Ismo Leikola - OBSERVING THE OBVIOUS
09/05/2016 - 14/05/2016
Flick 2016 NZ International Comedy Festival
Production Details
SO HOW DOES AN ‘UNKNOWN’ PERFORMER FROM FINLAND BECOME THE ‘FUNNIEST COMEDIAN IN THE WORLD’?
COMEDY.CO.NZ PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS ISMO LEIKOLA OBSERVING THE OBVIOUS
He’s very big in Finland. About as big as a comedian can get. Then, in 2014, he won a global competition to find the ’Funniest Comedian in the World’.
In 2016, Ismo Leikola will be a headline act at the NZ International Comedy Festival powered by Flick Electric Co., participating in The Big Show from April 25 to May 7 before performing his own solo show, Observing the Obvious at The Classic from Mon 9 to Sat 14 May.
Ismo Leikola has done it all in his home country; Finland, and Northern Europe. He plays major arenas and has his own TV show. So in 2014 he travelled to the USA to enter the Laugh Factory’s global search for the Funniest Comedian in the World. He recorded an audition reel along with other contestants which were broadcast and voted for online. He won by a landslide result claiming the title and opening the door to the USA audiences.
Fortunately for local audiences he had a holiday in New Zealand in January 2015 and met the team at The Classic who invited him back to the 2016 Comedy Fest and, despite increasing demand from around the globe, he has kept that commitment.
Ismo’s style will be very popular with New Zealand audiences as it is based on his unique observations of the world from a country that is very similar to our own.
“Leikola is the Scandinavian Mitch Hedburg; an oddball with a few extra twists” – The List, UK
“For a man speaking his second language, Ismo Leikola is uncannily incisive” – The Independent, UK
“He is pretty much the master of this comedy technique” – The Scotsman, UK
ISMO LEIKOLA – OBSERVING THE OBVIOUS
AUCKLAND Dates: Mon 9 – Sat 14 May, 8.30pm Venue: The Classic, 321 Queen St Tickets: $25 – $30 Bookings: comedy.co.nz //
Comedy ,
FUNNY, OBVIOUSLY
Review by Nik Smythe 10th May 2016
The laughter begins within moments of scruffy Finnish comic Ismo Leikola taking the stage, grinning at us with polite confusion through his grown-out hobbit hair. Appropriately, given the title, he begins at the most obvious starting point: the difference between where he’s from and where he is ‘at the moment’, a phrase he struggles with the implications of in certain common usage.
The curious eccentricity of the English language is a recurring theme, examining his confused experience as an outsider with concepts we take for granted such as silent letters, and the difficulty he has pronouncing words like enthusiastic and squirrel. Though English is his second language, it’s soon apparent Leikola has a better command of it than half the people I went to school with, amusing North-European accent notwithstanding.
Casually discussing his opinions and bewilderment about diets, animals, sex, marriage, men and woman’s comparative hygiene habits and what they’ll come up with a smartphone app for next, the subject matter is at least as obvious if not more so than the observations therein. For their part, many of the conclusions his observations arrive at do seem kind of obvious, but mainly in retrospect, having been subjected to Ismo’s personal brand of persuasive logic.
Mumbling and scratching his face and hair as he awkwardly approaches each concept and tangent like he’s just chatting about it to pass the time, Leikola’s New Zealand debut is as casual and basic as standup gets, which is saying something. His press release implies he’s going from strength to strength career-wise ‘at the moment’, and the bottom line is he’s effortlessly hilarious* and well worth the time and the ticket price. Obviously.
* Again obviously, I realise there’s no such thing as effortless in good comedy, but Ismo would be a favourite contender in the making-it-look-easy championship.
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