A dose of good, clean fun for all

[caption id="attachment_40068" align="alignright" width="405"] TUNED FOR COMEDY: The Brothers Streep have taken their act from the 'Idols' stage to the National Arts Festival[/caption]

THE BROTHERS STREEP with Dylan Hitchens and Simon van Wyk, at the Scout Hall, today, tomorrow and Saturday

EVEN at 10am the Brothers Streep are engagingly funny in this Fringe appearance, the third festival on stage for this Cape Town acoustic comedy duo.

The bearded boys – baby-faced Dylan Hitchens and taller, blue-eyed Simon van Wyk – first hit the spotlight with their hilarious parody song, We're Never Gonna Be SA Idols on TV in 2011.

Since then they've been visiting Grahamstown with their mash-ups of familiar and funny aspects of life in South Africa. And it's great, especially if you are looking for light relief from the heavier fare on offer at this year's festival.

"I don't have a political bone in my body," says Hitchens, but he and Van Wyk certainly do have an eye and ear for what matters to their audience and their tuneful voices zip through songs that cover a range of everyday issues.

Admit it, don't you also get annoyed when someone tries to take 27 items into the express queue at the supermarket?

Sitting in the traffic in a car that has seen better days, taxi drivers, Disney princesses, call centres and that smiley face waitrons add to your restaurant bill in the hope of a bigger tip all are parodied in song.

What makes it even more fun is that they so obviously enjoy what they are doing – at one stage Van Wyk encourages youngsters in the audience to follow their dream even if it takes them to the stage – and that makes it easy for the rest of us to enjoy also.

Free of bad language, albeit full of corny puns, The Brothers Streep is a stripe of musical sunshine in a show suitable for all ages. – Gillian McAinsh