Review by Steve Bennett

There’s only really two things wrong with the Nelson Twins’ Edinburgh debut: their material and their delivery. Three if you count their joy-vacuum of a warm-up act.

New comics often fall back on the same topics: what they look like, how inbred small towns are, and child molestation. This antipodean duo never get beyond this triptych of predictability in their entire show.

True, as identical Twins who’ve fostered sprawling feral beards, Chris and Justin have plenty to choose from when doing jokes based on their appearance. Indeed, a small proportion of these one-liners are quite funny, but just to keep pressing the same buttons again and again, often to the same predictable formulae every two-bit comic uses, is draining and tiresome.

They are from the tiny New South Wales country ‘town’ of Walbundrie, which prompts all the incest jokes. Surely there must be something more to say about living in a village of fewer than 200 residents, 200 miles from the nearest city, but no, sister-shagging it is, time and time again.

All these short jokes are delivered relatively deadpan, with the pair having the annoying tic of nodding their heads like dashboard novelties whenever their brother is speaking. They reference it once, but the gag is so weak they can’t be doing it just for that, surely?

But sometimes they deign to allow their natural personalities shine through, and display a likeability that’s noticeably absent when they are doing material. Admittedly these moments only come when they are apologising for their bad jokes or wondering why they are not getting a better response – but they are charming and graceful in failure.

One relief is that this is not a long show; the Twins are on stage for barely 30 minutes, with a pointless introductory film and their warm-up act making the show nearer 45.

Luke Heggie is the opening act who whips the audience up into a state of catatonia with his agonisingly dreary deadpan and weak jokes, constantly using expletives where punchlines ought to be. There are a couple of nice lines, but he didn’t seem to be showing much of the flair which won him the Raw newcomers’ competition at this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Disappointment on all sides, then, from this moribund late-night show.

Review date: 13 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett