Our Comedy Editor Emma had a chance to sit down with comedians and musical group The Kransky Sisters who will be performing in October at The Big Joke Festival at the Leicester Square Theatre. You can find her full article here: London Comedy: October.

EM: Mourne, Eve and Dawn, hello.

You usually stay at home in rural Queensland apart from when you occasionally travel down to Sydney for gigs in your Morris Major. Now you’re travelling all over the world and touring big cities like London and Stockholm. How are you finding this new lifestyle?

Kranskys: It’s nice. It’s a big world. The ship takes a long time and the seas can be treacherous, but after all, it’s not the journey that counts is it? It’s the destination. There are interesting customs in the far away countries. Last year we tried to wear the wooden shoes we bought in Holland, but we all got blisters and had to go to Dr. Pearce for lancing. We nailed the wooden shoes to the wall as an ornament above the mantelpiece where we keep our trophies, they make a nice ornament, and a place for the wasps to nest. We saw some wasps on our travels last year in England. They’re bigger over there. Like the buses. They have two floors, and both cost the same. There are many interesting things to look at when you’re travelling. We once had a stick insect stuck to the windscreen wiper.

EM: You’ve performed at the Edinburgh Fringe before and got some fantastic reviews – do you enjoy doing shows over here?

Kranskys: Yes. We certainly do. We especially enjoy meeting the lovely people. Sometimes when you don’t mean to be funny people laugh but that’s alright. Each to their own. It’s nice to share our stories and the music and songs we learn from our radio at home, and our car wireless. Our father glued it to the dashboard in 1966, it still works. Radios are so much better than televisions. We’ve never had one of those. There are plenty of pictures outside our windscreen.

EM: You play with some pretty unusual instruments like the musical saw, what inspired you to play them and were they hard to learn?

Kranskys: Our father gave Eve the musical saw when she was five. She’s played it ever since. Our father used to play the violin, but it made him cry once, so he stopped. Our mother wasn’t around to see it. She was over at Mr. Givisit’s house collecting the milk. Dawn learnt the tuba with money given to her by her father. Her father is not our father. He was the reason our father left. We play many different instruments including an old 1960’s reed keyboard, tambourines, the toilet brush, and kitchen pot and biscuit tin. Listening to the songs on the wireless inspires us to play the instruments. Sometimes we have to wait quite a while for the song to be played again, so we can pick up where we left off in the tune. We have pickles and cheese and a glass of milk while we’re waiting. It fills in the time, and makes for a hearty meal. On Fridays we eat white stew with boiled potatoes. Our mother taught us how to make the white stew when she lived at the house. While we stirred the pot, she used to count the rows of stitches in the doilies and chant.

EM: The songs you cover are a very eclectic mix from Marvin Gaye to Steppenwolf, AC/DC, Talking Heads and the Sugababes. Do you have a favourite genre or is it pot luck with what gets played over the wireless? Have you ever considered getting an ipod?

Kranskys: We just like to pick the tunes that remind us of somewhere we’ve been, or something that has happened. Something that reminds us of our travels, or our childhood. Those are the ones we like to pick the most. Michael Jackson was a favourite of ours. The ‘Thriller’ reminds us of our nightmares. Oh, and the Skyhooks, Horror Movie. Nana Mouskouri is nice. We like the song, ‘Try to Remember’. We can’t sometimes, but it helps to remind yourself.

EM: One of your covers ‘Pop Musik’ you heard in a disco at a night called Stark Raving Mad. Did you have a good experience? Would you go out clubbing again?

Kranksys: Those clubs are a bit strange. They look like one big dressing room, but no-one is putting their clothes back on. They are not kept well at all either. There was some sort of electricity problem the night we went to one, because the lights wouldn’t stop flashing on and off. They were faulty. Then there was a terrible screeching, scratching sound and smoke was everywhere. We left straight after we called the fire brigade.

EM: All three of you are unmarried and prefer not to have any dalliances with men but Mourne you were once keen on a man called Glen Davies. Would you not like to have some male company or go on a few dates?

Mourne: Glen Davies worked with me at the Egg Farm. He was very nice to me. When I dropped the egg on Charmaine Wilkinson’s moccasin, he stopped her from clamping my head with the carton stapler. But not long after that, Charmaine tripped over Glen’s shoe at the Peckers Pass Xmas Party and caught her hair in his laces. Ever since then, they’ve been tied together. I never got an opportunity.

EM: Mourne – you are the eldest and seem to have a firm hand over your sisters, do you think you are a little too strict with them at times?

Mourne: If a donkey strays away from its manger, it won’t return unless the farmer waves the stick, will it? Our mother taught us that if you stay alert you will keep things from breaking. Orderly fashion is good fashion sense, and if the shoe fits, don’t tear it. No. Not stern, just practical.

EM: You all knit and Mourne you write poetry too – do you have any other hidden talents?

Mourne: I think we’d all really rather you didn’t bring that one up. Knits are not a nice thing to get. Yes. We have all had them, but it wasn’t our fault. Our neighbour Mrs. Winks’ nephew still goes to primary school. With regards to my poetry, I have written some poems. My latest poem, “Where Do You Go To When You’re Ugly?” was entered in the Esk Fair Alphabet Jumble Prize. The poem didn’t win, but the submission letter did.

EM: Eve – are you still sleepwalking? Have there been any more incidents since you were found sucking a cow’s teet?

Eve: Mourne wasn’t happy that I used all the porridge oats in the washing machine. The blouses still smell like breakfast.

EM: Dawn – why are you living in the neighbour’s laundry rather than at home with your sisters?

Mourne: Dawn moved into Mrs. Evermore’s house after she returned from hospital. She wanted the spare room upstairs, but that is Eve’s and my craft room. She’s happy over there. She likes the clothes mangle, for flattening toad skins.

EM: Finally, what has happened to Arva – is it likely we shall ever see her again in any of your shows?

Mourne: Arva is away working with the Hornbell Military Marching Band. It all started when she saw the Military Tattoo at the Edinburgh Festival when we were there in 2006. She was down there every day watching the horns. When we returned home, our neighbour Mrs. Boyle, saw her exchanging sheet music with a member of the Marching Band. Not long after that, she was gone. We received a letter , covered in gravy, saying she had six chops for breakfast. She gets free food in the army.

EM: Well, thank you very much Kransky Sisters, having heard all about your unusual lives and your music, I can’t wait to see you perform!

This is an extension of an interview from Spoonfed.co.uk.  You can find the original article here: London Comedy: October.