Tommy Dassalo began his stand up career at the tender age of 16 and has since been a regular fixture on the Melbourne. He has toured the country, appeared on TV and radio numerous times and even co-ran a room (the Melbourne chapter of A Mic In Hand). After seven years in the business, Tommy has decided that the time has come to unleash a comedy CD onto the world. I caught up with Tommy to find out more about this exciting venture..
What prompted you to record a performance for posterity?
I’ve done a few Festival shows now and it’s always felt weird to me that you put all this time and energy into this material, perform it for a month, and then that’s sort of it. Plus I guess I’m a very material person, and I’m a really big fan of the comedy album as a piece of work. So a few months ago I started thinking hypothetically about whether I would have enough material that I would be happy with putting out there, and around the same time I started talking to Milan from Punchline who offered to help out with it, so it just all fell into place and it was like, why don’t I just do this and see what happens?
Maybe no-one will give a shit and I’ll end up with a box of them in storage at my parent’s place for the next fifteen years. But I do like the idea of being able to hold something in my hands and say ‘I’ve been doing stand-up for seven years, and this is the culmination of that. Here’s where I’m at right now.’
I’m also planning to leave some copies lying around in weird places like cafes, record stores, juice bars, trams, trains… wherever I think they might catch people’s eyes. I figure if one or two people listen to it and like it enough to come to my shows who wouldn’t have otherwise heard of me, then maybe it’s worth the forty seven other people who pick it up, draw a penis on my head on the cover, and then never listen to it.
Will the show be one of your previous solo shows from MICF/Fringe?
It will be a combination of my favourite material from the last three years of Comedy Festival shows, with a couple of changes and updates here and there.
When is the final product likely to be available to the public?
Well I’m hoping to release the show as it’s recorded, hopefully without too much editing, so hopefully it’ll be ready to go by late October! I’ll have some for sale after shows, through my website and it’ll also be up on iTunes. If people want to keep updated with when exactly that’s happening, they can check out my website
The live recording happens on Tuesday 5th October at The Order of Melbourne (level 2/401 Swanston St. Melbourne). The show starts at 8:30pm and entry is free. Tommy will be supported by Karl Chandler, Bart Freebairn and Harley Breen. Get down there and be part of comedy history!