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by Chris Wilson & Peter Carlone

Peter n’ Chris, Toronto Fringe Festival, Randolph Theatre, Toronto

July 2-12, 2014

Fringe favourites Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson’s latest show is their slickest yet likely because it has a narrower focus than usual.  Rather than the grandiosely titled Peter n’ Chris Save the World! seen here in 2011, Chris n’ Peter and the Kinda OK Corral is closely focussed send-up of the Western, particularly the Hollywood and spaghetti varieties of the 1960s through Brokeback Mountain (2005).  The duo pack every Western cliché possible into a tight narrative while, in their trademark fashion, hilariously calling our attention to them as clichés.

The story Peter Earp (Carlone), who has a corral that’s not great but just kinda OK.  There he contentedly tends his cattle that consists of just one cow Wilhelmina (Wilson with a hand sticking down from his stomach), until the drifter Texas Chris (Wilson) turns up at the corral looking for work.  After initial tension between the newcomer and the settler, Texas Chris comes to appreciate the simplicity of Peter’s life on the corral and, in fact, Peter’s guileless simplicity in general. 

Only after the two start to become friends is it revealed that Texas Chris has been employed by the evil Baron von Toffy (Carlone) to lure Peter off his land and kill him.  As it happens the Baron has used a British scientist (Wilson) to dowse for oil and has found it on Earp’s land.  After Texas Chris breaks his back on the

mountain, leading him to name it “Brokeback Mountain”, the relationship between Petter and Chris becomes even closer (no, not that close) and Chris is torn between his assignment from the Baron and his new friendship with Peter.

Impatient, the Baron invades the corral and takes Wilhelmina hostage.  The Baron says that Earp can have his cow and property back if he can raise $75 million dollars, which we are assured “was a lot of money in those days”.  To do this Peter and Chris enter a poker game in the local saloon where a $75 millionaire just happens to be playing.  To find out the rest, you’ll just have to see the show.

The humour of the show comes from the convergence of many sources – the off-the-wall nature of the story itself along with Peter and Chris’s hilarious commentaries on the story, on their roles and even on their acting while their are enacting the story.  The two never allow us to forget we are watching two comedians playing parts even as they insist on the seriousness of the tale they tell. 

Mixed in with clichés of Westerns are all kinds of anachronisms.  The Baron communicates with Texas Chris by cellphone though both acknowledge it hasn’t been invented yet.  Chris sings a soulful song at a campfire which turns out to be by Fleetwood Mac, or rather a specific cover version of the song by Fleetwood Mac. 

What really seals the deal is Peter and Chris’s huge talent in mime and characterization.  A particular highlight is when the two depict at least five characters playing poker together leaving us absolutely clear as to who everyone is.  As always happens in Westerns the game leads to a barroom brawl involving everyone in the saloon, all of whom the two manage to keep distinct even in the midst of the mêlée.

Peter and Chris also provide their own sound effects and CGI-inspired close-ups of the action as when each one imitates in slow motion how a bullet courses through the air before it enters and exits its target.     

As a team Peter n’ Chris have become a comedy act with such popular support that audiences cheer even before the show begins.  They are the kind of wildly imaginative team one looks forward to whenever they are in town.  Peter n’ Chris and the Kinda OK Corral next plays the Edmonton Fringe from August 15-24 and the Vancouver Fringe September 4-12.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photos: Chris Wilson and Peter Carlone. 

For tickets, visit http://fringetoronto.com.