Sporting a jet-pack and a positive attitude Damian Callinan farewells “Mrs Mum” and settles in to his role as babysitter for the afternoon. Pity no-one told him he’d have to babysit the entire audience.
Damian Callinan brings come fine character comedy to this one hour show, including Rodney the naughty neighbour, a depressed black Wiggle and a little lad Nathan who reads his very funny Easter-themed choose-your-own adventure story. Although Funsy Funson the hyperactive, hopelessly lame children’s entertainer was a personal favourite.
Callinan is warm with the crowd, literally climbing into the audience, to inspire some participation and deal with those crazy kid responses that in less-experienced hands could be rattling. The show was sold out and the space at the Arts Centre’s Black Box, with raked seating and floor space for the kids down the front make it an ideal venue for this family-friendly show. Although it must be said that this is one of the most poorly identified and confusing spots to locate. Seriously would it kill them to put a sandwich board out onto St Kilda Road and to advise people that when you collect your tickets from the box office that it’s the Black Box office (not the usual ground floor of the Arts Centre)?
I really enjoyed the show but after a while I noticed that the parents were laughing more than the kids. Sure, Callinan held the audience’s attention and they were engaged by his performance but there is always a percentage of a kids’ crowd that will laugh at nearly anything. At one stage I scanned the crowd and noticed laughing mums and dads and a lot of little blank faces. It’s really hard to pick what works with kids, they need to thoroughly immerse themselves to go for the ride otherwise they can find it a bit confusing.
This energetic, fast-paced show is one I would have picked as a definite winner with the kids but unfortunately mine thought otherwise:
Iris (6): It was sort of cool but I didn’t really like it.
Jasper (6): I thought it was weird, he acted in really weird voices and stuff and I didn’t like that because it was annoying.
Violet (9): It was good but maybe better for three or four year-olds. Ididn’t really like it because I thought it just wasn’t funny.
For full details visit the Melbourne Comedy Festival website