No matter how privileged your profession is, sooner or later the initial sparkle will begin to fade. After more than a decade in the stand-up game, Dave Callan grew a little tired of telling jokes for an hour every night. So in response he developed the show A Little Less Conversation, which essentially involves the bearded Irish ex-pat performing choreographed dance routines next to three female professionals.
“The joke is that I have to nail it,” he says. “All these routines, I’m doing them properly but obviously because of the way my body is I’m a bit unco anyway. Today [in rehearsals] we were doing a bit of Britney, Oops I Did It Again, and some Rihanna with umbrellas. I would prefer to get it right and nail it but sometimes there’s a bit of leeway there, just because I’m a big unco dude.”
The fact he’s not simply flailing around while the experts hold it together indicates Callan wants the show to be more than an exercise in buffoonery. However, it takes a little more than the physical effort to make a 50-minute show consistently amusing. “I think audiences hit a bit of fatigue if you do too much dance,” he says. “So you do a bit of talking and then you hit them with more dance and then just when they’ve just got accustomed to the fact that you’re dancing and they’re going, ‘Oh yeah, I see what’s going on,’ then you stop and you engage with them on a stand-up level again.”
A Little Less Conversation is structured as a demonstrative journey through the history of dance and the interwoven stand-up segments are designed to add further insight to the narrative.
“I talk about iconic dances through time,” Callan says. “I talk about The Twist. I talk about Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk for the first time and segue into talking about why he has to grab his dick so much. You’ve got to sneak dick jokes in, so it’s great to have a theme that will allow you to do that.”
Moving from stand-up comedy to live dance is obviously an ambitious leap, especially when you’re charging people money to see it. The stand-up veteran’s nonchalant transition may have something to do with his genuine desire to dance.
“I don’t drink so a dancefloor is kind of like my intoxicant for an evening,” Callan says. “It’s just really good getting out there and being silly. I love silly dancing, I don’t like to take it too seriously. You have to feel like you’re not being judged when you’re dancing. I think it’s important to accept anybody doing any moves on the dancefloor as long as it’s not hurting or being intrusive onto anybody else.”
Now, it’s one thing to goof around in a club environment but, as noted, Callan’s show isn’t a modest display. In fact, the choreographed routines demand a high level of fitness.
“There are times where I’ve almost passed out on stage doing this show,” he says. “There’s pole dancing in it and nothing changes your body as quickly as pole dancing. It’s incredible because it’s cardio and it’s strength building at the same time and it works on your core. All three are being hit straight away.”
If this all sounds like an atypical amount of hard work for a lumbering longhaired comic, Callan assures the discipline won’t last long.
“Every year I’ll lose weight before the festival season, just by virtue of doing all these rehearsals, and then suddenly Easter hits and I go, ‘Fuck yeah!’ and I eat all of the chocolate.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Venue: Trades Hall – New Ballroom, Cnr Lygon & Victoria St, Carlton
Dates: Currently playing until April 20 (except Mondays)
Times: 7pm (Sundays 6pm)
Tickets: $15-$23.50
