Some jokes are universal; some demand familiarity with the oeuvre of Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye. If you prefer those in the latter category, you're Frisky and Mannish's ideal audience. Gotye's hit single Somebody That I Used to Know reimagined as a Dannii Minogue number, Come On Eileen as a breathless ballad, and Kate Bush sung by Kate Nash are among the mashups and what-ifs conjured by the cult pop-comedy double act in this touring show. Gotye novices like me will miss some jokes, and elsewhere, the jokes can be weak regardless. This is solid but unspectacular fare for comedy fans – but those looking for a party will find one.
What the duo (Laura Corcoran and Matthew Jones, when they're not done up in basques, PVC and shock wigs) have in their favour is that, when the laughs abate, the music rides to the rescue. You get the gag early in their Girls-Aloud-sing-nursery-rhymes number, whereafter the song has nowhere comedically to go. Likewise the list of cliches they perform in the style of Kelly Clarkson. But you still get Corcoran's cracking voice – so sumptuous that you start to wish the gags would get out of the way – and Jones's deft musicianship.
There's nothing subtle about F&M, whose music is as noisy as their comedy is broad, and who compel their audience to dance, play maracas and generally enter the spirit. At their least effective, their juxtapositions are arbitrary and lack wit: they oversell their grime version of the Carpenters' Top of the World as a feat of audacity, but it's just the latter's lyrics rasped unrecognisably to a grime beat. More successful is a medley they've done for years that reveals the stalker subtext to well-loved pop songs. And Corcoran's impersonation of Made in Chelsea's Caggie Dunlop is lethally ridiculous. The performance is irresistible, the material less so.
