Adam Ethan Crow's style has changed a lot in the last couple of years. He used to do regular observational comedy but switched to darker and more soul-searching shows. He’s found that mining past trauma for laughs has created a deeper connection with audiences.
 
His new show, The Evolution of Crow, is billed as part motivational seminar, part confession booth. He explains that he and his former girlfriend of eight years broke up after he discovered she had been unfaithful.
 
“It was like I’d been gut punched,” he said.
 
“And then I analysed it, and looked at myself a little bit, and all the relationships I’ve had and who I really became, and some of it probably was my fault. And so The Evolution of Crow is really me analysing who she was, who I was, how [in] our relationship the bloom had left the rose, as it were, towards the end.”
 
It also made him think about other relationships, including past exes and friends, and how he could have invested in them more, he said.
 
His show last year was even heavier, featuring another ex who died from an overdose and an absent father with archaic views on race relations.
 
“My dad’s a proper South African Boer. My best friend from university is Jamaican. And my best friend from university married my sister. But my dad wasn’t here, he went back to South Africa when I was ten, and he spoke to Mark on the phone and gave his blessing.”
 
“But Mark went to public school, so if you saw him, dreadlocks out, looking tough, you’d think, ‘Oh my God, I’m getting mugged.’ But if you heard him…” Crow's voice changes from knockabout London bloke to posh Englishman to explain what his well-educated Jamaican friend sounded like on the phone.
 
“He didn’t come over to the actual wedding. Fifteen years ago we sent him the photo album and not one member of my immediate family has heard back from my dad since.”
 
It's heavy stuff but he's noticed audience members connecting better with his new style. It’s also a big change from his earlier years in stand-up.
 
“I was like any other comic out there, putting on jeans too skinny, and pointing things out that everybody recognised. Like, ‘Hey, you know when you’re on a train, and the train next to you starts to move, and for a split second you’re not sure if your train’s moving?’”
 
“Hey, you know what it’s like when you wake up and your girlfriend’s had a bad dream about you, and she wakes up angry?”
 
He's fine with that kind of show, he explains, but now he's trying to do something different. “I don't like chocolate but that doesn't mean chocolate’s bad. What I’m trying to do now is talk about things that I genuinely have a passion about.
 
BY ELIZABETH REDMAN
 
Adam Ethan Crow will perform The Evolution Of Crow from Wednesday March 28 until Saturday April 21 (except Wednesday April 4, 11 and 18) at 7.45pm (6.45pm Sundays). Tickets $20/$15 ($10 Tightarse Tuesdays) from Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and at the door.