MICF: This is SIberian Husky

The boys of This Is Siberian Husky have wrestled sketch comedy into an electric chair and catapulted it into The Tuxedo Cat. Their horribly amusing, brilliantly wrong humour is founded on their consummate sketch comedy skills: fast transitions to consistent characters, great physical comedy, a powerful connection between the performers and, perhaps above all, an excellent script.

Dan Allemann and Simon Godfrey create The Misery Factory through its workers, who are responsible for supporting the balance of good in the world by providing its sadness, misfortune and general crappiness.

The fast-paced script moves quickly back and forth between characters, setting up scenes to complete the jokes and later referencing their own scenes for further comedic effect.  The circular motion keeps us on our toes, and at times I felt myself struggling to keep up with the cleverness coming thick and fast. However, this can only be considered a small problem, and is due to the late scheduling of the show. Had they got us in there an few hours earlier, before Friday night drinks had kicked in, it would be a different story.

Given that it was late on a Friday night, the particular show I experienced was uniquely – and delightfully, I thought – influenced by its audience. Combine the ridiculous laugh of a drunken woman with her two equally well-watered friends, and a guy in the front row set on doing the show’s sound-effects, This Is Siberian Husky didn’t have an easy night! It is testament to their abilities that they worked with their surprisingly vocal audience so well that for the first half of the show I thought the laughing-woman was a plant, and the sound-effects pro at the front was being paid for his work. When it continued to the point that it was obviously not part of the show, I was even more amused to watch how Allemann and Godfrey managed to incorporate the tricky hecklers seamlessly into the show.

How many “I loved it” reviews (and rewards) does it take to make a show fantastic? Well, okay, none, but they surely cannot hurt it. Yet the audience was not only difficult but small.

Please, get there to support and enjoy this show; you’ll love it, and you’ll also do your civic duty by making sure they keep delivering for the festivals of the future!