They’ve been brothers for a really long time, so it seemed obvious that Josh and Tom Burton would end up creating comedy together. Yet it took a mate to point out the inevitable, says older brother Josh. ‘We’d always had a common language and a shared appreciation, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that a mutual friend suggested we should try improv.’ After a stint doing classes together, setting up as The Burton Brothers seemed the next logical step. ‘People looked at us performing together and said “how have you guys not created a show together?” And as soon as people suggested it, we thought “how have we never thought of this?” Finding a comedy partner is one thing, but finding out that it’s your brother…’ Now in their fifth year and on their fifth original show (Fortune Seekers, running at Melbourne International Comedy Festival when we speak), they’ve made old-timey humour a bit of a trademark.

‘It came out of improv; writing shows then trying to figure out what we wanted to be inspired by. For us that’s older comedy like vaudeville and slapstick and character. It’s doing big characters together and being silly and funny.’ Improv remains the driving force behind the creative process: Burton claims that other forms of writing and comedy just don’t work for them. But they also set goals: ‘For 1925, the goal was to do a show with no props or costumes, because we’d just done a show with lots of costume changes and it was a pain. But a goal helps the creative process because you have something you’re working towards.’

That’s not the main thing audiences take away from 1925 though. ‘Yeah, we love talking with transatlantic accents,’ says Burton, making a heroic effort to not start channelling a black-and-white movie star. ‘We love those voices. Our parents, especially our dad, brought us up on old films and old comedies. And I wouldn’t say we became aficionados, but it definitely did something because we love playing those characters.’ There’s music too. ‘That’s something Tom and I do in the car, just sing old Ink Spots songs. With harmonies.’ 

That’s not to say the brothers take a rosy view of the past, with Burton firmly declaring: ‘There’s no world in which it was actually a better place or a better time to live in than the modern world. The past is romanticised for the wrong reasons, but that’s inherently funny, which means we can have our cake and eat it too: we can lovingly pay tribute and homage while being aware it wasn’t perfect. You know, we think how classy the Jazz Age would have been, but it probably would also have been pretty filthy and gross, to be honest.’

There’s something inherently of the moment about a comedy duo who are intent on making their own work and controlling their own destiny. In fact, Burton caught the performing bug at school, but the straight acting path didn’t work out for him. Again, he references the conversation that led him and his brother to their double act. ‘It wasn’t until I did improv that I remembered I love performing. But comedy?.’  There’s a genuine excitement around bringing 1925 to Adelaide Cabaret Festival for one night only. ‘It’s the first time we’ve been to the Cabaret Festival, but we’ve debuted every single show we've ever written in Adelaide. It’s very special to us. And we’ve had audience members that have been with us since the start, so we’re hoping they’ll make their way over to the Cabaret Festival to see 1925. It’s a love letter to the past, with a modern sensibility, with two very silly boys doing very good accents.’ 

1925, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, Kaurna Country, Monday 12 June; Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Thursday 5–Saturday 21 June.