After climbing three flights of stairs and passing at least three mullets on the way, we reached the Sky Bar of the Old Navy in the heart of Fremantle for 2 Joke Girls. Reminiscent of Freo circa 1970, you feel out of place at the Old Navy without a pint in your hand. However, this excessively laid back feel seemed to compliment the style of the night.
Rachel Wills and Sian Choyce, two local standup comedians, comprise this familiarly named duo, making it clear within the first few minutes that they’re playing on the name of famous sitcom ‘2 Broke Girls’. Their energy and eagerness to have a bit of fun is apparent in their introduction, which fell flat on the sparse audience of 20-or-so in front of them.
The jokes — all very loosely tied together, jumping between topics without tying up loose ends — were a hit and miss. Both performers seemed to alienate the ten men in the audience by putting them down at any given opportunity, all until Wills kissed her volunteer from the crowd, causing the biggest and best reaction from the audience in the whole 45 minute set.
Ad-libbed remarks made by Wills and Choyce were a highlight. Latecomers had no chance of guiltily sliding into their seats; all attention was turned to one man who was quickly labelled “every guy from Freo ever”, which scored some laughs from the audience and perked up the girls’ enthusiasm.
The overall feel of the night was awkward. The audience response was incredibly minimal as Wills and Choyce attempted to play off the crowd wherever they could manage. The rambling, incoherent style of both performers was frustrating, leaving the audience feeling lost, evidenced by smatterings of subtle giggles and, sometimes, eerie silences
Unfortunately, the whole set was a stiff standoff between performer and audience and an awkward exploration of topics including ‘boat people’, ‘grooming pubic hair’, ‘Kim Jong Un playing netball’ and ‘mental health memes’.
In what was perhaps an attempt to excuse their performance, the girls apologetically mumbled at the end of the show that they were “all over the place tonight”.
2 Joke Girls is Mills and Choyce’s first collaboration, and for what it’s worth, the audience was appreciative of their performance, albeit eager to leave before the promised 55 minutes was up.
2 Joke Girls runs until the 31st of January 2016 at the Fremantle Town Hall. Tickets are available here.
