'We have had terrible gigs'

It looks like India is the right place for Melbourne based musical-comedians, David Adams and Ernie Austin.

Being ardent cricket lovers who are always on the lookout for street food and hold a strong desire to visit exotic places, the duo are fascinated with the little peek that they have had into the country’s culture and people, despite the hectic schedule of their comedy shows.
 
Performing under the label of  ‘ElbowSkin’, they bring out the best even in everyday themes such as love, relationships, family and of course, cricket legends.

“We love the legends that Bengaluru has brought out, like Dravid and Kumble. We also love Sachin Tendulkar because of his humility. Everyone in Australia has praises for Indian cricket. We just care about beating the Brits!” says Ernie.

As a ‘souvenir’, Ernie will probably take back home a bruise he suffered while playing cricket with a few boys at a park and the wicket from that match.

The two have been performing ‘jokes with songs’ ever since their high school. They once saw a musical comedy show and were fascinated with the idea of two art forms in one space.

As the genre of musical-comedy doesn’t have many artistes, ‘ElbowSkin’ loves the current limelight they are shining under, but they think that there can be a lot more opportunities.

“The audience enjoy our musical-comedies and that motivates us to keep going. A few acts, during the show, and one or two closing songs and people love it; everybody is happy,” says David.

He jokes that performing together works to their advantage as when they blank out on stage, even after four hours of practice. They can try to cover up each other’s lines or laugh it off together.

Just like their themes, their songs too are not bound by a genre; they sometimes bring in Bollywood elements as well. “Bollywood is hilariously fun,” says David. 

The two have had gigs ranging from one where they performed in front of a crowd of millions to a “horrible” gig, but Ernie says that they take everything as a learning experience.

“Our best gig was when we performed in Queensland, for an Australian football match, where about 140 countries participated.

The manager had to tell us before the show not to mess up. But we have also had terrible gigs when nobody was listening to us.

However, we learn from our mistakes and have come this far after repeated performances,” ends David.