As the lights go down and The Umbilical Brothers leap out onto the stage for Speedmouse their nonstop barrage on our funny bones reiterates: timing is everything. Their physical facsimile of the slo mo, zoom, freeze frame, fast forward and rewind is wondrous.Speedmouse is like a perverted Power Point presentation, an audacious audio visual with physical and vocal dexterity that brings the digital age to heel with calibrated comedy, designed to give the digit to the digital age.
The belly button boys are joined in the show by two other characters, the mysterious, ethereal show runner, Tina, and the equally mysterious and downright intimidating, Roadie.
The dramatic tension of the comedy is set up by a clash and contention between Dave and Roadie and Shane and Tina, creating conflicting camps, a divide and conquer scenario with hysterical results.
Certainly unsuitable for tots, the cute sounding Speedmouse definitely appeals to the child, albeit the naughty child, in all of us. There’s lots of jaunty juvenile jokes, some of it male anatomy centric and eccentric, and culminates in pictorial punning with a “feud of the finger”, a flourish perfectly attuned to the concentration of the digital.
Speedmouse is a goofy, surreal, visceral, vulgar, physical, fool mouthed fandango, fuelled by popular culture, popular song, perpendicular antics, and masterful mic mimicry.
Gollum, Yoda and Arnold Schwarzenegger are invoked, and the boys do a rapturous rendition of the prehistoric reptile raptors from Jurassic Park. Channel surfing through sports and porn offer as many plot twists and turns as there are in the duo's performances. And the introduction of an invisible mime is the apogee of the absurd.
Speedmouse is that marvellous amalgam of brain and brawn comedy, anarchic yet so beautifully controlled, that it’s awesome.
Speedmouse, like last year’s KidShow, not only deserves 100% attendance, it demands it. And remember, the show is 53% better with a full audience.
Speedmouse certainly shows that the Umbilical Brothers put the fun into funiculus umbilicalis.
A highlight of the Sydney Comedy Festival, Speedmouse puts the CAT into catch it.
A List Entertainment presents
Speedmouse
The Umbilical Brothers
Venue: The Enmore Theatre
Date: 7 May 2016
Tickets: $49.90
Bookings: www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au
