Weird And Wonderful
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday January 19, 1996
Scared Weird Little Guys, Belvoir Street Theatre, January 17
TWO things I like about Australian culture: our cartoonists and our comedians. They make us laugh at ourselves. Scared Weird Little Guys are another pair of stars in this illustrious firmament. From Melbourne, they have been carving a reputation out for themselves on Canadian and US college circuits, where they have won top awards.
Rusty Berther and John Fleming use music as their starting point. They both play guitar and have sweet, well- matched voices. Ingenious lyrics and effective harmonies are their specialty. They have a gift for parody in both songwriting and delivery.
Among the several high points, there's a presentation of Prince's Kiss in a range of styles, according to requests from the audience: reggae, rap, pop, blues, whatever the crowd wants.
On occasions they ask the rather quiet, if appreciative, Aussie audience to transform themselves into Americans. Set free to make a lot of noise, we thus get to experience segments of their US college program. In playing off Americans' ignorance about this country, some of which is recorded on film, we also get to laugh at them.
While the overall show is a touch loose around the edges, a reworking of the American show, the actual set pieces are excellently evolved. While the comedy is essentially broad and light, it emanates a glow of intelligence.
They may be weird, but they are also smart. Their version of the American national anthem must have sent the US college circuit into a frenzy of horror. And their out-of-tune, or perhaps minor-key version of Duelling Banjos makes the most of both their compositional and string pickin' skills.
Scared Weird Little Guys stand out for the depth of their material which, combined with the light-hearted touch, offers something quite new and different - you could almost say up-market by Aussie comedy standards.
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald