Winners are grinners BY LLOYD GORMAN
D
undalk born comedian Dave Callan is onto a winner with his latest gig.
He fronts the Lotterywest’s latest advertising campaign ‘That’s the Ticket’ to thank their customers for playing the lottery, and by extension supporting many good causes and groups in WA. Last year alone, for example, $865million was funnelled into local communities across the state in the form of grants and prizes, which benefit thousands of West Australians. Research carried out for Lotterywest found that many people do not know that most of the money raised by the state owned body goes to local charities, clubs, groups and projects.
“I had no idea myself,” Dave admitted to Irish Scene. “I discovered that the work Lotterywest do is pretty great for the community and the give a lot of money to worthwhile causes, such as Foodbank, Mens Shed and help for the homeless in Fremantle. It makes a huge different to the people who may not have a voice or be able to fend for themselves or as privileged as as many of us our, so its a great cause.” The new ad – which was first shown on Perth television channels on June 6 – has Dave as himself, dressed in Lotterywest activewear, dashing around several local locations and
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organisations linked to lottery funding, including Midvale Skate Park and St. Patrick’s Community Support Centre in Fremantle. He is happy with the end product but hasn’t always had a good experience shooting them. “You don’t know they go, they can be a bit cringe worthy, but they did a good job, sometimes scripts do not have you in mind, or are for a version of you they believe exists but which may not be accurate. But in this case they wrote it with me in mind and they gave me a bit of flexibility to be me. I really enjoyed the whole thing, it came up well. From the very start I said I was willing to work with them to make it as funny as possible and put my own stamp on it, which is what they wanted, so that made me optimistic from the start about how it would turn out.” Shooting on a previous ad for a home loan provider did not go as well. “The idea of the ad was there was a really black and white couple paying their mortgage and they don’t like it and then it went into full colour and its me and some girl and we are in the nude, because we are free of our mortgage and happy in a lovely garden with the sprinklers on and they put black bars over our bits,” he said. “We had to stand in the front garden of this house in a residential street in Claremont, if I remember correctly, and then we heard close by, a little too close for comfort, a bell ring and then there were all these kids walking past us looking at us naked in this garden, that was a little bit awkward. I won’t forget that.”
