Dingo & Wolf: Winning At Life
Live Review
Melbourne International Comedy Festival

It seems too obvious a reference to make of any female double act, but Dingo and Wolf have such strong echoes of French and Saunders, that it’s the elephant in the room, if we can add another metaphorical animal to the mix.

They have the same way of arsing about to undermine any theatrical pretence, the same natural way of delivering scripted dialogue, and the same dynamic of the bossy, stroppy alpha-female and softer, dappier sidekick – not that such a bickering relationship was ever exclusive to Dawn and Jennifer.

All this combines to make them very watchable, even if the content of their festival debut is inconsistent.

It’s based around yet another shabby motivational life-coaching seminar, an increasingly tired and unimaginative device, which they nonetheless (mostly) transcend. Even gags such as the segment titled ‘loving the person who’s inside you’ are made to work through the force of the girls’ personality.

Typically, performers use presentations like this to provide the audience with an identifiable scenario in which they would expect pre-written material, so a scripted comedy doesn’t jar. But after a few initial missteps – the business before ‘curtain-up’ seems particularly forced and over-long – Laura Dunnemann and Eleanor Webster settle in to an easy-going banter.

They foster some nice running jokes, without over-exploiting them, tease audience saps without humiliating them, and indulge in bad singing and dancing without outstaying their welcome.

The content of the supposed lecture – which extends no more to the ironic assumption that men like skinny girls – is secondary to the developing relationship, in which the put-upon Dingo (Dunnermann) becomes increasingly petulant against Wolf, a surrogate elder sister figure.

There are plenty of nice touches along the way, too, such as Dingo’s pitiful sexual back story, glancingly referred to, or a peculiar way of issuing an apology. The pair are not always so assured, with some ideas played with a heavier hand than necessary, and a script that could do with a few more sharper gags, rather than relying on their engaging performances alone.

But as debutantes, this talented duo display plenty of promise.