Dane Hiser: Excuse Me, Your Authentic Self Is Showing returns to Chippendale with a reflective, sharp hour of comedy shaped by diagnosis, identity and Sydney nights.
On a warm evening in Chippendale, the footpath along Abercrombie Street hums with a casual kind of anticipation. Inside Sneaky Possum, glasses meet timber with a soft rhythm and conversation settles into a comfortable murmur. Upstairs, a small room gathers itself around a microphone and a single performer. The space feels less like a venue and more like a shared secret — the kind Sydney keeps for those willing to look a little closer.
It is here that Dane Hiser returns with Dane Hiser: Excuse Me, Your Authentic Self Is Showing, a monthly performance that drifts between humour and reflection with the ease of someone who has spent years learning how to stand still long enough to listen.
Dane Hiser: Excuse Me, Your Authentic Self Is Showing And The Art Of Arrival
The show begins without ceremony. Hiser steps into the light with the relaxed posture of someone who has already accepted the room as it is — imperfect, attentive, human. His material unfolds from a personal turning point: a neurological diagnosis that redirected the rhythm of everyday life. Yet the tone is not confessional. Instead, the stories arrive with gentle pacing, shaped by observation rather than urgency.
There is a quiet confidence in how the narrative moves. Wellness culture, identity, middle age, and the pursuit of meaning drift through the hour not as declarations but as lived moments. Hiser does not push toward revelation; he allows it to surface naturally, often disguised as humour.
Sydney audiences are familiar with performers who command attention through volume or velocity. What distinguishes this work is its restraint. The laughter grows gradually, carried by recognition rather than surprise.
A Room Above The City
Upstairs at the venue, the physical setting plays its own role. The room is intimate without feeling enclosed. Windows gather the fading light, and the sounds of the neighbourhood rise and fall like a distant tide. Chippendale itself — a suburb shaped by warehouses, galleries, students and long-standing residents — offers an apt backdrop for a performance about reinvention.
The audience reflects that layered environment. Couples lean close in conversation before the lights dim. Solo attendees settle into quiet attentiveness. A few friends arrive with the buoyant energy of a shared night out. The room holds them all without demanding a single mood.
As the performance unfolds, the boundaries between stage and seating soften. Hiser’s presence suggests conversation more than performance, a tone shaped by years navigating Sydney’s comedy rooms and producing his own shows across the city. His delivery carries the ease of someone accustomed to both large stages and small gatherings, equally at home in either.
Dane Hiser: Excuse Me, Your Authentic Self Is Showing And The Shape Of Experience
There is a narrative thread beneath the humour that resists neat resolution. The show does not promise transformation; it documents a process still underway. Stories of medical consultations, wellness advice, and the sometimes awkward pursuit of self-acceptance accumulate gradually. Each moment builds toward a broader portrait of adaptation.
Hiser’s background in acting and production emerges subtly in the structure. Timing is measured, transitions unforced. The rhythm allows space for reflection, giving the audience permission to sit with ideas rather than rush past them.
The result is a performance that feels both personal and widely recognisable. The search for authenticity — so often presented as a destination — appears here as a continuous negotiation. The humour arises not from certainty but from the distance between intention and reality.
A Sydney Performer In Context
Hiser’s path to this stage stretches back to early self-produced performances in local venues, a trajectory shaped as much by persistence as by recognition. Over the years he has shared line-ups with established Australian comedians and contributed to Sydney’s comedy landscape through production and promotion. That history is present not as biography but as texture — an understanding of audience and environment that informs every pause and turn of phrase.
Sydney’s comedy culture has long thrived on variety: polished theatre shows, experimental rooms, and late-night sets in unexpected corners of the city. Dane Hiser: Excuse Me, Your Authentic Self Is Showing sits comfortably within that tradition while maintaining its own tempo.
Dane Hiser: Excuse Me, Your Authentic Self Is Showing As A Shared Experience
What emerges most clearly is the relationship between performer and place. The show belongs to this room, to this neighbourhood, to an audience willing to engage without spectacle. Laughter surfaces in waves rather than bursts, often followed by a moment of quiet recognition.
As the hour draws to a close, the room holds a lingering stillness before conversation resumes. Outside, Chippendale continues at its unhurried pace. The performance leaves not with a flourish but with a subtle shift in attention — a heightened awareness of ordinary details, of voice and presence.
Sydney offers countless ways to spend an evening. Some dazzle with scale, others with novelty. This gathering offers something more measured: an opportunity to witness a performer mapping experience in real time, guided by humour that never strays far from honesty.
The night disperses gently. The streetlight glow meets the low conversation of those stepping back into the city. Somewhere upstairs, the microphone stands ready for the next audience. The sense remains that authenticity, when it appears, rarely announces itself. It simply lingers, quiet but unmistakable.