Melbourne comedians stock up on Hong Kong jokes for show at Fringe Club

local gags into their stand-up patter is a risky business for comedians. A mispronunciation, a backfiring joke which reveals a lack of local knowledge and it can all go horribly wrong.

But when Irish-Australian Dave Callan hits Hong Kong as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow, chances are the local jokes will fit right in. He is a regular visitor, his mother and uncle grew up in Hong Kong while their father worked as a lawyer and his cousin still lives locally.

Despite that connection Callan, who moved to Australia from Ireland at age 15, has never performed in Hong Kong, although he has done gigs in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. A comedy game show regular on Australian television screens and a popular DJ on Melbourne music radio station Triple J, he will be MC for the Roadshow.

Again, to meet demand there are two simultaneous shows featuring Callan and four other Australian acts, so he has to run up and down the Fringe Club stairs to open and close the two overlapping shows.

"I'll drop anything Australia-centric. I will do a shout out to find out which countries are represented in the audience, I'll do a bit for each country and general Hong Kong stuff," he says. He has stored up anecdotes and observations, including things he has seen on the streets, to work into his material.

But he is best known Down Under for his hilarious dances, pouting and tossing himself about the stage. "His premise is that it is inherently funny to watch a lanky, bearded, modestly co-ordinated, heading-towards-middle age, Viking-like bloke attempting to replicate dance moves from the world of pop. And he's correct," an Adelaide reviewer wrote of his latest show.