In his one-man stand-up show about a substandard stand-up comedian, Damian Callinan has invented the saddest, least funny comic to ever try out for Raw Comedy – and that really is saying something. Is This Thing On?: The Dave Berry Story has to be the most meta stand-up you will ever see. Dave Berry isn’t funny, but he tries, he tries so very hard. He tries using props, he tries observational humour, and even puts on weight so he can tell fat jokes. Till one day, when the world decides he just might be so bad he’s good. Is this the fall and rise of Dave Berry?

Narrated by Callinan, who spends the night both literally and figuratively steeping over the fourth wall to talk to the audience, The Dave Berry Story sets its sights at being a stand-up version of a Charlie Kaufman script. Standing on stage, in character, and deliberately telling abysmal jokes is an absolute tightrope walk to pull off, and for the most part it works. The scene of Raw Comedy heat contestants hosted by Callinan, as himself, and also played by him is brutally hilarious in its portrayal of wannabe comedians. The meta-fest continues throughout the show with Callinan, in character, complaining about stand-up character performers: ‘If you can’t tell a joke as yourself, why even try?’

Callinan sells the blank-face awfulness of his comic creation perfectly, but is wise enough to include sections of his own stand-up while addressing the audience to ensure genuine laughs and break up the cringe-worthy, awkward laughs generated by Berry. It’s an interesting and funny show, dark with plenty of laughs, and a welcome change of pace for a festival full of stand-up.

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