SECRET TIME TRAVEL MEETING Returns to Adelaide Fringe 2026 with New Insights

Comedian, author and self-described futurist Shawn Wickens returns to Adelaide Fringe in 2026 with Secret Time Travel Meeting, a comedy experience that blends stand-up, storytelling, speculative thinking and live audience interaction into what he calls “a casual meeting about the future.”

Following a sold-out Adelaide debut in 2025 and international performances in New Zealand, Estonia and the United States, Wickens brings an evolving new version of the show back to South Australia for an extended run across multiple venues.

While the premise sounds playful, Wickens says the project grew from an unexpectedly serious place.

“It's only after you write your first book about time travel (Time Machine Blueprints, first edition) that you really start thinking about time travel. And then the new ideas appear out of nowhere,” he said.

At its core, Secret Time Travel Meeting asks audiences to imagine how time travel might work, and more importantly, how it should be used.

“People come to a comedy show about time travel thinking it's just going to be jokes,” Wickens said. “Then suddenly they're hearing actual deep thoughts about the future.”

The structure of the show is intentionally loose. Some moments are rehearsed, but large portions are improvised, shaped by audience questions and the energy in the room.

“I like to let the audience laugh first,” he said. “Then blow their minds later.”

Wickens refers to the past, present and future as “proper nouns,” and speaks about The Future as if it were a real destination.

“Especially The Future,” he said. “It's a place we're all headed.”

The “secret” in the title is partly a joke, partly a philosophy.

“People ask what's so secret about it,” he said. “I tell them: you didn't know about it a week ago, or a month ago, or a year ago. What we know in the present used to be a secret in the past.”

In a deliberate move against content-driven performance culture, Wickens asks audiences to turn off their phones and refrain from filming or photography.

“I don't do the live show for social media,” he said. “I do it for the people who are in the room. The meeting is secret because it belongs to the people who show up.”

Audience members are encouraged to attend in costume, or even as alternate versions of themselves from a different timeline, to make the performance that much more playfully and softlly immersive..

“I've had people show up as interdimensional aliens, cosplayers, pirates, robots… and one person wore clothes they normally don't wear,” Wickens said. “That counts too.”

He jokingly describes the show as being “for smart people.”

“If you're in the audience, congratulations, you're smart,” he said. “But really it's for the intellectually and emotionally curious. Sci-fi fans, people who like improv, people who enjoy ideas. Secret Time Travel Meeting can get fluid, absurd, and weird.”

International reviews have echoed the show's unusual blend of humor and philosophy.

Broadway World called it “a fun and unique show that makes you think about how you'd use time travel.”
Estonian publication Sour Cream and Dill described it as “simple and expansive… a journey that feels much further, deeper, and longer than expected.”
New Zealand's Theatreview praised it as “as intellectually stimulating as it is hilariously unpredictable.”

Wickens says that even in places where he was warned audiences were “quiet,” the show consistently surprised him.

“I think the performance is welcoming and disarming,” he said. “Eventually I take questions, but the tone is casual. Parts of it really are run like a meeting.”

“We live in scary times,” Wickens said. “But I want people to leave the show feeling uplifted. I truly believe that if we can collectively look forward to The Future, it can genuinely improve how we live today. And if that's a spoiler for the show, so be it.”

Performance details – Adelaide Fringe 2026

Tolley's Underground at Mylk Bar on Waymouth
Fri 20 Feb – 8:00pm
Sat 21 Feb – 8:00pm
Wed 25 Feb – 8:00pm
Thu 26 Feb – 8:00pm
Fri 27 Feb – 8:00pm

Georgie's Bar at Woodville Town Hall
Sat 28 Feb – 2:00pm
Wed 4 Mar – 6:00pm

Forum at ABHS
Fri 6 Mar – 7:30pm
Sat 7 Mar – 6:30pm
Sun 8 Mar – 6:30pm