Batman and Robin

The first night of Comedy Bar's Festival of New Format, I went to a free show called Dynamic Duo. Two performers who have never collaborated would put their heads together for our amusement. MCs for the evening were Becky Johnson and Pat Thornton, who pretended all night to be enthusiastic but clueless hosts.

The first pair was the funniest of the evening. David Dineen-Porter and Kathleen Phillips played two cowpokes who, instead of a High Noon shoot-out, decided to one-up each other in a talent competition. Adrianne Gagnon and Bob Banks initially stumbled over an improv skit about a couple's date at an aquarium but then found their stride. Laura Barrett and Robert Dayton sang in a musical improvisation about postal workers Murray and Murray (no relations) and also their Reiki massage parlour. Parody songs are hard to do and they had the weakest skit of the night.

Freddie Rivas and Andy Hull convincingly played two 16 year-old teens, who took questions from the "geriatric" audience about the latest cool stuff from twexting (tweeting your sms), to creating viral videos, and "how old is too old to date". Jon Blair and Henri Fabergé were two hype men who talked game better than they could rap. Unfortunately, their white-guy "hip-hop" schtick was too similar coming on the heels of the previous act. Alana Johnston and Dan Galea ended the night with comic impressions. She did one-line takes on all the previous performers and he spouted nonsensical folksy Dr. Phil wisdoms ("You're trying to buy that cat with dog money"). The impressions started out funny but progressed into a series of inside jokes.