Comedy
Interview
The Umbilical Brothers once stood up Eric Idle, Billy Connolly and Carrie Fisher
The comedy duo talk screens, famous fans and Woodstock ’99 ahead of new tour The Distraction
Screens may be streamlining our lives in some ways, but for the Umbilical Brothers they’re adding a lot of baggage.
“There’s so much crap we have to take around with us for The Distraction,” says Shane Dundas. “It’s so tech heavy. Anything can go wrong in that show. That’s one of the fun bits.”
Dundas and comedy partner David Collins conceptualised The Distraction several years ago, in response to how they saw the people around them relating to screens. The duo had the idea to bring ‘second screening’ to the live stage, indulging those who would rather be watching something whilst watching something with a huge screen hanging over the stage.
“We thought, “Let’s bring people to the live show, where they’re watching live people performing live in front of them, but they won’t be able to look at those live people, because they’ll be distracted by the enormous screen that is hanging above those people,”” says Collins. “Those guys are just in front of green screens, but up there on that screen there’s so much prettier. There are foregrounds and backgrounds and special effects (because we’ve got a little nerd on stage with us who’s doing live visual effects) and so it’s much more interesting to look on the screen. So, as you have been for the last 20 years, you have been distracted by your screens.”
Covid changed the direction of the show – as Collins puts it, “Screens took on this whole new level of meaning and importance, love and despair and connection. Now the show kind of has strangely a different sort of meaning, which is really nice.”
“I think we’re all a little bit further inside the matrix now,” says Dundas. “You go to a live show, you buy a ticket to see some live performers. What are you going to look at? The actual live people on stage, or the mixed version where they’re integrated into fabulous special effects directly above them? That’s where the title comes from. What’s the distraction – the screen or us down below the screen? It’s a little brain game for the audience.”
Unlike previous tours, the duo say that The Distraction is somewhat of a triple act. “Doug, who is the nerd that David referred to, is a complete co-creator on this show, and he’s a… I’d say a mad genius,” says Dundas. “He’s created all these effects from nothing, where we’re doubled, where we’re delayed, we’re integrated into other things, things happen to our bodies and to the audience’s bodies, if we point the camera at them. He’s just central to this thing. He’s mixing it all live from the stage while it happens… I hope to hell he is on the tour, because otherwise it’s just us with the blank screen above it.”
“Also, we need him to carry the extra luggage,” adds Collins.
As the duo prepare to bring The Distraction to the UK this October, we got stuck in a lift with the Umbilical Brothers to talk classic action, food poisoning and the time they stood up Eric Idle, Billy Connolly and Carrie Fisher at the pub.
Who would you most want to be stuck in a lift with?
David: Oh, well, that’s pretty easy. Jackie Chan, number one, Michelle Yeoh, number two, and Bugs Bunny.
Shane: I’d love to spend some time chatting with Michelle Yeoh. She’s one of our idols. We’ve been following her films since well before Everything Everywhere All At Once. We’ve been following her since her Hong Kong days – we’re classic Hong Kong action freaks. That’s a great idea, David. If he was still alive, I’d say Robin Williams. We spent a bit of time with him when we toured with him, but I was always so reverential and because we’re not worthy, and I just would have liked to have had a bit of just fun with him, just goofing off. He will goof if you goof, but I resisted goofing. But looking back, I think a little goofing with Robin would have been a beautiful thing,
Who would you least want to be stuck in a lift with?
Shane: I’d say someone who needs to go to the toilets within the next five minutes,
David: Or a claustrophobic person.
Shane: Well, that’s you, David. I can’t imagine how you’d be indefinitely in the lift.
David: I was gonna say I don’t think I’d want somebody loves to talk, but maybe that’s what you’d want in that situation, the exact opposite of what you wouldn’t like in real life. Give me my older sister, somebody who does not stop talking. Maybe that’s what you want.
Shane: She’d carry the load, definitely. And I guess the classic answer is Trump, which is understandable, but also then I think, well, maybe I could just ask him. Persuade him. Ask, “Why, man? What are you doing?”
David: Yeah, you’re going to fix it. You’re going to fix Trump.
Shane: I’d just tell him, “Look, there’s people hurting out there. Come on, man.”
I mean, listen, nothing else has worked so far. You might as well try.
Shane: Exactly.
Have you guys ever had any particularly strange interactions with famous people?
David: Do you know the band Rammstein? They’re like the German Metallica. After a show one night, I met somebody, and I could tell he was a performer, and he just been to see us, and he looked really interesting. I said, “You’re performing in the festival?” He went, “No, no.” I said, “But you’re a performer, right?” And he went, “Yeah, yeah.” And so I gave him my phone, and I said, “Can you just write your group in there, and when I go home, I’ll look you up on YouTube.” He went, ‘Yeah, yeah, I do. He gave my phone back and it said ‘Rammstein.’ I went, “No…” We’re big we’re big Rammstein fans, and we actually used a Rammstein song in one of our shows. That was a rather strange. And now he’s the one that got us onto the promoter that did our German tour.
Another one – Eric Idle is the one who bought Robin Williams to our first show in America, and he has remained a friend.
Shane: We did a show in Pasadena, and he brought a busload of people to the show. He literally got a bus and put people in it and brought them to the show. That was again weirdly unexpected and nice.
But there was one show in America where Eric Idle Billy Connolly and Carrie Fisher came to the same show, and then the next night Billy Connolly’s wife came. She said, “What happened last night?” We said, “What do you mean what happened last night? We did our show.” She said, ‘Oh, everyone was waiting. They all waited for you at the bar across the roads, but you didn’t get the message.” No, we didn’t get the message to come and have a drink with Eric Idle, Billy Connolly, and Carrie Fisher! Bloody hell!
What would you say is the worst job you’ve ever had?
Shane: When I was finishing a degree when I was younger, I had to take a job, and I worked in an office for a couple of years for the Department of Defence in the Navy Supply Department. I had to write down fuel amounts at different fuel depots around Australia into this book. I’d write them in this book very carefully, then close the book and put the book away. And the book was never used for anything. It was like I was in the movie Brazil or something. It was really quite surreal and bizarre.
David: I did suit work as Santa Bear. Santa Bear had a very limited field of vision, and he was very round, and kids used to always come and punch Santa Bear, and it didn’t used to hurt me, but I would hear it and Santa Bear used to have his hands out in front of him, and so I would swing around quickly and just smash the kids in the back of the head.
What’s your most controversial food opinion?
David: I believe pineapple should be on everything. Not only pizzas, but everything. Pineapple can go with absolutely everything. It’s controversial, I know. Yeah, really.
Shane: I’m not controversial at all with food. I’ll eat pretty much anything as long as it’s not moving.
David: He did eat something off the street in Brazil once, and then was on the toilet for a week and a half and almost killed himself by dehydrating his body,
Shane: I should have realised. The guy was just offering me a bit of fruit. He was a vendor on the street – we were on tour down there – and he was using the same fork for everyone. That was the worst case of food poisoning you can imagine.
What’s the worst advice you guys have ever been given?
Shane: “Do two performances at Woodstock ’99.”
David: Yeah. Should have just done the one.
Shane: We were weirdly invited to perform at the infamous Woodstock ‘99. We went on after James Brown, which was just surreal, and did a routine in front of heaps of people, and they loved it, and we thought we were gods. Then they said “Let’s go to the other stage and do another performance.” The other stage had an aggressive. We were following heavy hard music, and we just died. Can you remember what the crowd was calling out, David?
David: “What the f*ck is this sh*t?”
Shane: Who knew that hard metal fans wouldn’t want to see mime at a music festival?
Do you guys have any secret skills?
Shane: I’ve only just used a secret skill for the first time in a show. Two weeks ago, we did a show in Tokyo, and I actually studied Japanese in university, and I hadn’t used it for decades. I managed to pull out a bit of Japanese, and they kind of freaked out. In a lot of countries, if you make a little effort to speak the language, they really appreciate it, but they just went crazy. So that was my secret skill that I finally got to use.
What did your 12-year-old self imagine you’d be doing now?
David: I worked out at 11 that I was going to be acting for the rest of my life, so I was already knew what I was doing,
Shane: When I was 12, I was too busy just having fun. I didn’t really think about that. But when I was 13, I wanted to be a film director. In that year, I saw some great movies, and I just saw what movies do. I’ve always loved going to the cinema, ever since.
And now you’re bringing the screen to the stage.
Shane: Full circle.
The Umbilical Brothers will tour The Distraction across the UK this October – find tickets here
