Why The Umbilical Brothers Are Bringing Back 'Speedmouse'

For a full quarter-century now The Umbilical Brothers have been sharing their twisted simpatico with the world, their chaotic blend of slapstick, mime and sound effects taking physical humour to the extreme in the quest for laughs. 

Over time they've accumulated half-a-dozen different shows in their repertoire, which they constantly rotate in each market as they circumnavigate the globe, and for this homecoming run of Australian gigs they're dusting off old fan favourite Speedmouse.

"This year is our 25th anniversary — 25 years ago this month was the first time we performed as The Umbilical Brothers in front of an audience — and everywhere we go we keep getting asked to do Speedmouse," chuckles David Collins (he of the dark, wavy locks). "There's a character called 'Roadie' in the show, and after every show we do a question and answer with the audience and 99 per cent of the time someone will yell out, 'Where's Roadie? When are we going to see Roadie again?' So we talked to Roadie and he's keen to get on the road again, because it's been some time for him.

"He could just tilt his head or something and I'd know exactly what he was talking about."

"And so many people have the [Speedmouse] DVD now that we're getting together and changing a few things that they know too well now, because when we're overseas they're almost yelling out the gags before we do them. But it's like a rock concert actually, because they want to see the bits that they've seen before! It's very bizarre, it's not like a normal comedian where you want to see different gags — they have their favourites and they demand them. So were going to show some favourites, but we're also going to poke the show about a bit."

Collins and his sparring partner Shane Dundas met at uni way back in 1988 — first year acting class, naturally — and apparently their rapport was fairly instantaneous. "It was always there, which was the reason that we called ourselves The Umbilical Brothers — we were always kind of in sync," the comic tells. "You know how you meet those sort of people and you know [you] have the same mindset... not just the same mindset but you're in the same rhythm as them. I've always said that Shane could do something across a crowded room to me, he wouldn't even have to say anything — he could just tilt his head or something and I'd know exactly what he was talking about."

And the slapstick element which so flavours their routines also dates back to their very genesis. "When we were in acting school, every weekend we'd go into Chinatown and we'd watch a Jackie Chan movie — he's like the Asian Buster Keaton!" Collins laughs. He used to have all these physical gags in there and we used to love the combination of full-on fighting action scenes intermixed with comedy — it was so precise and so funny. It's this violent sort of thing but you'd be laughing at it, and our first couple of shows started like that, all banging noises and guns and explosions. Thankfully we've grown a bit since then."