All Shook Up

Have you heard the one about a 19th Century bicycle that was made from wrought iron and gave the rider a fairly bumpy ride? No? You're in the majority then. “Boneshaker is the name of our show and it comes from Dan [Allemann] researching bicycles,” says Simon Godfrey, one half of comedy duo This Is Siberian Husky. “I have no idea why he was doing that but he just stumbled across it.”

From simple things good things grow, and that's what happened as the duo took the name and ran with it.

“Boneshaker is really a mission statement of sorts as it's really a sketch show essentially held together with a narrative and a synth score. We write our ownmusic for the show but it's a sketch show at heart.”

This Is Siberian Husky began their comedy sketch career in 2010, performing on vaguely lit stages before progressing onto bigger and better things. And bigger and better things are just what happened as the boys became 2012 Moosehead recipients.

The Moosehead Awards, which started in 1987 as a way of remembering comedian and actor Brian McCarthy, who was killed in a car accident at the age of 23, have become prestigious and admired amongst the comedic fraternity.

“It's amazing and humbling to be part of the Mooseheads as they are renowned,” Godfrey says. “It also helps us in terms of exposure.”

Godfrey has been performing comedy since 2006, but his partnership with fellow Husky Dan Allemann kicked off in 2010. And just like the bicycle yarn, the name This Is Siberian Husky stems from equally strange origins.

“Dan's uncle was a bohemian and traveled around a lot. He died penniless and left his family intangible things, like he left someone hope,” says Godfrey. “He left Dan the best name for a band ever – the name This Is Siberian Husky. We didn't use it for a band but used it for comedy instead.”

Despite Boneshaker's linage being traced to a bicycle, that's where the similarities end. “The show is not about bikes,” Godfrey says. “We mention them in a roundabout kind of way through the soundscape, but the show's a bit absurd and tragic at times. It's a bit dark and has a reoccurring theme and characters.”

He says the characters are based on fact and fiction. “It's probably exaggerated fact. We wanted aprocess of expanding the types ofthings we've been doing over thepast few years. We're both intosketch comedy and my heart has always been into sketch. We're both Dudley Moore and Monty Python fans and like that kind of sensibility.”