An interview with Cardinal Burns

As a success story of the Edinburgh Fringe, Dustin Demri-Burns and Seb Cardinal have just finished their first series of Cardinal Burns on E4 (still on 4od). The boys are back in town doing a 6 night show in the Pleasance Dome. But how did it all happen?

Interview: Cardinal Burns

Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns are two halves of Cardinal Burns. Prior to their screen debut on E4 last year, the pair toured Cardinal Burns as a live show and they're bring it back this summer for spots at Latitude Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Since everyone at Giggle Beats HQ was so impressed with the show, we sent James Harle to talk to the duo about the success of Cardinal Burns, their inspiration and their motivation. Enjoy.

Cardinal Burns interview

Hot on the heels of Watson & Oliver, the latest comedy duo to get their self-titled sketch show on the screen are Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns. Known collectively as Cardinal Burns, the pair's first series aired this spring on E4, and the DVD is on sale now.

The second episode of sketch duo Cardinal Burns' E4 series is just as good as the first: odd, awkward, stylishly shot and frequently hysterical. This week, 'Real Banksy' tries to get his stepson excited about street art, Rachel and her friends visit the countryside in a well-observed spoof of Made in Chelsea and spoken-word poet Switch rhymes about being denied access to his parents' house while they're on holiday. Many sketches focus on the often-bizarre characters and monotonous conversations of the working day - including a sleazy office flirt and a colleague who laughs at absolutely anything - and Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns's subtle performances give the characters an absurd believability. Finally, a modern TV sketch show that's actually funny.

Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns's sketch show already seems gentler and perhaps funnier after the first week's crude attempts at attention grabbing. This time we get a great take on a scripted reality show, and an urban poet who rhymes about the most mundane problems. The latter sits well with their (intentionally) boring, suburban take on Banksy, who is "up at silly o'clock" to do one of his street paintings. Other welcome returnees include the office flirt whose routine is thrown by the arrival of a new receptionist.

Perhaps I have become a little jaundiced towards sketch comedy in general, but I sat stone-faced through huge swathes of E4's latest offering. Writer/stars Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns have a fine eye for character detail, and are both strong performers, but when they do come up with an authentically funny idea they can't let go of it.

The vomiting homicide officers, the improvised audition and the French stunt fly sketches all had their respective charms but went on for far too long.

Other sections were cleverly filmed but failed to deliver any satisfactory laughs, most notably the zombie chase opener. Top marks for the stylish and atmospheric movie pastiche, but the build up simply served to make a disappointing punchline look all the more feeble.

On reflection, Cardinal Burns showed more than enough potential to merit revisiting, although I have a horrible feeling they might follow the popular sketch show trend of introducing all their best ideas in episode one and then regurgitating them throughout the rest of the series. Come on boys, prove me wrong.

Live comedy favourites Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns kick off their sketch-show series with skits veering from puerile to awkward to totally random. They introduce and weave a range of recurring characters throughout this half hour - the trustafarian beat poet, the smug office flirt, the real Banksy - but their best work lies in the standalone segments. In particular the desperate jobbing actor willing to be sexually violated by an imaginary hawk, and the up-chucking police detectives who should come with a disclaimer: do not watch while ingesting. The gags sag in the latter half, with unfortunate stereotyping sinking a reality-show spoof, but this is frequently laugh-out-loud funny.

Cardinal Burns: meet TV's new comedy double act

Critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe act Cardinal Burns make their small screen debut tonight. Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns talk Steve Coogan, vomit and more...

Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns have already won critical acclaim for their Edinburgh Fringe shows and sold out their recent run in London - no surprise the pair's sketch show debut comes with high expectations. The pair excel at taking well-worn situations (office romance, undead invasions) and taking them to their absurd conclusions. The best sketches are the most believable: reimagining Banksy as a middle-aged surbuban house husband is a stroke of comic genius.

This new comedy sketch show from Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns is a mixed bag, both in the range of situations on show and in the variable levels of quality. The lower-sixth humour of vomiting policemen and zombie penis jokes is tedious, but there's more mileage in the scenes with the office flirt who has a new rival to contend with, and a profile of Banksy, who lives a dull life in the suburbs and buys art supplies in Homebase. Some amusingly offbeat stuff here - more please.