Callum Le Page on the absurd world of Le Bug coming to Adelaide Fringe

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Ahead of Adelaide Fringe 2026, we caught up with Callum Le Page, the creator and performer behind Le Bug, a solo comedy hour featuring a half-man, half-bed bug caught in a city‑wide purge. Best known for his work with sketch group Fully Charged, the comedian shares how this absurd, chaotic character evolved from a short skit into a full show that blends physical comedy, audience interaction and a touch of bed‑bug revolution. Read our interview with Callum below.

You’re bringing your first solo comedy hour show Le Bug to Adelaide Fringe 2026. Tell us about the show.

Le Bug is going to change the world. Half-man, half-bug, a biological marvel.

This bed bug is charming and repulsive in equal parts, wanting nothing but a little nibble of the audience. The only thing standing in his way is an angry horde that riots just outside the theatre, demanding Le Bug’s head.

This is your debut solo comedy hour. How did writing and performing alone feel different from working in a group like Fully Charged, and what surprised you most about carrying a full hour by yourself?

It is difficult to know what works and what does not without my funny friends from Fully Charged telling me. So I have been left unchecked, and the results are absurd.

The most surprising thing about performing solo is the creative solutions that I have been forced to come up with. Without other cast members, to create a solo show that is far from traditional standup, developing plot and narrative requires other devices and different ways of utilising the audience that I would not have otherwise thought of, having relied on script work with other characters and cast members in the past.

How long have you been performing comedy, and what was the first show or moment that made you think, “I can actually do this as a thing”?

I never thought of myself as a ‘funny person’. I started performing comedy when I was around 15, I performed in the annual sketch comedy show that was put on at my high school. In these shows we would mainly impersonate and poke fun at teachers at the school and some current affairs. These annual shows were always a highlight for me purely because of how much fun it was to create.

This enjoyment carried me into doing similar shows at university and then forming Fully Charged, where we stepped into becoming our own ‘thing’ away from school or uni. It was not until I realised that I could define what doing this ‘as a thing’ could look like, that I knew it was actually something I could keep building upon!

Le Bug was one of the skits that comedy review site Chortle most appreciated when they saw it as part of Fully Charged’s show Business and Pleasure at MICF. Le Bug is described as “the last surviving bed bug in Adelaide” – how did that very specific, very silly premise come to you, and what felt funny or interesting about telling a revolution story from a bed bug’s point of view?

The bug character is so completely absurd to me. I liked the idea of setting that absurdity against ridiculously high stakes. I also wanted to see how this bug would cope and respond with all the odds stacked against him.

I am excited to be Le Bug versus Goliath.

What made you decide to expand it from a short skit into a dedicated one hour show?

The original skit was performed so many times, only became more and more enjoyable to perform, and felt like it was constantly evolving. It got to a point where I wanted to explore what this character could become with its own dedicated show.

When you’re not being a louche French bed bug, what do you do by day (or by night)? Does that day job or other creative work ever sneak into your material?

I am always a louche French bed bug. However, I have also just finished studying law. Before I become the first bug lawyer, I am using the creative problem solving learnt in law to develop my comedy shows.

He’s “hungry and revolting,” torn between pleasing the crowd and satisfying his hunger. How do you play that conflict physically and vocally – is he more pathetic, monstrous, or secretly charming?

I would say all of the above. He tows the line of charming and pathetic, these traits interacting in quite an absurd way. Audience interaction allows Le Bug to play with the awkwardness of his personality. In this solo show, Le Bug’s personality shines in a way that emphasises childlike play for the performer and the audience.

The blurb calls Le Bug “part absurd comedy, part biting satire.” Where does the absurdity live in the show, and where does the satire kick in – is it about Adelaide, about revolutions, or about how we treat the “disgusting” and unwanted?

Le Bug certainly leans more to the absurd comedy than biting satire, admittedly it was a nice pun to use in the blurb. There’s definitely something to be said in the show of revolutions, the place for the “disgusting”, and something about Adelaide I’m sure, but I’ll let the Audience piece all of that together…

Fully Charged are known for “the comedy of the silly, absurd and theatrical.” How does Le Bug fit into that house style, and where did you push it into more personal or darker territory?

Le Bug is a quintessential Fully Charged experience, it’s chaotic, over-the-top, and you’re not sure how you ended up there.

Pushing one piece of a Fully Charged show into an hour like this does inevitably lead to a more personal space, nonetheless I intend to maintain light-heartedness and play at the centre of the show.

The show is set against a “violent Adelaide bed bug purge.” How much of that is a real local joke, and how much is a metaphor for something bigger – gentrification, fear of the other, or just the way cities try to control nature?

I am not yet aware of any violent oppression of bed bugs going on in Adelaide, but life imitates art so you never know…

I was inspired by a bed bug purge that did happen a few years ago in Paris, and I think there is something in there about cities and nature I’m sure. I’ll let the audience piece that together…

You’re playing a tiny insect on a human stage. How do you scale the physicality so the audience can still read his size, his movements, and his emotions clearly?

I am a big human in a big human costume, pretending I am a bug, but fully aware that I am the size of a big human, if that makes sense? I think I’ve confused myself.

Le Bug’s emotions are made very clear, he does not make any part of his movement or emotions small.

Fully Charged draw from sketch and clown. What clown or physical comedy influences shaped Le Bug’s walk, his flirtation, and his “scolded child” moments when he’s reprimanded?

Le Bug’s physicality has definitely been inspired by Aunty Donna’s style of clown. It’s hard to say exactly where the rest of him has come from, however, some of his non-verbal gestures and sounds may have been drawn from Mr Bean.

He “flirtatiously prowls the audience.” How do you decide when to break the fourth wall and when to stay in the bug’s world, and how do you keep that interaction funny without making anyone feel targeted or uncomfortable?

With a character so over-the-top, I see breaking the fourth wall as providing assurance to the audience. You are telling the crowd, ‘Hey, I know this is cooked too, don’t worry, we’re in this together.’ It is very important to keep in mind the line between uncomfortable funny and just uncomfortable, so constant checking in with the crowd is important, both explicitly and by reading their body and face language.

The blurb says: “Revolutions, like infestations, often begin unnoticed.” What kind of revolution is Le Bug trying to start – a political one, a personal one, or just a very messy one?

I don’t think Le Bug can quite grasp what he is onto here, he knows he deserves life, and he wants connection, politics is just collateral in all this. But yes, it WILL be messy.

The show blurb also asks “Can one lonely, disgusting, horrible bug change the world – or even himself?” How do you balance the grotesque and the sympathetic so the audience can still root for him, even when he’s revolting?

He is lovably revolting, at least I hope he is. The audience loves an underdog. I also hope the audience can see, in the best possible way, that we are all a bit revolting sometimes, and that’s okay, sometimes.

Who are the comedians, performers or artists that have most shaped your style – people whose work made you think, “I want to make something like that”?

Aunty Donna and Monty Python have been personally my biggest influences. More recently I have loved watching Sam Campbell and Garry Starr. They have all made me want to make comedy that is bombastic and unexpected, changing how we look at the world.

Are there particular shows, films or books (even non-comedy ones) that inspired the tone or look of Le Bug – the absurdity, the satire, or the way the bug moves and talks?

I have enjoyed drawing from film noir and epics like Les Mis to inform some of the more ‘epic’ aspects of the show in the building of the narrative and tension in the performance.

If someone in Adelaide is deciding between a more traditional stand-up and Le Bug, how would you describe the experience they’ll have with you that they won’t get anywhere else?

You will get a complete fringe experience. You will be taken on a journey by a grown man dressed as a bug, and you may become part of the show (if you want!). No traditional stand-up will truly surprise you like this show will, and this will be way more fun.

If you’re afraid of creepy crawlies, is this a show you should stay clear of?

Exposure is the best therapy. One big man-sized creepy crawly will expel your fears immediately.

Why should people come see this show?

For fun and for a laugh.

Anything else you would like to add?

It’s going to be so sick. I can’t wait to see you there.

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We thank Callum for this interview and look forward to seeing him become Le Bug at Adelaide Fringe.