DAVID MILLS: ‘glamour + despair’ Stand-Up Comedy Cabaret for the End Times

Hayes Theatre July 1 & 2

part of the Winter Cabaret Season

Direct from New York City, – home of the 2026 NBA Champions, the Knicks – award-winning stand-up/cabaret firebrand, David Mills, brings his critically acclaimed ‘glamour + despair’ to the Hayes Theatre as part of their Winter Cabaret Season.

This screamingly jaded look at the apocalypse just played for two sold-out shows at the 2026 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.  Some of the reaction below:

‘Glamour + Despair was nothing short of brilliant. The comedy was intelligent, engaging and hilarious.  The cabaret was emotive, soulful and impactful.  It was a great show from beginning to end. I laughed my mascara off!’ — @theAdelaideHipster

‘Mills is the consummate stand-up comedian, the oracle of his tribe, the satirist with a sting. But he’s also a cabaret artist who twists the tone with song.  He delivers his message with chilling effect only to relieve the tension with a joke.  A cabaret iconoclast, part artist, part antichrist, part prophet.’ — Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle  

In this scathing romp through the boneyard of contemporary culture, Mills eviscerates everything from celebrity to casual sex, LGBTQIA+ pride to social media, drugs to affirmations, and much more.  His sharply satirical comedy takes aim at today’s harrowing headlines and skewers the unrelenting horrors of contemporary life.

A bold showbiz iconoclast, Mills mixes biting stand-up, storytelling and a singular take on classic nightclub cabaret into innovative, uncharted performance territory.

‘glamour + despair’ is a provocative mash-up of biting wit and dingy basement cabaret reinterpretations including forgotten 70s soul, indie bar room laments, twisted disco and even a current dance rock anthem. Numbers include underappreciated gems by Oscar Brown, Tom Waits, Charlie Smalls, Odessey and Sports Team.

Now based in NYC, American stand-up / cabaret singer / actor David Mills, spent over a decade on the cutthroat London stand-up circuit.  He’s opened for Trevor Noah, Margaret Cho and Ed Byrne and taken several acclaimed shows to the Edinburgh Fringe.  He’s appeared in films alongside Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Benedict Cumberbatch, Harrison Ford and Rami Malek.  Since 2023, he’s been in the US smashing the comedy basements of NYC.

‘blisteringly smart, achingly funny, uncompromisingly bold, staunchly unapologetic, blissfully original and completely, totally, absolutely enjoyable”- BroadwayWorld.com

“A remarkable show that demands to be seen! His wry, witheringly acerbic, and topical observations are constantly hilarious and often surprising. He follows in the line of great social comics like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Paul Provenza, and others, but enhanced with daring and on-target song choices.” – Gerry Geddes, bistroawards.com

“Debonair, urbane, sophisticated, outrageously funny!” – Penny Arcade

“Unapologetic, droll, laser sharp, vulgar, original and wickedly funny.” – Steve Murray, CabaretScenes.com