Trippin' Tales

“True story,” Irish-born comic Dave Callan says, about finding a book called The Psychology Of Laughter outside a castle in Edinburgh. “It was like a flipping fairy tale. A fairy tale with awful weather and food.” Callan has gone on to make a show about this book, penned, as he says, by an actual man called Boris Sidis. “Again, this sounds made up but it's not. When I say he was an actual man, I don't mean I'm not an actual man, we both are. I just mean I didn't invent him.” The 100-year-old book sounds like a less-than-hilarious read. Callan agrees. “I read it while at Rainbow Serpent. I was surrounded by trippers and bright colours, meanwhile I'm reading this dry psychology book from 100 years ago in the middle of all this chaos. But nobody cared. I was probably a rhinoceros to them.”

The book does have useful information for the professional comic. “I have more of an understanding of what drives people to seek and experience humour,” Callan says. “The three basic reasons we have for getting laughter triggered. Despite getting the humour wrong, [Sidis] gets the psychology part right. It's the opposite of funny because it breaks down why we laugh; it's investigative psychology. However, the examples used in the book are from a scientific mind so they are hilariously unfunny. In some cases they are racist and sexist, or, as they called it back then, 'normal'.” Callan's done the work for all of us in finding out why we laugh and things haven't changed in over a century. “You see the same things coming up all the time,” he notes. “For example, Sidis mentions incongruity theory and an example of incongruity he gives is when you see animals dressed as humans. He predicted LOL cats by some 95 years.”

The Psychology Of Laughter has given Callan material for a show unlike anything he's done before, something he makes a point of with each new work. “I just try to pick something completely different every year. So completely different to anything I've done and completely different to anything anyone else is doing. This means it's usually fresh and inspiring.”

As a comedian, Callan has some natural advantages to begin with – an Irish accent and a mum he describes as incredibly funny, plus the perspective of being a bit of an outsider. On the other hand, since he's got instruction from the source, there'll be no excuses – The Psychology Of Laughter had better be a damn funny show. No pressure, Dave.