Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Alive on Stage

Flo & Joan

Prime Video · 2019 · 60 min

Deadpan sisterly harmonies, petty grievances, and an erratic recorder solo.

Released , on Prime Video.

Most musical comedy hinges on smiling through the punchlines, but Nicola and Rosie Dempsey spend the hour looking like two Victorian choir girls daring the audience to test their patience. Sitting side by side at a keyboard and percussion setup, they rattle off rapid-fire folk parodies and tongue-twisting internal rhymes, deadpan to the point of hostility.

Filmed at The Bedford in Balham, London, the 2019 Amazon Prime release documents the live show that followed their breakout 2018 Edinburgh Fringe run. By then, the sisters had spent two years working with The Second City in Toronto and weathered a bizarre wave of online vitriol after starring in an inescapable series of UK television adverts for the Nationwide Building Society. Instead of retreating into polite cabaret, they built a set around the irritation.

The standouts are the ones where the musical precision deliberately falls apart. ‘Lady Crisps’ tears into condescending corporate marketing targeting women with quieter snack bags. ‘Lady in the Woods’ plays like an innocent folk ballad before derailing into an erratic recorder solo, while an iPad automated voice is dragged into a tango about sex robots. Between numbers, they read unsent retorts to their actual internet hate mail, trading terse looks and casual insults that only real sisters can manage without turning it into theater.

Notable bits & set list

9 bits

  1. Opening welcoming song

    Welcomes the audience while pointedly listing all the demographics and personalities not welcome, including Brexiteers, racists, and Daily Mail readers.

  2. Carol the Cracker-Packer

    A rapid tongue-twister song about an elite cracker-packer queen that challenges the audience to sing along at an ever-accelerating tempo.

  3. Lady in the Woods

    A folk song parody structured around bold, contrived alliteration.

  4. Doritos For Ladies

    A sarcastic song mocking corporate gendered marketing concepts and lady crisps.

  5. Tango for sex robots

    A musical number accompanied by an iPad using a computerized text-to-speech voice to speak rude words.

  6. Wedding song

    An unsentimental alternate wedding song underscoring sobering divorce statistics.

  7. Drank Too Much

    A relatable, self-deprecating song detailing the embarrassing realities of binge drinking.

  8. Dunkin Donuts exam

    An a cappella number about failing an examination to work at Dunkin' Donuts.

  9. Responding to social media trolls

    Reading aloud brutally direct and sarcastic replies to unsolicited messages and online feedback.

How it plays

Tone
Sharp, cynical, witty, playful, and sardonic with a feminist edge.
On stage
Deadpan, seated on stools with Nicola playing keyboard impassively and Rosie playing percussion, delivering sharp crosstalk and sisterly interplay.
Pace
Fast-paced with meticulous rhythmic precision, taut delivery, and rapid-fire complex rhymes.
About
binge drinking, marriage and divorce statistics, online misogyny and troll responses, sex robots, gendered marketing, sibling dynamics

What the critics said

Praised for taut lyricism, catchy musical arrangements, rhythmic precision, and dry delivery, proving their range well beyond their commercial ad work.

In the room: Engaged and playful, actively participating in tempo-shifting singalongs and banter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedy.co.uk, avalonuk.com, pro.imdb.com, imdb.com, chortle.co.uk, italktelly.com, vodzilla.co, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Adapted from their 2018 Edinburgh Fringe show and released globally as part of Amazon Prime Video's lineup of original British comedy specials.

Details

Released
Taped
The Bedford, Balham
Runtime
60 min
Where
Prime Video
Director
Barbara Wiltshire
Honors
Chortle Award winnerLeicester Comedy Festival Award winner
Topics

Similar specials