A comedian and entertainer, Do returns to the Horsham Town Hall to perform his memoir, The Happiest Refugee. 

Do brings the memoir to life in a different type of stand-up show. 

The show is a once-off – on February 24 at 8pm. 

Venue manager Shana Miatke said the last time Anh Do visit Horsham, the town hall had a wait list for his tickets. 

“It was due to the fact the schools study his book, The Happiest Refugee, as well,” she said.  

“There is definitely a great interest in Anh Do, in his artistic skills, his comedian skills and his story.” 

Through The Happiest Refugee, Do tells his story of migrating from Vietnam in 1980 on an eight-metre fishing boat with 47 other refugees. It also detail his life growing up in Australia. 

Ms Miatke said she and the team did not always have a chance to watch the shows due to their work demands. 

Ms Miatke said this was likely the same when Do visited – but said that also came with positives. 

“What we have then is the respect from promoters and people who want to hire the venue. Our staff are of such a high quality, (the performers) enjoy their experience and want to re-book,” she said. “It’s a credit to the team here.” 

Ms Miatke said she advised anyone who wanted a ticket to The Happiest Refugee to get in before Christmas. 

“They will be a perfect Christmas present this year,” she said. 

The town hall’s marketing co-ordinator Charee Smith said audiences were appreciating the calibre of artists performing at the venue. 

“The performers are connecting with the audience and if they have a great house and people are receptive, they are going to want to come back to Horsham and perform again,” she said.

“And the fact that it is only less than a year (since he performed in Horsham) is retrospective of the quality of what we do for them.” 

Ms Smith said Do’s previous show received a strong response. 

“Even when we put Anh Do back on sale, I think within the first 24 hours we sold close to 100 tickets,” she said. 

“People are really wanting to commit to going to shows and particularly when they miss out, or a lot of people, through word of mouth, hear, ‘you’ve missed out, you’ve got to go’.

“It’s a very unique show. It’s not a traditional stand-up comedy style of show – it’s storytelling, it’s humour, parts of it is quite sad… but people really love that and people did talk about it. 

“Patrons that did come in afterwards said that it was one of the best shows they had seen.” 

Ms Smith said the Horsham Town Hall had sold half the available tickets for Do’s performance. 

She said people wanting to buy tickets for the show could phone 5382 9555 or visit www.horshamtownhall.com.au