Comedian David Callaghan brings a groundbreaking multimedia comedy play packed with heartfelt, bittersweet, and hilarious stories of love and loss. British Comedy Guide Recommended 2022.
Audiences can find Callaghan's new show, Everything That's Me Is Falling Apart at the Greenside @ Infirmary Street this Festival Fringe.
Would you mind giving us a brief insight into what your show is?
Not at all, I'm David Callaghan and I was a club comic for a long time but about four years ago I started making more expansive and genre-defying hours of storytelling/comedy/theatre. My most recent show, Everything That's Me Is Falling Apart, is the world's first augmented reality comedy theatre show and it contains miniature sets, a toy train, a live camera, and live rendered animated characters, as well as bittersweet stories of love and loss. I've just got back from a sellout run at The Reykjavik Fringe where I won a panel prize for the show.
I started working on Everything That's Me Is Falling Apart in 2019 and taught myself a first-class Masters Degree in Animation over lockdown in order to make the augmentation system. I'm halfway through a PhD in Liveness and Live Visual Effects, so there's a lot of study that has gone into the making of this. I've cared a lot about how audiences experience the technology, their relationship to the animated pieces, and how the performer and the technology can fit together. I've also written a lot of jokes.
Tell us about the creative team and process involved?
It's pretty much just me now. My director Elaine Malcolmson has done a fantastic job of pairing the show, the ideas, and the themes down to a really tight and efficient hour. I'm really indebted to her and I'd recommend her to anyone. I designed the set and then that was made by my dad's friend Brian, and the miniatures were all done by my friend Graeme at Landing Light Studios. That was all done a while back and now it's just me working the system onstage and performing the show. Its nice to see it all come together, just as I'd imagined it, and the feedback has been unbelievable.
How does it feel coming to the Fringe?
So this is fringe number nine for me. I started doing split bills in 2013 and 2014 with some fabulous comedians, and I've been doing solo hours since 2016 (barring the covid years), so I'm quite an experienced hand by now. It's nice to look back at all that time, especially as some years I just didn't get it right, and feel so good about this current show. Its by far the best thing I've ever done, and the nomination for one award and winning of another I think proves that somewhat. I'm not nervous about this year, I'm going to really enjoy my time in Edinburgh this time round. This festival is a really lovely part of my calendar.
There are over 3,000 shows at the Fringe. So, what sets your show apart?
Good question. I decided a few years ago to stop comparing my work to other artists. Richard Thomas who wrote Jerry Springer The Opera once said 'If you never compare you don't have to compete', and I think he's right. I'm really happy that I've stopped doing that. I just want my work to get better and better by its own standards, for each idea's execution to be closer and closer to what I see in my head. That way I never conform to what others are doing, and I'm never controlled by commercial success or the whim of the industry. I make the art I want to make. So I'm probably the worst person to ask as to how my show fits in with the rest, but I can tell you it's had two five star reviews already, won an international award, and is by far the most ambitious thing I've done. I'm really proud of it, and I think that's all that really matters. For anyone who fancies coming along, you're very welcome and I will try my absolute best.
Is there anything specific you're hoping the audience will take away?
Recently I said to the Comedian Ruth Hunter that when I started building this show I wanted it to feel like the evening of a funeral for someone you loved. The part when the family have all had a drink, and everyone's sitting around telling stories about them, laughing through the tears. She told me that the show was exactly like that, and that it was a good way to describe it. So if you come and it isn't, then it's her fault.
Your ideal audience is in attendance, who's watching? Or more importantly – who isn't there…
Based on my last time at the Edinburgh Fringe, an old man, maybe in his late sixties, with a scar through his eyebrow down to his cheek and one milky white eye. Over the course of the hour I slowly realise that he is me, an older and bedraggled version of me. At the end of the show he makes a b-line towards the stage, grabbing me by both shoulders. 'It is imperative you listen to me', he spits through broken teeth, 'I beg of you. To save humanity you must write a groundbreaking augmented reality comedy theatre show. If you don't, oh my god if you don't, the life of every human being that works at Corr Blimey will be in danger.'
I don't know if he was telling the truth, but I made this show regardless, for you. For all of you. I don't expect a thank you, but I hope you sleep soundly this evening. Kiss your children goodnight and rest well.
It's an intense month, so where you're able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
I've decided to start wearing a false waxed handlebar moustache and pretending to be my own evil twin. I'll sabotage as much of the festival as I can and escape the pursuing disgruntled comedians in a hot air balloon, I'll cackle and raise my top hat as I sail off into the distance. Either that or go and see Chris Thorburn, Paul McDaniel, Ruth Hunter, Richard Brown, Glenn Moore, ABK, Ian Smith and whichever of The Delightful Sausage are doing things this time round.
In your ideal world, how can we improve the world of the Fringe, of performance, and the industry?
The cost of the festival is prohibitive to everyone really, so I'd start with a rent cap and a block agreement on venue expenses. I doubt either of those would ever happen, but you never know. Someone is making a lot of money from this festival, and it's not anyone I've ever met. The magic of this month is so many talented people in one place, it's a shame that's increasingly under threat.
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