Damian Callinan is an acclaimed comedian, actor and writer. A three-time nominee for Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. TV and film audiences may recognise him for his roles in Skithouse, The Newsreader, Backyard Ashes, The Emu War & The Merger, the beloved film adaption of his award-winning solo show of the same name. The dual AACTA nominated film about a rural, Australian Rules football club who recruit refugees to make up the numbers, was awarded Best Film & Screenplay at the Ozflix Awards & is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Callinan has toured prolifically with a suite of live shows including The Lost WW1 Diary, Swing Man, & The Wine Bluffs.

His most recent solo show, Double Feature, based on his mum’s 1946 diary, won the Perth Fringe Comedy Award & is currently being adapted as a screenplay. Since 2020, Damian has worked with NEMA touring to halls in isolated, disaster impacted communities with What A Relief: Its Damian Callinan. It’s this project, combined with his play, The Hall Committee, commissioned by the Wagga Civic Theatre and Create NSW, that was the inspiration for Hall Stories.

Hall Stories is the latest in his rural community engagement projects, which include Town Folk & Mayor for a Day. Damian is also the host of Stranger Than Fiction: a monthly storytelling night at Melbourne’s Comedy Republic. His kid’s book. Weird School (Penguin Random) was shortlisted for the 2023 State Library of NSW Russell Prize for Humour Writing.

Suitable for small halls and community spaces. Details to be discussed upon booking.

None

Hall Stories is in itself, a community engagement project. However, below is the full list of potential tailored activities and segments available. Keep in mind the full list is only applicable to the Three-Day Deluxe version.

• Online surveys – Sent out to the community ahead of the show to collate information, stories, contacts & resources to help tailor aspects of the show.
• Community Liaison – a nominated local will act as Damian’s guide to champion the surveys, the show & connect him to the community
• Local Reconnaissance – Damian will tour the hall, the town and tye district. Part of Damian’s process is augmenting the show with photos, photoshop & visual jokes. He will add local observations to the existing PowerPoint slide show.
• Meet & Greet – Damian will host a meet & greet in the hall. Locals are invited to come along and bring photos, archival documents, show posters and most importantly stories, that will be fed into a more tailored version of the show.
• Your Stories – Using text or live on stage interviews, Damian shares some of the local’s stories that he’s accrued over the last few days.
• Mysteries of the Hall – Damian uses his skills of comic observation to tap into the hall’s story to identify idiosyncrasies & quirky stories. Why do the stair lead to nowhere? Why is there a giant tap sticking out from the stage? Is the projection booth really haunted?
• Do It Again – Using the memories of the audience and historic photos as prompts, Damian will recreate key & obscure moments from the hall’s past.
• Hall Quiz – Damian will curate a quiz based on the history, identities & stories of the hall & community. Two locals will go head-to-head to see who knows the most of about their hall’s story.
• Interviews – During his immersion within the community, Damian will interview locals with signifi cant connections to the hall – committee members, organisations who use the hall, older locals with early hall memories and performers who have played the hall.
• Podcast – After the immersive period of the project, Damian will collate the stories, history, fun facts, anecdotes and interviews into a dedicated episode of his Hall Stories Podcast.