Hurt and Anderson

Hurt & Anderson - Come What May

Leicester Comedy Festival, February 2017

The double-act comedy genre is one less often approached than solo stand-up, but Hurt and Anderson have been knocking on this particular door for a few years now and with slow but growing success. It was not a sell-out crowd at this basement venue, but it was very full and this Saturday afternoon festival audience certainly enjoyed the ride from start to finish. Both these ladies clearly have affinity with their work and each puts in an enormous amount of effort on stage. They exhibit all the hallmarks of understanding their craft, perhaps even of theatrical training, and there can never be any doubt that this is a dedicated, hard-working act, and to refer to their little "which one of us is the funny one?" routine - well, they definitely both are. Their music, too has a great impact in offering depth to their work, the songs are funny and ironic and unlike some performers, we can hear the words clearly.

Why then, does the entire show come across as a little bit studenty, a little bit fringey? They seem to have a good font of material, they are funny women, and they are able to deliver it all very well but one comes away from the gig feeling that it was a good laugh, done on a shoestring budget by a couple of girls who have got some great potential,- with the experience and ability these two have that simply isn't good enough and they should be shooting for something far more professional. Of course anyone can be forgiven for having to work on a shoestring budget but there are ways around it. It seems that possibly Hurt and Anderson had aspirations a few years ago to create a comedy double-act to play clubs and festivals and having achieved that quite convincingly they may now be unsure exactly how to take the next step or what that next step might even be. The answer lies in their production values and without doubt they would benefit enormously from working with an experienced director or producer to show them where the raggedy bits are and what they can do to fix them and help them tighten everything up. If they could just lose the compromise and that'll do element to their show it would be transformed overnight.

This is definitely one to watch out for, an act for all comedy fans to put on their list of must-sees at their next festival or comedy outing. The pair are very funny, hilarious at times, and the very least they can do is continue working at this level to enjoy a small level of success and popularity. Maybe though, just maybe, Hurt and Anderson could become something much bigger.