Review by Steve Bennett

His act, like much of his homeland, is cold, spartan and often quite odd. The delivery is awkwardly stilted and unflinchingly deadpan – he talks like Stephen Hawking and is about as agile.

There are certainly chuckles to be had at the sheer inertia and inelegance of his frigid style, which Walamies does well to encourage. But it’s a harsh environment for jokes. If an audience doesn’t enjoy them, he has no tricks up his sleeve to turn the set around. It’s an all-or-nothing gambit.

To his credit, Walamies has maybe half a dozen sharp, concise and imaginative lines of pure brilliance, including the inspired ‘living the dream’ gag which is probably be enough for him to retire on.

But it’s a matter of whether the jokes achieve a critical mass, where the audience are brought to the level where they’re primed with anticipation of every imminent line. At this early stage in the career, he’s on the cusp. Sometimes his well-written material receives the credit it deserves, sometimes he comes across as only sporadically hilarious with plenty of awkward lulls in between.

He’s better when he relaxes a little, bringing a touch of fluidity and a flicker of human emotion to his set, which makes it work all the better. Once he’s worked out the subtleties of performance, and maybe added a few more killer lines to his arsenal, he could well be a force to be reckoned with.

Review date: 2 Jul 2008
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett