Arts > Comedy

Cardinal Burns

20/10/14

Laughter. It’s better than anything. Anything else that ever was. I’ll punch you if you disagree. Cardinal Burns brought a massive blanket of laughter with them to Epic Studios and wrapped us all up in it and we LOVED it.

They’ve done two whole TV series of their brilliant, surreal, wryly observant comedy sketch show, and introduced to a huge variety of characters of their own creation, some of which we met in person at Epic. It’s an odd thing, because in your head, when you watch their shows, they are fictional characters. But when you see them being funny, and tender, and sad, and full of life right there on the actual stage in front of you, you truly believe they are living souls.

Such is the talent and hard work that Seb and Dustin have clearly put into their craft that I didn’t stop laughing for the whole time. NOT ONCE. They looked like they genuinely enjoyed performing for us, and the show itself was very inclusive and physical, with the guys coming into the audience (albeit to mount and straddle some members of the audience) and inviting someone up onstage, only to then send her back down without her having done anything. It’s moments like this where you see just how clever they are, in turning our expectations on their heads, and looking at modern life from a very different angle. There are a few moments where they struggle not to laugh themselves, and we laughed along at that, because we feel that they are our friends and we love ‘em for making us laugh. Their sketch of two Irish men in 1800’s New York, where they’d heard the streets were paved with gold, is fascinating; taking this clichéd, slightly-racist world view of this situation and adding an extra layer of cliché on top, so that it becomes a farce of itself. They both speak French and ‘do’ French to perfection, even performing a couple of sketches (or skits) in French, with accompanying French mannerisms. Their voices are incredibly flexible, and their accents creative and beautifully done; they clearly love to play with words and think about them carefully.

Yumi and Rachel from Cardinal Burns’ spoof reality show Young Dreams get the biggest welcome of the night, and the audience just can’t help but guffaw throughout.  A special favourite, which had me in stitches, was a staged interview by a character who reminded me rather of Tom Paulin/Mark Cousins. He interviewed a normal man as if he were a celebrity. “Looking at your CV, I see you wrote I work well individually and as part of a team. Why is that?” Their incredible awareness of the reality of life and social shiz in 2014 means that they are very real as comedians, and speak as themselves, but through the characters.

They are actors as much as comedians, and the love and care they put into their creations translate as well in person as on TV. I speak for Norwich’s audience when I say that we feel we know these characters, and seeing them played live was a most heart warming, fascinating insight into the show. Plus, it was really fucking funny. Well played! See you next time.