artists attempting something genuinely different. “Enjoy the Fringe. We should, no matter how we do it. It’s an absolute jewel in our crown.”