Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett

Two comedians from the Netherlands go Dutch on this modest Brighton Fringe show, originally designed to showcase a couple of female acts,before a change of bill rendered the title obsolete.

The hour is now opened by Hjalmar Tjan, who can boast some Hungarian and Chinese in his ethnic mix too, and both this and his name, unusual even in Holland, is a jumping-off point.

Unfortunately, though, his slick delivery isn’t very personable, and he fails to make any real connection with the small audience. He knows it, too.

The writing doesn’t help, flittering between knee-jerk borderline bad taste subjects without much elan, and with often clumsy set-ups throughout A reference to the Labour party as Nazis, for example, comes out of nowhere, with no context of the anti-semitism row he was thinking of when he wrote it, nor does it go into anything beyond that one line. Marks for topicality, none for doing anything with it.

He refers to notes several times, which doesn’t help the rapport, and suggests his work is still in progress – although the show is not described as such. Glitches with the writing can be fixed, but it’s more troublesome that we don’t get much of a persona to identify with.

Arna Spek more clearly knows who she is, occupying the awkward-but-charming ground that a lot of comedians do. Her writing, too, can be something of a jumble – but the bubbly, quirky likability cuts her a lot more slack.

She opens with a checklist of a few Dutch stereotypes, predictable but fine, while her escapades in English society offer a lot more potential, and sometimes pays off with a particularly nifty line highlighting absurdities.

Spek is clearly still a new act, a bit too woolly in her focus, a bit too nervous in her eagerness to please, but that also means she presents an engaging vulnerability, heightened by the foreign accent. She may not be ready for the big-leagues yet but hers is an amiable presence that goes a long way.

Review date: 11 May 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett