Dave Callan, also known as the man with that ridiculous beard who’s occasionally on ABC2, has returned to the fringe in between working on his show for next year. Despite a busted knee, which meant very little dancing this time around, Dave felt like the old man with a cane who comes back to the Rhino Room and says “back in my day” and you want to hear what he has to say.

For the preview show, Dave kept saying “It’ll be a little shit” but the show was funny from start to finish. Despite Dave’s monotonous voice, his show remains humorous by including external sources to make fun of, such as music and videos. He also incorporates the return of segments from old shows such as ‘misheard lyrics’ and new segments like ‘doing what song lyrics tell you to’ with many sexual innuendos throughout. There are many references to the 80s (mainly to videos and songs), which might go over the heads of younger members. The audience for the preview show was cackling and howling, joining in with the jokes and calling out to Dave.

Even though it was a preview show and Dave kept a laid back attitude, the show could occasionally be accused of being “a little shit”. His knee slowed his dancing, sometimes missing moves, being out of time or colliding with the other dancers, but this just added to the comedic effect overall. Dave and his team are always laughing through it all and never take a screw-up seriously. He also plays with fight choreography and sound effects so out of sync and so bad that it’s funny.

As a finale, Dave takes two male audience members for a ‘twerkshoppe’ and sets them to music. I saw the show on International Women’s Day, which was also the subject of many punch lines, all of which were in good taste. It’s “lit AF”, it’s “woke as, fam”, and he’ll leave you in stitches.