Meet Dueling Cousins: Dueling Pianos Act

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dueling Cousins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dueling, what role has risk played in your life or career?
With our version of dueling pianos, risk is the central conceit of the show. There is no setlist. We’re trying to play purely by audience requests. We routinely attempt to play songs/requests we’ve never tried before, off of frantically-found online guitar tabs, which are often fraught with musical errors. As I’m sure you’ve never heard about risk, it can sometimes be rewarding? After a show, while Jimmy and Patrick are loading gear up into their cars, there’s a giddy “debriefing”, in which they’re recapping all the weird stuff they tried that night. That excitement of, “Wow! Can you believe what happened in there?” is the distilled essence of why playing dueling pianos is great. Strangers sometimes ask to sing a song, or they pick up a percussion instrument and start contributing. There is a huge risk in letting a confidently drunk person grab the mic and start representing your musical act. However, when it goes right, it’s one of the most memorable moments of the evening. Audiences enjoy the risks. They laugh at the imploding attempts that die before the one-minute mark, and exalt the successful ones that actually hit their stride as the song goes on. They appreciate the immediacy of knowing that the show they’re seeing is entirely unique and contingent on their involvement. Venues take risks on us. Theo at The Sherman (Sherman Oaks bar) and Troy & Ivan at Surfer Rose (Santa Monica pizza/bar) decided to give us weekly residencies. That’s a commitment. The owners had to be thinking, “This might ruin the vibe. This might not make me money. This band might not actually be that good. But let me give it a month or two and see if we build a scene.” Families throwing private parties take risks on us. Any time people bring us into their backyard for a family reunion, a special birthday, a wedding, etc., it is truly touching how they’re willing to risk the vibe of their entire gathering on the music we’ll be providing. For Jimmy and Patrick, both of whom spent decades in the role of songwriter / frontman / guitarist, deciding to start a dueling pianos project felt incredibly risky. Neither of them felt virtuosic enough on keys to purport to be a “dueling pianist”. But they forced themselves to just get out there and be mediocre, so that they could eventually get to where they are today: quarantined at home for over a year already. Jenna’s role in the group is the least-obvious to pull off, because she doesn’t have a piano. She brought a tambourine to a piano-fight. She is confident when she sings lead on any song, but learning to be confident as a percussionist, a harmonizer, and a charming conversationalist with the audience involved a lot of stressful risk for her as a performer. Ultimately, the entire reason you put yourself out there in a dueling pianos band is to cultivate risk, to run in the opposite direction of calcification, and to get a little buzzed, pull a slip of paper out of a fishbowl, and think, “Sure, what the hell.” [Googles “chords Duck Tales theme song”]

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The Dueling Cousins take pride in being a musically versatile, very affordable dueling pianos act that fits most spaces that others can’t. We are musicians-first (and barely considered comedians) and can cater our extremely deep repertoire to fit any type of celebration or event with endless hours of song requests. We love it when it hits that point in our shows where the audience/client realizes what a great discovery they made, and what a truly unique entertainment experience they’re getting. We are also very dynamic when performing in a bar-type atmosphere. Every week (pre-pandemic) when The Dueling Cousins would perform at its local residency, we consistently managed to keep people singing along to song requests well past last call. The short version of the story is – Jimmy and Patrick are 2nd cousins on their grandmother’s side, and both have played in various original and tribute bands over the years. They decided to try pulling off their own version of Dueling Pianos one night 10 years ago at an Irish Pub in Marina Del Rey (where they had a residency), and had so much fun that they have been doing it ever since. Jenna joined the band in 2017, and brings her theater-trained soprano voice and impeccable rhythm to add a female voice to the spectrum, as well as various percussion. She’s also become the boss. We definitely had a period of time where we couldn’t seem to get a gig anywhere. The Irish Pub in Marina del Rey which had booked us for over five years completely ghosted us with the new owners. Another Irish Pub in Culver City booked us for six months straight, and out of the blue stopped calling. From that point on, we probably went six months without a gig and were about ready to throw in the towel until GigMasters and The Attic residency came along. We look forward to coming back even bigger and better when it’s safe for live music again.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Our favorite activity to do is what we have coined as “the beach crawl”, where we start out walking towards the beach from our apartment in Santa Monica (about 25 blocks), making various stops along the way at bars, restaurants, cafes, etc., for whatever we’re in the mood to snack on or drink. Our ultimate destination is finding a quiet spot on the beach for a little sunbathing/snooze, and then grabbing some dinner on the Promenade and hitting a movie at AMC. Another day we might spend an afternoon at Santa Monica Brew Works. We would also likely spend a day in Malibu, starting with a beautiful drive up PCH, beach time at the “secret” Escondido beach, and then dinner at Neptune’s Net. One evening we would attend Rooftop Cinema for a drive-in movie experience without the cars. For a unique Sunday brunch with a Bavarian flair, we would head to Alpine Village in Torrance. And if we’re really showing off to our guests, we might take them to Gondola Getaway in Long Beach for a gondola ride & picnic, where the gondoliers will actually sing to you. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We would like to give a shoutout to Mike Shaw, Steve Windmiller, and Cynthia Banning, the original Brennan’s Pub (Marina Del Rey) owners and staff, who gave us the opportunity at their bar to experiment with the format of dueling pianos and give life to Dueling Cousins.

Website: duelingcousins.com

Instagram: @duelingcousins

Other: Email: duelingcousins@yahoo.com