The Umbilical Brothers are back once again this Fringe, playing their new show, The Distraction, in The Vagabond in the Garden of Unearthly Delights. David Collins and Shane Dundas have been working together under The Umbilical Brothers banner for many years, and their partnership is tremendous.  In The Distraction, The Umbilical Brothers use a series of green screens to create an hour of their usual high levels of comedy mayhem and skits. The credit for a lot of the magic behind this show must go to Doug Bayne, who co-created the show with Collins and Dundas. In fact, he joins them on stage during the show doing live visual effects that are relayed onto a giant screen above the stage.

This show is hysterical. It is full of the usual antics we have come to know and love from The Umbilical Brothers. They are masters at setting up the perfect punchline. Their physicality is amazing. There are several moments in this show where they are in outer space and through their body movements, you would swear they were in zero gravity. Collins and Dundas are also brilliant at voice manipulation and creating sound effects. My only slight niggle with this show is the rating of PG on FringeTix. For the most part, this show met that, however, there were moments where it delved more into M ratings, and seeing several families in the room, it did raise a few eyebrows.  That aside, The Umbilical Brothers have quickly become Fringe favourites year after year. The Distraction is playing most nights of the Fringe at 6.30pm, so it’s the perfect show to start your night of Fringe viewings.