The Umbilical Brothers



Australian comedians Shane Dundas and David Collins are The Umbilical Brothers. They met in a theatre class and decided one day that their miming class was "too quiet". Their humor is primary physical comedy and they make full use of stage lighting, imaginary people and objects, the audiences' line-of-sight, camera frame and sound effects. Their comedic timing is spot on and you can tell they spend hours upon hours perfecting their routines - even though their early work was largely improvised.

They have done several live shows Speedmouse, Don't Explain and THWAK! among others, and were a regular feature on The Sideshow. The Umbilical Brothers also had a television show geared toward children called The Upside Down Show that was enjoyable for all ages.

""Could you at least try to pretend like you're in water.""
 * Bad Bad Acting: The Roadie is a borderline nightmarish clown who doesn't entirely hide his distaste for his work and Shane and David.


 * Character As Himself: Ending Credits. But also played with - see Credits Gag below.
 * Credits Gag: Just read them. At the end of Speedmouse for example.
 * Dramatic Unmask: Spoofed in Speedmouse, where Shane and David rip off the Roadie's clown mask to reveal.
 * DVD Commentary: The commentary for Speedmouse has Shane and David frequently sidetracked or interrupted by the other characters from the show, and when they do provide behind-the-scenes information it's false. Several times, they claim that various imaginary props and characters were actually present in the theatre, but were digitally removed in post-production. At one point, they instead admit that a particular imaginary character really was just a voiceover, then claim that it was intended to be a visible CGI-animated character but all the earlier digital object removal broke the CGI budget.
 * The Elevator From Ipanema
 * Everything's Worse With The Threatening Bears
 * The Faceless: Tina.
 * Hand Puppet:
 * Also the Threatening Bears.
 * Grrr...
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: David and Shane, for twenty-two years and counting. They make gay jokes unusually rarely for a male comedy duo, but on one occasion when they're wrestling for some air bubbles (they were "underwater") some porn-like music started playing, which freaked them both out.
 * Improv: A few of their routines are improvised, including suggestions from the audience. Even then they are so familiar with each other it ends up being much the same as a scripted performance.
 * Jerkass: The Roadie. He gives a (entirely imaginary) five year old kid a balloon filled with too much helium, then, when the kid flies up too high, pops it with a dart.
 * Twice. David catches her both times.
 * Then he falls off the top storey.
 * Lampshade Hanging: At the beginning of Speedmouse, David indicates to the empty stage and says, "Welcome to our show, hope you got your money's worth!"
 * Larynx Dissonance: Tina, the disconcertingly-deep-voiced stage manager.
 * Medium Awareness: The Schmuzzies schmeak Schmuzzish as does David in The Upside Down Show.
 * Their stage show Speedmouse has them fully aware that they are in a DVD, despite the fact that they weren't, until they were when the show was put on DVD. They muck about with stage show conventions as well - the third and fourth main characters are Roadie, the roadie dressed as a clown, and Tina, the stage manager.
 * No Animals Were Harmed: Part of the "Don't Explain" show.
 * No Fourth Wall
 * Speech Impaired Animal: The Schmuzzies.
 * Two Aliases One Character:
 * The Voiceless: The Roadie.
 * The Voiceless: The Roadie.