Review by Steve Bennett

If Flanders & Swann and Flight Of The Conchords and Garfunkel & Oates had a six-way time-travelling gang-bang that somehow mixed all their DNA, the offspring might end up sounding something like Flo and Joan.

Real-life English sisters Nicola and Rosie Dempsey make their Edinburgh debut as the finished article, having honed their craft in Canada. They’ve written tight, toe-tapping melodies, performed by Nicola on piano and lead singer Rosie on percussion, comprising egg shaker and Pringles-tube bongos.

They mix up the styles, but there’s often a jazzy vibe to their tracks, a genre that allows a pacing between lines well-suited for comic tension. They are a fan of the repeated word, too: ‘why, why, why, why?’ , ‘it’s very, very, very, very hard’ and ‘look at me now, now, now, now’ are lyrics from three separate songs, but it gives them a distinct rhythm and a singalong hook.

Soft-rapping about ‘sexy ladies gonna save the bees’ is definitely in Conchords territory, though a closing love rhapsody owes a nod to crooners like Sinatra. But they are their own women, and the lyric writing is usually dextrous, creative and just different enough to twist expectations while remaining in broadly familiar territory

They are a bit old-fashioned, and certainly middle-class, with songs and chat about gap-yah travelling to South East Asia to find yourself, brunching and having a food blog. There is a yawning chasm marked ‘twee’ very close to here, but they navigate around it, even getting away with a innuendo-ridden song about a buffet without quite seeming predictable.

The banter is cheery, the chemistry warm, and they very much know what sort of comics they are, a few times echoing exactly what the audience might be thinking to defuse any potential criticism.

It all adds up to a classy act that you trust to provide elegant wit… so even if they sometimes abuse that trust for a cheap joke, it’s with a forgiving smile, and only for a moment. Their Fringe run has now finished, but this won’t be the last we hear of Flo and Joan.

Review date: 25 Aug 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom