Having watched The Umbilical Brothers do their act of mime and accompanying noises on TV since the Big Gig almost 20 years ago, I had never seen them do a live full-length show before. I was very surprised to discover that this show was a lot more like a Lano & Woodley show with a bit of ‘The Empty Pockets’ (another rather violent mime team from The Big Gig days) thrown in too. It was a show that offered surreal whimsy and violence. They did a lot of mime, but very little of it involved one doing the noises while the other did the mime, it was much a more interesting and fun show.
The main structure was that they were rehearsing their show in the hope that it may one day make it to Rod Laver Arena. As they kept being distracted from rehearsing, they were reminded to get back on track by the sponsor who was keeping his eye on proceedings and was portrayed as a very, big, scary monster off stage. They explored a lot of mime and noise gags and did some audience interaction that included a couple of plants (actors pretending to be audience members) who were named Plant 1 and Plant 2. There was also a real person, a woman who was invited up on stage to take a photo with them and a lot very old-fashioned funny business ensued. The picture was of course eventually taken while they were all off their guard and projected onto the screen, after which, they showed other Danny Glover photos from previous shows.
Then came the main event, it was time to have fun with the video camera and the screen. They were like schoolboys who’d been left alone in a classroom with a camera and screen, testing how much silliness they could create, but with very unschoolboy – like razor sharp precision that was utterly breathtaking. It all culminated in a violent battle with…unbearably cute, fluffy, yet somehow slightly menacing bear puppets. This was the most intensely funny moment of my festival. I nearly wet myself.. I guess that it is not so surprising that after nearly 20 years together that they have got this comedy thing down to a fine art and they know how to leave you out of breath with laughter and wanting more. I felt very privileged to finally see the full measure of this amazingly talented team.