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The Umbilical Brothers performance, "Thwak," at the Post Street Theatre in San Francisco on June 20 was 90 minutes of high-speed, non-stop insanity. Unfortunately, the show closed on June 22, and according to their website, the boys are headed for the United Kingdom next and following that, no future shows in the U.S. are scheduled.
Bummer.
Australians David Collins and Shane Dundas are an explosion of sound effects, mime and standup comedy that is completely and utterly unpredictable. You truly never know what will happen next, from imaginary dogs taking taxi cabs to catch imaginary sticks to a match race on imaginary horses.
There's some competition you see, because David is the "action guy" and Shane is the "sound" guy. Whatever sort of sounds Shane emits, David is stuck miming them. A battle for control of the microphone ensues, and finally David decides to toss it all, and be a smoky jazz singer. Until Shane, now an imaginary janitor, gets out the cleaning apparatus and drowns him out.
My favorite pieces involved the abuse of a hand puppet (I think it was some sort of rabbit) and a spoof on classic mime, German style, such as "man pulling rope" and "man behind glass pane." Of course, each of the German performances is followed with a mandatory "clap (clap hands over head) und ze shimmy (shoulders shaking seductively while rocking back and forth)."
My very favorite line from the performance came while David held the microphone to his head to pick up his thoughts. Among them was a leering, slimy voice that said all he really needed to be happy was "a crate full of otters and some hand lotion."
Now there's something you don't hear on stage very often, or even off it. I'm still chuckling. As for "Thwak," it's a five-clap, five-shimmy performance.
Find out more about the Umbilical Brothers at www.umbilicalbrothers.com
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