Review by Steve Bennett

The Underdogs were finalists in this year’s Natys, the new act competition once run by the Hackney Empire. However they didn’t cover themselves in glory with their smug sketch performing Macbeth as if acted by street kids.

An hour therefore seems like it could be something of an ordeal. But, in fact, Kate Roxborough and Shae Kuehlmann demonstrate enough ragged likeability and off-the-wall invention to blast though their hit-and-miss material with winning good humour.

It’s still a scrappy show, although they embrace the low-budget, low-concept free festivalness of the situation, and make it work in their favour as best they can.

That said, there is an ambitious story played out over several sketches slotted through the hour which tries to offer a direct parody of cop shows, while simultaneously stepping out of the action on stage to offer commentary on it. It’s clever stuff – and even though they don’t quite have the clarity of execution to make it work, it seems promising.

The same could be said of many scenes, which are more confusing than they need to be before the core idea comes out, and even then it’s 50:50 as to whether it works or not. A spoof of Australian soaps tries to fuse a pregnancy story with something about hadron colliders just about hangs together as a surreal moment. But an idea about a wartime love affair seems as doomed to failure as the relationship, while Roxborough singing a song in a burka seems gratuitous.

A highlight is one ‘lucky’ man getting a lapdance from the two girls, which demonstrates Kuehlmann’s amusing, exaggerated physicality, as glimpsed in other sketches but given free rein here. If Vic Reeves’ ‘seductive’ leg-rubbing tickles you, you should enjoy this extreme version.

In truth, Helsinki is so up and down it can only really be a two-star show, but it’s a mildly heroic one, trying something different with a bit of playful fun. It’s too faint a praise to say these relative newcomers are not as bad as they first appeared… as with practice and perseverance, they could be useful players in the sketch comedy field.

Review date: 23 Aug 2012
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde