‘I try to masturbate words into sentences when I don’t know what they mean’.
Musical duo Pargin and Wilkie were one of the best things about the WA state final of Raw Comedy, and they were my incorrect pick to win it. Now, just a few months on these teenagers have their own show. Cocky? I suppose, but never arrogant (when you’re as good as them, why wait?). In fact, it is their wide-eyed youth that plays in their favour: Wilkie the denim clad songbird sister you never had, Pargin the house dress wearing Angelica Pickles intermediate jazz dancer cousin you’re glad you never did.
Again unusually, the altogether more experienced muscedian Zack Adams (of four Melbourne shows fame) was their opening act. Cocky, very cocky. He was very good though, with and surprisingly warm with the crowd even when singing about kidnap or inappropriate fruit. A highlight was not actually a song at all, but a note-perfect parody rant of house-sharing with the artistic. ‘I’m not drinking So-Good, it’s like the tears of an infant!’
The comedy duo format is as old as the comedy song, but from the Michael Jackson mix tape for pre-show music to the all-girl mouth of babes angle (and it is an angle), things were a little peculiar. Pargin, unusually, is the straight man while Wilkie is often the foil, it’s Pargin who wants to keep the show moving without Wilkie’s interruptions but its Wilkie that actually possesses the talent, however neither are as talented as they try to convince us they are. ‘Everybody! Listen to me sing’
Their songs themselves are such specific observations of irritants, like Lisa Mitchell with a head cold. My favourite was the eerily haunting lament of a VHS on Christmas day, but there was plenty to enjoy in this quirky and real debut.