By Jessica Taurins
It isn’t easy to transition sketch comedy from screen to stage, especially when said sketches are pretty chaotic to begin with. There’s a lot to consider pre-show – timing, props, audiovisual cues – and that’s not even taking into account a Live Audience, the ultimate distraction for any performer.
With all that considered, I think the Fairbairn brothers did a pretty good job bringing their TikTok personas into the real world for their 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Fair Dinkum.
For those unfamiliar: the Fairbairns are brothers Lachlan (older, the straight man) and Jaxon (younger, the nutcase), silly sketch comedians posting videos a couple of times a week to almost two million TikTok followers. Their audience probably skews a little younger than themselves – I saw plenty of bewildered parents brought along to the performance by their teenage kids – but their brand of comedy is pleasantly relatable to anyone who’s been a kid or had a kid in this modern age.
The boys have made a pretty strong attempt to bring their online sketches to the real world. In general, their online sketches all follow a similar structure – a two to three minute conversation between the two that becomes more and more ridiculous over time, filmed at a tight camera angle (vertically, as is the current style).
Fair Dinkum is just that, except a little bit longer, with a little less editing. The boys are easily distracted if something goes wrong, or the audience giggle a little bit too much, and while it is fun to feel like we’re guests in their TikTok world, it did occasionally drag out a funny moment into unfunny territory.
In each sketch, Jaxon usually plays some absurd character – a little Russian soccer prodigy, a primary school kid drawing evil monsters in class, someone applying for a job at NASA to be the ‘vibe guy’ – to contrast with Lachlan’s more straight-laced characters. An unfortunate reality of extending a two minute sketch into a ten minute scene is that the characters do become a bit repetitive, especially on Lachlan’s side. It doesn’t really matter if he’s a doctor, or a principal, or a pilot, there’s only so many times he can woefully yell Jaxon’s name and tell him he’s being a little freak before it all starts to feel a little samey.
For me, the best moments came when the boys whipped out a little improv. Whether or not it was totally fresh or prepared ahead of time, each sketch they claimed was improvised felt more relaxed and typically garnered the loudest laughs. Jaxon being arrested at the airport and assuming it was for his bundle of sticks instead of his many tons of explosives? Hilarious.
Fair Dinkum is entertaining at the best of times, but drags a little at its worst. Like a short form video for today’s ADHD-riddled youth, the show could be improved with a few more gags and sketches, quick cutting (however that would be done in real life) from one sketch to another to keep everyone’s attention. I also think the show would benefit from the removal of the AI art used as backdrops – not only does it drain our environment to generate these uncanny valley images, it saves literally no time over Googling ‘primary school principal’s office’ and using the first image.
The Fairbairns have a lot for everyone, old fans and new. They’re a little fresh to live performance, but they have a ton of potential and a lot of silly, goofy flair, so I’m looking forward to seeing them again next time they come around!
