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Topp Twins.
Despite the obvious word association, there's no sign of any spin in the Topp Twins camp; the two women who wear the sobriquet seem eminently sensible, except perhaps, for the yodelling. If you don't know them there's little I can write which will make the idea clearer, but the Twins are possibly the funniest thing (one of the few) to come out of New Zealand since... ever.
Perhaps you've seen them on television, playing a collection of characters who seem familiar - a lot like Auntie Madge nd Uncle Norm from a fictitious and typically daggy Aussie family. And yet, as I look at the photograph of Jill and Linda Topp, I think they resemble the Finn brothers. Go figure.
When I quiz Jill about their career as the Topp Twins, and their characters (who comprise a motley collection of New Zealand's finest...) Jill slyly points out they've been around for 26 years and that they're "a family run business". Indeed, Jill and Linda are sisters; Jill lives on 17 acres of land in the countryside north of Auckland, whereas Linda is a city dweller.
Here's another thing about these grounded New Zealand women: they make it a rule never to be away on tour for more than three weeks at a time. "Oh yes," breathes Jill. "Gotta get home and feed the horses; have a ride on the beach. It's madness driving nine hours a day to get to the next gig [pronounced 'geg' of course] and eating a toasted sandwich before you go on stage.
"Too many bands have broken up at the end of a six months tour, because they hate each other and they have no clean underwear, are you with me?" she asks, deadpan. Again she mentions how much easier it is as a family run business. "Yeah, well we shared a womb, so it's no big deal sharing a stage I don't think. We know each other so well we don't even rehearse anymore."
And so, the Topp Twins are coming back after a three year absence, bringing a show which "I think it's fair to say will always contain singing, our characters, and some yodelling!
"There's a fair amount of spontaneity onstage and when we walk out there we don't know what's going to happen half the time. So when people come to see the show they're in the same situation as us.
It was not so in the TV series the two made, which was a homespun success story of what seemed unending lust, misunderstandings and car chases around New Zealand. "It's quite hard to be spontaneous in TV shows," she mentions. Well, yeah, I know it all gets scripted and the shots need to be set up, but I still got the idea that a fair amount of the dialogue and the interaction between characters was, you might say, organic...
"When we're out there onstage for the live show we're just out there and into it," she says firmly. It is, after, what she wants to talk about - their performance our around Australia.
"But we really enjoyed the filming experience, it was a great way to try some things out and learn a lot more about what we could do."
I think she's talking here about the development of their various characters, Camp Leader, Camp Mother, Ken, Ken, Raelene and Brenda.
"Common as muck, that's what we are. In an interesting way, all our characters are common people, but they're all based on a - a collection of different people - and they work in Australia as well as they do in New Zealand. And we try to make all of those characters quite lovable. We're not looking for the mean side of people, they're all good people in their own ways."
Have they, I wonder, ever cut too close to the bone with their characterisations; such as having someone come up to them and say 'Hey, that's me you're portraying there!!'. "No but we're told there's a real estate agent somewhere in New Zealand who's a dead ringer for Linda's Ken."
Ever met him?
"Nah. But we should track him down sometime."
Alex Wheaton
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The Topp Twins begin their South Australian Tour on Thurs 21 Oct at Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide. They also perform in Mt Gambier, Renmark, Tanunda, Port Pirie, Whyalla and Port Lincoln. See the Prize Frenzy(tm) for tickets, DVDs and videos.
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