Second Thursday already? Thank goodness I’m addled from exhaustion, or I’d start fretting that the end of the 2014 Ottawa Fringe Festival was looming near! As it is, I was pretty lucky to make it to my venue without walking into any walls. And I needed this show to complete my collection of courtroom shows. Although I can’t imagine this show in particular was what the architects had in mind when they built the place.

From longtime Fringe veteran company Garkin Productions comes the two-man sketch comedy assault that is DICKY DICKY, featuring Ray Besharah and David Benedict Brown, and directed by the splendiferous Melanie Karin Brown. Featuring a wide array of comedy sketches, penned by the stellar international lineup of Tom X Chao, John Grady, Jayson MacDonald, Matthew Domville, Megan Findlay, Sterling Lynch and Brent Hirose, this is a sketch show with no fear of the juvenile…in fact, on several occasions Dave and Ray wildly embrace juvenile and make it their own, from the balloon-fueled opening number through epic space battles, cat food commercials, and of course, art house partial nudity.

Ray and Dave are two of the funniest and most talented kids around and watching them let’er rip with the great array of material in this show is a giddily fun privilege. Their high-speed performance review sketch is one of the wonders of the modern world, and Dave Brown in a mullet wig pretty much can’t be topped for comic value. Hell, I even laughed during the transitions, which Ray Besharah seemed to be having WAY too much fun with. Is this show occasionally gross and childish? Hell yes…who ever heard of a highbrow sketch comedy show, though? If laughing at two overgrown kids with serious comedy chops is your thing (and from the packed houses, it’s a lot of people’s thing), then you need to get a little more Dicky in your life before it’s too late. Just make sure to protect your database. Peace, love and soul,

Kevin Reid