The words that come to mind when describing Jollyboat, a musical comedy duo comprised of brothers Tommy and Ed would include offensive, brash, tuneful, forgetful and offensive (oh did I say that one twice). Yes it takes a certain kind of humour to get on board with Jollyboat but if you are okay with feeling just a little bit guilty for some of laughs they will be right up your street.

Opening the show dressed as Pirates gives you an idea of the maturity level of the duo, who’s first song has them replacing the lyrics of countless popular songs with Pirate references. It’s an easy number to get involved in, hearing Pirate Queen, We Will Rob You and Just The Way You ARRR is a simple pleasure that the whole audience shared. References to other songs is their forte it seems, as seen in their ultimate X Factor winners song, and it helps that both of them can sing pretty well too.

Hearing two voices that genuinely gel together singing in harmony makes the funnier lyrics even funnier, it’s clever humour in that way. One of my favourite moments was a flip book segment where they flipped through a series of keyboard commands that they had made their song out of. The more clever ones would be coupled with a long pause and a grin of satisfaction as the pair marvel at their own joke.

This level of audience interaction is what made the show brilliant, between each song they would talk to chat to each other, giving the whole thing a loose feel. Our show had an ongoing joke about the duo’s imaginary sister, which went way over the line of decency from the start. Some people in the audience may have felt uncomfortable, but they were obviously pushing things too far in order to make each other laugh. Tom in particular consistently got too into the comedy, forgetting his lyrics numerous times. This only made the whole thing even funnier for the audience, while Ed would make a thing about starting over and over.

I had no preconceptions going into Jollyboat’s performance and came away with a huge smile on my face. They had me laughing for the hour they were on stage, which is all you can ask for surely? Excellent comic timing and a great dynamic between the pair made for a brilliant show.

****