They're 'Avin A Larf

"Serious, swotty and super sensible? Not on your nelly! 3T know how to have a giggle... big-time! From cheeky leg-pulling to mad looning around... They're 'avin a larf!"

Who winds up who?
Taj: I'm the joker. I love playing tricks and trying to scare the others. I do silly voices and call them up pretending to be a fan.
TJ: You can call Taj's room and he'll answer in a phony voice, and you know it's gonna make you laugh.

So he's caught you out then TJ?
TJ: Urrrr, maybe once....
Taj: I catch everyone out!
Taryll: But not me, I always know it's you Taj. I just laugh at your voices 'cause they're funny.
Taj: (to Taryll) Stop lying! Stop trying to be macho!

Who was the naughtiest when you were younger?
TJ: Me!
Taj: (giggling) Yeah, he wanted to seem older than he was. TJ wanted to hang out with the big guys.
Taryll: He was always trying to be 'in' and cool. Trying to wear the same clothes as us.
Taj: But hey, with a big brother like me, you can't blame him!

So TJ, did you get into heaps of trouble at school?
TJ: No, that was Taryll.
Taj: Yeah. Teachers always loved TJ.
TJ: (shocked) They loved me? I didn't realize that. I was bad sometimes but they couldn't get too mad at me. Taj had started a good reputation you see. He was always the goody-goody in the class. The type who'd do all their homework on time and sit in the front row answering all the teacher's questions.

What's the maddest thing you've done for a dare?
TJ: I don't like that game. No way!
Taryll: It's too scary. When we play 'Truth or Dare' we always take truth, otherwise we'll give each other really horrible dares..
TJ: If I had to dare someone I'd dare Taj to go on TV without a shirt on, that'd nail him!

What's your best practical joke?
Taj: We'd phone up people and pretend that we were a radio station. We'd say, "It's the station's birthday and if you sing Happy Birthday you'll win a huge prize!" We'd always call at a ridiculous time, but we'd make it sound real by having background music and clapping. We got people to sing to us but we never called back to say they weren't going to get a prize! It's cruel, but it's a fun thing to do when you're bored on the road.
Taryll: What about the baseball story, Taj?
Taj: Yeah, I used to have this buzzer and when you put it in someone's hand it'd buzz and give them a big shock. I told the people in my baseball that they had to buzz themselves for good luck. They all went along with it but we still lost. (sniggers).

So who taught you all these tricks?
TJ: Our Uncle Michael. He's definetely our trainer. He's got the lot. Fake dog 'do'. Oh and this stinky spray stuff that smells just sooo bad. And then there's the perfumes that smell of rotten eggs. He'd empty out the good colognes and when we'd ask, "Do you have anything for us to spray on ourselves?" He'd go, "Yeah, sure!" and hand you the bottle. You'd spray it on and you'd be stuck with this horrible stink.
Taryll: He used to buy us stuff from the joke shop. There's was one I bought which was this ice cube with a dead fly in it. You put it inside the ice tray and it looks...eeuugh!
TJ: We need to get back into practice and prank everyone.
Taryll: Yeah, we're a little out of shape on the joke front.

Any big pranks planned?
Taj: I want to do one our uncle and we know MN8 really well, so it'd be good to play a trick on them.
Taryll: I've got lots of nasty ones planned at the moment. But we're gonna have to wait for the right moment...so watch out!

Do you ever sing into your hairbrush in front of the bedroom mirror?
Taj: I used to rehearse my dancing in front of this huge sliding mirror in my bedroom but I don't think I ever used a hairbrush...
TJ: (looking very glum) you know, that's what's hurting me. I never had a big mirror. Taj and Taryll have always had that best rooms and I've always got third pick 'cause I'm the youngest. (aw!)

Who's idea was it to dress up in funky '70s gear at the TOTP Weekend last year?
Taj: That's something we all wanted to do. We were performing a Jackson Five medley that we had on tape. 'Cause we're big fans we said we'd love to copy it as soon as we had the chance. It's actually gonna be in our show when we tour this year.

Have you ever dressed up in any other fancy outfits just for fun?
TJ: Oh yeah! We did this French TV show performing Aretha Franklin's song Respect. It's a real 'woman's song' so we came on stage dressed as women. (they all fall into fits of sniggers)
Taryll: We wore dresses and full make-up. The works!
Taj: TJ claims he was the cutest one!
TJ: Well I had the best balance in heels!
Taryll: And someone said Taj looked like a Spice Girl!

Did you tease each other when you were younger?
Taj: We called TJ 'Dracula' because when he got mad he used to bite people.
Taryll: Let me tell you something about TJ! He was such a pain in the butt when he was little. A real squirt. Everybody always says (in a high girlie voice) 'Oh TJ! TJ!' But they don't realize what he was like.
TJ: That's not true!
Taryll: Yes it is. He had this really high annoying voice. (goes all squeaky) 'What are you gonna do, Taryll?' Then he'd switch to Taj. 'Taj, is that true?'"
TJ: I don't remember that...
Taryll: He has this laugh that went (high-pitched screech) 'Ninininin'.
TJ: Hey I was a happy kid that's why!

What about mock fights. Do you have lots of those?
Taj: Well we used to all the time.
TJ: There's this room in our house called the Blue Room and was orginally supposed to be a hang-out room for the family but no one really used it except
us. So we'd move the furniture about and make a wrestling ring. We'd stick pillows down our pants-one for each leg-and down our shirts at the front and back and then we'd wrestle. It was so fun. It was like a pillow fight with out bodies.

Do you like eating bizarre sandwhich combinations just for a laugh?
Taj: I like advocado, salami and ketchup! (pauses for a moment while we all turn green) No! I'm just kidding.
TJ: Taryll mixes up foul-tasting drinks.
Taj: And I like Coke and milk. Have you ever tasted it? (erm, no) It's really good, honest.
TJ: I've tried water with cereal before but that's just because there was no milk to go on it.

Who giggles the loudest?
Taryll: I do. Anything starts me off!
TJ: Yeah, if you play a video game with him and you lose- the he laughs.
Taryll: But it's not me beating them that's so funny- it's seeing their faces. You have to enjoy the moment.
TJ: (to Taryll) That's not true! You'll just sit there and laugh.
Taryll: You wanna know why? I'll beat TJ and he'll put his joystick down and look up at the screen with this sad expression, as if he can't figure out what went wrong and then he'll scratch his head. It's so funny!

How do you make people laugh if they're down in the dumps?
Taj: I guess you just have to talk to them and make jokes about them. Nothing too personal though. Just try and cheer them up and then once you've got them cheered up it's easy yo make them laugh. If you just try and go straight in there with a a joke, it falls a bit flat.
TJ: Any corny joke gets them started.
Taj: And you're the king of corny jokes!
TJ: Yeah, yeah! I think all it takes is for you to go, "Well at least you didn't get an F-minus," and they'll give a little snigger and once you get one of those you just roll with it. And then you go "Come on! I know you're smiling under there," and they're off.

Do you know any good jokes?
Taj: I used to have a book of corny jokes. There was one which went, "How do you make a hot dog stand? Steal it's chair!" (a deathly hush fills the room) Hmm. I think the thing here is, if you want to have fun and make people laugh, never use corny jokes! No one ever finds them funny!