A Tweet From Nick Offerman Caused A Lot Of Different Reactions For Flo & Joan

Musical comedians Rosie and Nicola Dempsey, better known as Flo & Joan, have made a solid name for themselves as a comic duo. However, the siblings never really intended to jump into the business together. 

“We hadn’t planned it at all,” says Nicola. “We’re actual sisters, and I guess we weren’t really friends growing up. We were very different. I think a lot of people think we started as some sort of five-year-old double act, but it only really happened a couple of years ago. I moved to Canada to work with the theatre group Second City, and Rosie came out to join me, and while we were there we tried stand-up and improv and all kinds of stuff. We decided to give musical comedy a go there because we’ve always enjoyed it and appreciated it, and we wanted to try it to see if we were any good at it. Canada just seemed like an ideal place to do it, because if we were rubbish than the Canadians wouldn’t care and no one back home would have to find out about it.”

Rosie says the decision to start out in the Great White North had some unexpected drawbacks. “Because we started in Canada, we picked up on the Canadian vibe and what their audiences like. Then when we came home we realised there were subjects and words and things that didn’t really land in the same way. Probably because Canadians just like listening to our funny accents.” 

Nicola laughs, “One thing that we found was the tolerance levels of Canadian audiences were so high – they were willing to go on a much longer journey than they were in the UK, so it’s going to be interesting to see where Australian audiences fit in with that. But yeah, we initially had songs that were around seven or eight minutes long, and UK crowds after about five were like, ‘No, we get it now. No more, thank you.’ It’s been interesting to see how much we can test people’s patience, but British people, in all aspects of life, seem to be a lot less patient than the rest of the world.”

The duo will hit MICF with their internationally acclaimed show, Flo & Joan: Alive On Stage. Rosie says of their debut trip to Aus: “A lot of comedians tell you if you get asked out to Melbourne you’re doing something right, so it’s a nice confirmation of where we are as performers. It’s like when you’re a kid going, ‘I’m ready now! Let’s go now!’ and when you do get asked to Melbourne it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we weren’t ready. We’re not garbage now.’ So, it’s nice to know that we are coming down.”

"A lot of comedians tell you if you get asked out to Melbourne you’re doing something right, so it’s a nice confirmation of where we are as performers."

The performance boasts not only a gaggle of catchy tunes, but plenty of clever lyrics from the witty wordsmiths. “We’ve always been interested in that kind of thing; we like words a lot,” Nicola says. “That’s stuck with us from the very beginning and we even had stuff like beat poetry in our first few shows, so wordplay is something we try and put a lot of effort into. Our points of view have stayed the same, but you tend to find shortcuts and certain ways of saying things if it’s not working for an audience.

“Sometimes we do the show word for word, and other times we’ve been a bit loose and some weird stuff has come out. But since we did the Edinburgh Fringe it’s been basically the same show. We’ll have to change a few little things for you guys, there’s some stuff in there that barely makes sense to a British audience, but on the whole, we’re ready to go.”

This sense of confidence comes with the seal of approval of US comedy legend Nick Offerman, who recently tweeted about his love for the British two-piece. “I told my mum about it the other day,” says Rosie, “and she didn’t know who he was. I’ve never been more upset with her.”

Nicola adds, “I accidentally punched a wall when I saw that. I suddenly had no control over my limbs – it was crazy. He’s the coolest guy in showbiz. Especially because we question every day whether we’re cool enough for this job, that moment was like, ‘You know what? Maybe we’re ok.’”