Susan and Janice: Out Of Our Heads

Note: This review is from 2002

Review by Steve Bennett

This is a real mixed bag of sketches that really does run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous, with a few brilliant gems sitting alongside a lot of very ordinary material.

The clear highlight of the show is a classic and memorable piece of hilarious mime from Janice, acting out the instructions on a 'how to flirt' tape. Not perhaps the most original of ideas, but perfectly pulled off with brilliance and panache, reminiscent of Rowan Atkinson's finest moments.

Susan's gratuitously offensive Australian fitness instructor is great fun, too, as she gleefully hurls vicious insults at her out-of-shape clients.

Elsewhere, though, the girls' considerable charm doesn't make up for some ropey sketches - there's a snooker commentary with a catalogue of predictable double entendres, a nightclub singer with a dreadful stand-up routine, a couple of nuns cracking gags about altar boys and a Scary Movie-style spoof around the conventions of horror films that has been done countless times before.

The pair are also hampered a bit by the structure. These are essentially disparate sketches and seem unnecessarily crowbarred into a narrative flow. But the impressive speed of their costume changes cannot go unmentioned - so special praise for the creators if Velcro.

It's a shame, though, that the show is so very inconsistent because at best the girls' routines are up there with the finest. Once they can maintain that form for a full hour, they will have a huge success on their hands. But it's not going to be this year.

Review date: 1 Jan 2002
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

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