David Callaghan

I met David Callaghan through a mutual friend at the Fringe in 2012 and the following year I saw him perform live for the first time. He was good enough to recommend some other shows to me and it's been pretty much the same enjoyable formula every year since then. 

It was David who very quickly disabused me of the notion that stand up is just about laughs and introduced me to that interesting area where comedy and performance art cross over. For example, one year he recommended a show that only started when a member of the audience (on that occasion, me) pushed backed beans into the performer's mouth. 

Over the last couple of years, David's show has been quite interactive - i.e. featuring additional media and audience participation - but this year he has returned to stand up. Which, for perhaps the first half of the show, was just about laughs but then it slowly unravelled to its culmination in a howl of existential angst. I enjoyed it enormously. 

Sadly, this year, we didn't have time for a beer with David after the show or, therefore, any opportunity to see his recommendations. We did have time to drive down my favourite road, though, ending up in Moffat for lunch!

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No scales
Reading: 'The Gallows Pole' by Benjamin Myers