My Festival: BriTANicK

Nick Kocher (left) and Brian McElhaney of BriTANick (rhymes with 'Titanic') | Dylan Woodley

There are thousands of shows in Edinburgh this month. Please explain why we should come and see yours.

If you’ve enjoyed our sketch comedy on stage or on YouTube in the past, you will deeply love watching us experiment with new forms. The show is both extremely structured and completely free-wheeling. There are tightly scripted sketches and moments of chaos where even we don’t know what’s going to happen. There are gratuitous penis jokes, real stories of childhood trauma, and more than three parallel universes. You should come see it just to try and make sense of this paragraph.

What will we learn from your show that we didn’t know before?

You will learn absolutely nothing from our show. If we have accidentally snuck in any real piece of knowledge, moral, or life insight, we have failed. This show is unimportant and we get dumber every time we do it.

Who or what was the biggest inspiration for your show?

We have deep inspirations from our youth, from Monty Python to the Coen Brothers, but we also have a lot of contemporary fringe inspirations. The chaos of Stamptown has unfortunately worked itself into our show, along with the primal grotesqueness of Natalie Palamides, the physicality of the Umbilical Brothers, and whatever it is Josh Glanc does.

What’s the best review you’ve ever had, and the worst?

Two years ago at the Fringe we had two big reviewers on the same night. One said the stand-out moment of the show was a Cowboy sketch we did. The other said the only moment the show failed was a Cowboy sketch we did. This is the day we learned we cannot please anyone. It was absolutely freeing and deeply upsetting.

Tell us something about you that would surprise people.

Fourteen years ago Nick saw Brian accidentally catch a bird, mid-flight, in his hand while gesticulating on a street in Salt Lake City, Utah. There were no witnesses except us and it has been extremely frustrating and lonely that none of our friends ever believe us.

What are the best and worst things that have happened to you at a festival?

Best: Brian once took drugs at the Oregon Country Fair and fell in love with a tree. Worst: Nick once took drugs at Bonnaroo and ate a packet of cigarettes.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?

The answer to both questions is scroll our phones endlessly and build ourselves into a full blown mania. Whatever positive effects our meditation and exercise routines have, we have completely reversed it through Instagram’s Explore page.

Thanks for the interview! We’d like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking?

We’re going to the Abattoir. A pop-up bar in the middle of a field? It’s like freakin’ Hogwarts. Brian will have a Rye Old-Fashioned. Nick will have a packet of cigarettes.

BriTANicK: Dummy, Pleasance Courtyard (Above) (Venue 33), 8pm, until 25th August

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