Callinan has performed in many mediums, including
TV, film,
radio and live stand-up. He acted in the Australian
sketch comedy television series skitHOUSE and made regular appearances on
Before the Game. He has been a member of the cast of
The Newsreader. In 2006, Callinan presented a live comedy show as part of the
Melbourne Comedy Festival about his
fertility problems entitled
Damian Callinan has Spaznuts. That year he also debuted
Babysitting, casting himself as a babysitter caring for a giant baby. In his show ''Sportsman's Night'', Callinan, with no props, performed every role in a story about a football club gathering. He's also performed several other solo comedy shows:
Damian Callinan Calls "Last Drinks",
Eureka Stocktake,
The Cave to the Rave: The Story of Dance and
Speech Night. In 2007, he appeared in a stage show called
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged alongside
Frank Woodley and
Keith Adams. In 2008, he played Pete Minotti in the
City Homicides "Somersaulting Dogs". Callinan appeared in the 2013 film
Backyard Ashes. Callinan's show
The Merger was commissioned by Regional Arts Victoria and Vic Health to deal with issues of racism in regional communities. Callinan began performing the show in 2010. The show tells the story of a struggling country football club that recruits newly arrived refugees to fill its playing roster. In March 2015, Callinan took his show
The Lost WWI Diary to the
Adelaide Fringe Festival. The show, a black humour comedy based on a diary discovered in a
Warrnambool op-shop, featured characterisations of ANZAC soldiers at the time of the
Gallipoli Campaign.
News Corp Australia reviewer Nick Richardson was impressed by the show's realism. Callinan launched his twelfth solo show,
Swing Man at the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2016. In 2017, the one-man stage show titled
The Merger received funding from
Screen NSW, and
Backyard Ashes director Mark Grentell reteamed with Callinan to helm the film version (also called
The Merger), which was released nationally around Australia in 2018 and was later available on
Netflix. ==Filmography==