Playing at ACMI – Swinburne Studio until April 19 (except Mondays). Tickets and more information at comedyfestival.com.au/fair-dinkum/
Having built up a huge online following in recent years, comedy duo (and brothers) Lachlan and Jaxon Fairbairn bring their irreverent brand of sketch comedy to the Comedy Festival circuit for the first time, and the results are a mixed bag.
Full disclosure – I am much older than the brothers themselves (they’re only 21 and 23), so I might not be the right demographic to fully appreciate their very silly brand of humour, and the crowd I saw Fair Dinkum with responded with uproarious laughter all through the show.
The brothers are definitely enthusiastic and seemingly delighted in playing up every technical mishap and forgotten line, with their annoyed reactions providing a few extra laughs every time things didn’t go to plan.
But I think the pacing of the sketches was an issue, as in the course of an hour-long show there were only six sketches total, and I was hoping for something a bit snappier rather than the drawn out skits on offer here.
Looking at their online content, their YouTube and TikTok skits run for about 2 mins on average and I think segments of that length would have worked better in a live setting, as the pace tended to drag a bit with some scenes running for around 10 minutes or more.
The premise of the sketches were quite repetitive as well, with most of them seeing Lachlan play the straight man to Jaxon’s oddball character who has all the funny bits, as Lachlan becomes increasingly exasperated with Jaxon’s nutty antics. One sketch set in a doctor’s office saw the roles reversed and a slight twist on the premise, and it probably was the best sketch of the night.
While I didn’t love the show overall, the duo are definitely good performers (with Lachlan making for a particularly good straight man) and you have to cut the boys some slack as this is their first live show so I would never expect it to be as polished as a veteran comedy team like Aunty Donna for example.
The Fairbairn brothers have attained such massive success at such a young age and I will definitely check out more of their online content in the future as the lads do have talent, and I hope their next live show is a better showcase for those talents.
2.5/5 Stars
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 