London Comedy: October

London Comedy: October

29 September, 2008
by: Emma

The Kransky Sisters

The Big Joke Festival is now in full swing at the Leicester Square Theatre and has already seen some huge comics fly over from the States to perform like Doug Stanhope and Joan Rivers.  It's not all stand-up though, there's a veritable bounty of different acts on offer from sketch comedy to music, physical, improvisational and character-based comedy. 

The next big show we have to look forward to comes from Aussie musical troupe The Kransky Sisters, who will be appearing in the main house for the first two weeks of October.  Sisters Mourne, Eve and Dawn are old-fashioned spinsters who all live together in the sticks of Queensland and travel around in their battered Morris Major to get to gigs. They perform covers of a wide range of songs which they play on some pretty unusual instruments.  Mourne is the eldest and the rather fierce 'mother hen' of the group.  They used to perform with their half-sister Arva but she has recently disappeared and been replaced with their shy and retiring youngest sister, Dawn, who lives apart from her sisters in the local laundrette.

The Kranskys (real names Annie Lee, Christine Johnston and Carolyn Johns) have gone down a storm in Australia and featured several times before in the UK at the Edinburgh Fringe.  This will be their first big London run and in anticipation, I caught up with them last week to find out a little bit more about them.

EM:  Mourne, Eve and Dawn, hello. 
You three usually stay at home in rural Queensland and now you're travelling all over the world and touring big cities like London and Stockholm.  How are you finding this new lifestyle?

Kranskys: It's nice. It's a big world. The ship takes a long time and the seas can be treacherous, but after all, it's not the journey that counts is it?  It's the destination. There are interesting customs in the far away countries. Last year we tried to wear the wooden shoes we bought in Holland, but we all got blisters and had to go to Dr. Pearce for lancing.  We nailed the wooden shoes to the wall as an ornament above the mantelpiece where we keep our trophies. They make a nice ornament, and a place for the wasps to nest. 

EM: You've performed at the Edinburgh Fringe before and got some fantastic reviews - do you enjoy doing shows over here?

Kranskys: Yes. We certainly do. We especially enjoy meeting the lovely people. Sometimes when you don't mean to be funny people laugh but that's alright. Each to their own.

EM: You play with some alternative instruments like the musical saw, what inspired you to play them and were they hard to learn?

Kranskys: Our father gave Eve the musical saw when she was five. She's played it ever since. Our father used to play the violin, but it made him cry once, so he stopped. Our mother wasn't around to see it. She was over at Mr. Givisit's house collecting the milk. Dawn learnt the tuba with money given to her by her father. Her father is not our father. He was the reason our father left. We play many different instruments including an old 1960's reed keyboard, tambourines, the toilet brush, and kitchen pot and biscuit tin.  Listening to the songs on the wireless inspires us to play the instruments.

EM: The songs you cover are a very eclectic mix from Marvin Gaye to Steppenwolf, AC/DC, Talking Heads and the Sugababes.  Do you have a favourite genre or is it pot luck with what gets played over the wireless? 

Kranskys: We just like to pick the tunes that remind us of somewhere we've been, or something that has happened. Michael Jackson was a favourite of ours.  The 'Thriller' reminds us of our nightmares.

EM:  One of your covers 'Pop Musik' you heard in a disco at a night called 'Stark Raving Mad'.  Did you have a good experience?  Would you go out clubbing again?

Kranskys: Those clubs are a bit strange.  They look like one big dressing room, but no-one is putting their clothes back on. They are not kept well at all either. There was some sort of electricity problem the night we went to one, because the lights wouldn't stop flashing on and off. They were faulty. Then there was a terrible screeching, scratching sound and smoke was everywhere. We left straight after we called the fire brigade.

EM: All three of you are unmarried and prefer not to have any dalliances with men but Mourne you were once keen on a man called Glen Davies.  Would you not like to have some male company or go on a few dates?

Mourne: Glen Davies worked with me at the Egg Farm. He was very nice to me. When I dropped the egg on Charmaine Wilkinson's moccasin, he stopped her from clamping my head with the carton stapler. But not long after that, Charmaine tripped over Glen's shoe at the Peckers Pass Xmas Party and caught her hair in his laces. Ever since then, they've been tied together. I never got an opportunity. 

EM: Mourne, you are the eldest and seem to have a firm hand over your sisters, do you think you are a little too strict with them at times?

Mourne: If a donkey strays away from its manger, it won't return unless the farmer waves the stick, will it?  Our mother taught us that if you stay alert you will keep things from breaking. Orderly fashion is good fashion sense, and if the shoe fits, don't tear it. No. Not stern, just practical.

EM: Eve, are you still sleepwalking? Have there been any more incidents since you were last found sucking a cow's teet?

Eve: Mourne wasn't happy that I used all the porridge oats in the washing machine. The blouses still smell like breakfast.

EM: Dawn, why are you living in the neighbour's laundrette rather than at home with your sisters?

Mourne: Dawn moved into Mrs. Evermore's house after she returned from hospital. She wanted the spare room upstairs, but that is Eve's and my craft room. She's happy over there. She likes the clothes mangle, for flattening toad skins.

EM: Finally, what has happened to Arva - is it likely we shall ever see her again in any of your shows?

Mourne: Arva is away working with the Hornbell Military Marching Band. It all started when she saw the Military Tattoo at the Edinburgh Festival when we were there in 2006. She was down there every day watching the horns. When we returned home, our neighbour Mrs. Boyle, saw her exchanging sheet music with a member of the Marching Band. Not long after that, she was gone. We received a letter, covered in gravy, saying she had six chops for breakfast. She gets free food in the army.

EM: Well, thank you very much Kransky sisters, having heard all about your eccentric lives and your music, I can't wait to see you perform!

If you would like to read more of this interview, click here to read the full transcript on the Spoonfed blog.

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Emma