Damian Callinan in Double Feature REVIEW 13 April 2023 ***

COMEDY

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

At Tower Theatre, Malthouse until 23 April 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, on Sat 15 April 2023.KH

Damian Callinan

Damian Callinan’s new Comedy Festival show, Double Feature, is a love letter to his late mother, Kathleen Purcell, whose favourite activity was a movie double feature at the local cinema in the northern suburbs. Oh, and she loved to dance, too.

 

The conceit of this solo performance is that Callinan has an unfinished, black and white film about his mother’s life – the funding ran out, of course – so he’s workshopping ideas and showing snippets of his film.

 

Dressed in old style, Fletcher Jones, high-waisted dad trousers with suspenders, and with mum’s early, post-War, 1940s diaries in his hand, Callinan reads excerpts that trace Kathleen’s uncomplicated life as a young Catholic woman, going to films or dances with a parade of keen, young men. Kathleen’s voice-over gives an added frisson to the memories of this hopeful young woman.

 

Callinan’s humour comes from his gentle jibes, witty interjections and satirical commentary on his mother’s unremarkable life, her close friends, her activities in local, Catholic groups and the revolving door of her beaus, who variously give her gifts of soap, take her to dances or try unsuccessfully to kiss her.

 

He starts a bookie’s board for The Kathleen Stakes, putting odds against the names of the various runners: Beaut Jack, Fancy Jack, Polish Count, and finally Fly Boy, whose odds shorten significantly by the end of the show. Their odds depend on Callinan’s arbitrary reactions to their behaviour – gentlemanly or otherwise – and Kathleen’s positive or negative responses.

 

At the start, he asks the audience who grew up Catholic in the northern suburbs, and plenty of hands fly up. Those of us who grew up Catholic got lots of his jokes that others may have missed, including dashing around local churches to find a Sunday evening mass, and the Children of Mary Catholic girls’ group. He even has a bewildered audience member ring an altar boy’s bell at every Catholic reference.

 

After this warm, playful and engaging banter, Callinan’s story becomes darker, and there are several minutes when it seems he may not be able to haul us back into light humour – but he does. On the other side of grief is laughter, so he says.

 

Interestingly, a high point in the show is Callinan playing a bossy, Aussie bloke in his parents’ retirement village. His forte is portraying broad, bold characters. Perhaps a remount of the show might incorporate Callinan inhabiting large-than-life characters from mum and dad’s life, including all Kathleen’s suitors, friends and other incidental people.

 

by Kate Herbert