Hedluv and Passman: Comedy Festival Review

Hedluv and Passman: Comedy Festival Review

You will see nothing else like it at the New Zealand International Comedy festival.

Hedluv and Passman are two young English rappers from Cornwall who've been brought over to the festival by Rhys Darby and his wife, Rosie.

The gag? They think they're musicians playing a festival. They are without doubt, initially nuts.

Rapping about Doing it Dreckly (dreckly is a Cornish word meaning later on) and getting caught in a riptide off a beach in North Cornwall, to say they're a bit bonkers is an understatement. 




But yet, with just a casio keyboard, the duo are geniuses. Lyrics fly past at such speed occasionally, it's hard to keep up (though album sales at the end offer a chance to dive deeper) but once you get used to them (taking all of five head scratching WTF moments) their sounds are incredibly catchy and their wordplay deft and dry.

Their on stage banter is relatively minimal but the shambolic nature of the live show (which is intentional) means they have time to talk here and there as they set up. Comments like "What are we going to do? Rap at you?" as an audience member goes to the loo show a quick wittedness that goes beyond the words they've put to beats.

But it's the energy on stage from the wiry Passman who resembles a lanky fair haired version of Freddie Mercury on a pogo stick as he bounds around the stage like Tigger on V that's contagious. Equally, a more sullen and dialled down Hedluv, who's a cross between actor Lee Ross and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys as he stands behind the keyboard, makes a perfect foil to his mike-throwing manic OTT stage compadre.



A mental version of Black Hole Sun is a highlight, but the finale is an utterly addictive and totally infectious blast of bubble gum synth pop cum rap as the duo get all the audience up, jumping around and dancing to a song called The Future, (see at the end of this piece) which has the refrain of "turn left, turn right, go right round the roundabout." It's totally high energy addiction and an ending that leaves you grinning ear to ear - I'm still humming it hours after I heard it, a true testament to an earworm of a song.

Hedluv and Passman are a real breath of fresh air in among the stand up of the festival; a chance to catch something quite unique in these circles which is not really derivative or comparable to anything around. Defying and confounding expectations, they offer a comedy musical epiphany which marks them for either greatness or the looney bin.

Either way, I'm along for the ride.