Joke that you’re “the nation’s favourite comedy rap-jazz duo” and you’re bound to recall “New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody act” – as if it weren’t hard enough already for musical comedy duos to escape Flight of the Conchords’ shadow. But Harry Baker and Chris Read have made waves over the last year (Radio 2 appearances; guest slots on Russell Howard’s Sky show) with their brand of peppy comic song, and, provided you put Conchords comparisons to the back of your mind, their latest fringe offering makes for a pleasantly diverting hour.
There’s no edge whatsoever to what they do, and at points the show shades into blandness. It’s not clear what distinctive new qualities they bring to the musical comedy party. Their songs range frictionlessly across subjects from the romantic lives of pandas to the woes of supporting the England football team. When they do address something contentious – the spectre of terrorism in their final song, for example – they reap platitudes (“Fear only has the power we give it,” runs their wholesome refrain).
Read’s music, while doing all it needs to do, isn’t the sell here. The songs put Baker’s wordplay front and centre; he’s a former World Poetry Slam champ. One number consists entirely of ice-cream puns. Another fuses Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love with the Teletubbies (“Sun’s got the face of a baby right now”). Some lyrics are improvised, competently if unexceptionally, to audience suggestions. It’s all well worked, the wordplay is adept, and the pair have a likable manner. I wished for more personality, something to set them apart from other mild-mannered purveyors of jaunty comic song. But that may come.
- At the Mash House, Edinburgh, until 25 August.
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