Legendary comedian, Damian Callinan, is in Melbourne again for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. We caught up with him in between shows to see how his MICF experience has been.
The Australia Times (TAT): Is this your first time performing at Melbourne International Comedy Festival?
Damian Callinan (DC): This is my 20th year at the comedy festival. I started in Raw comedy in 1997 & have been involved in some capacity every year (bar one) since then.
TAT: If so, is this also the first time you’ve performed this show?
DC: This is the world premiere of ‘Swing Man’
TAT: What inspired you to write this show in particular?
DC: I love dancing and had previously done a show about dance called The Cave To The Rave but have always wanted to learn to Swing Dance. Since seeing swing dancing in a club in Paris 3 years ago I have had a postcard for Swing dance lessons stuck to my fridge and hadn’t got around to it. Eventually I thought bugger it, if I commit to doing a show about it I’ll have to learn how to do it in time for the comedy festival.
TAT: How important is setting goals and living life to the full?
DC: It’s good to keep challenging yourself. It’s confronting being shit at something but if you don’t push yourself to learn new things you don’t evolve as a person.
TAT: Apart from your show, what would you recommend in MICF?
DC: Butt Kapinski, Juan Vesuvius, Sammy Shah, Tessa Waters
TAT: Favourite place to get a post-show drink?
DC: Cabinet
TAT: What are your plans after MICF?
DC: Pole Dancing lessons
You can catch Damian Callinan performing Swing Man at The Malthouse Theatre from 24th March – 16th April 2016.
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/swing-man-damian-callinan
You can also read about his Swing Dance journey at his blog: https://swingmandamiancallinan.wordpress.com/
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