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Peter n' Chris back on home turf

Canadian Comedy Award nominated duo Explore Their Bodies on stage via a magic housecoat
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Comedy duo Peter n' Chris are back on home turf with Peter n' Chris Explore their bodies

Get ready for a journey into the ear of one of the funniest people to ever live in Victoria when sketch comedy duo Peter n' Chris mount a special Fringe extension performance of their award winning comedy Peter n' Chris Explore Their Bodies.

The show will take you deep into Chris' digestive tract, where the Hungry Games unfold.

“It's more of a fantasy genre,” says Chris Wilson, born and raised in Victoria. “My head is being taken over by hypochondria, which is personified by evil little men. They take over my body and we go inside via a magic housecoat to fight it.”

“Whenever I explain it, it sounds really dumb — and it is dumb. It's Lord of the Rings meets Narnia meets Gladiator.”

The latest in the pair's string of critically acclaimed comedies, Explore their Bodies took home a Just for Laughs Best Comedy Award at the Montreal Fringe, a Best of Fest award in Winnipeg, a Pick of the Fringe award at last year's Vancouver Fringe Festival and was an official selection of the Chicago SketchFest and a featured act at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival in 2012.

It's making its Victoria debut at the Metro Studio (1411 Quadra) Sept. 4-5.

Last time the duo performed a show in Victoria was at UVic's Phoenix Theatre Spotlight on Alumni with Peter n' Chris: The Mystery of the Hungry Heart Motel, a show which was recently nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award. Peter n' Chris were also nominated for Best Sketch Troupe at the CCA's.

Wilson moved to Toronto in January while Peter Carlone lives in Vancouver. The pair have been collaborating and rehearsing via Skype ever since.

“It's something we did when we both lived in Vancouver. Peter lived on the East Side and I was in Kits, so it's somewhat the same,” says Wilson. “We like to write on the road anyway. Even though it's a busy time, there's always some time during the day to write.”

The pair cruises the Fringe circuit over the summer (they didn't get into the Victoria or Vancouver Fringes this year), spending time with what Wilson calls the “travelling hobo gypsy theatre family,” and usually have a new show written by the end of the season.

They currently have about 50 per cent of a new show written, loosely based on Back to the Future, with a working title of Backwards to the Forward Times. “Something like that, or as close to Back to the Future as we can get without getting in trouble,” Wilson says.

The pair met while studying theatre at UVic in 2005. In 2008, Wilson applied for the Victoria Fringe and got in. They wrote and performed their first full-length show The Peter n' Chris Show with Peter n' Chris in 2009. They've written “Four and a half” shows since, with a serious re-write of the first show included. “It was basically what we do now, but it wasn't any good,” says Wilson. “It was good enough that we were able to try again.”

Wilson attributes the pair's common education for making it so easy to work together. “We both came through the same program, so it was easy to get started. We speak the same language, have the same education and took the same movement classes. I think we both find each other quite funny and trust that if one of us is laughing, the audience might be too.”

Peter n' Chris will also be performing at the Victoria Event Centre with Hip.Bang! Improv Sept. 2-3. Hip.Bang! Will be performing a 40-minute set, after which Peter n' Chris will perform their latest work in progress. Tickets are $20.

The Sept. 4-5 performances of Peter n' Chris Explore their Bodies are $15 at ticketrocket.org. M