If you know who musical duo Flo & Joan are you probably either love them or hate them. Their appearances on the Nationwide TV ads have divided viewers and it has been reported that misogynistic messages on social media are to be investigated by the police. They may seem to have come out of nowhere, but they've actually come out of Canada as this interview reveals. Find out more about them below in this feature which first appeared in the London Evening Standard here.
You’ve probably seen musical comedy duo Flo & Joan without realising it. They haven’t been on TV much yet but they’ve appeared countless times between programmes as the deadpan voices and faces of the current advertising campaign for Nationwide Building Society.
In the advert last month they serenaded viewers with Crimbo Limbo, their infectious ode to the turkey sandwich zone: “There are five little days spent in a gravy haze that happen between Christmas and New Year,” they sang.
In person they are full of surprises. They are much jauntier than their deadpan screen personae. They also turn out to be sisters, although they’re not called Flo and Joan. They are dark-haired Nicola Dempsey, 28, and blonde Rosie, 25.
They came up with the name at short notice before their first gig. “We thought Nicola and Rosie sounded boring and the Dempsey Sisters sounded like a vaudeville act, so we chose the name of our nan and her sister,” explains Nicola in the dressing room at the Soho Theatre, where they are appearing next month.
Their style is stiletto sharp, their diction perfect as they race through their complex rhymes. Critics have likened them to Kiwi superstars Flight of the Conchords, although they had not heard the Conchords until after the comparison. “I think the similarity is that we also write about weird things in a weird way,” suggests Rosie.
They made it big via Facebook. Their 2016 Song, berating the annus horribilis that saw the deaths of icons from Bowie to Prince, notched up more than 40 million views as they portrayed the painful 12 months as a faulty computer or difficult teenager. “Should we just try to unplug you/And then plug you back in?/Did your parents get divorced/Or did you just drink too much gin?”
Yet their online success was entirely accidental. They grew up in Cosham, a Portsmouth suburb. Their mother, Alison, is a piano teacher so there was always music around when they were growing up. “Our influences are probably our mum’s record collection — Billy Joel, Donna Summer, Carole King. And obviously Victoria Wood, though we don’t think we are like her.”
After graduating from Cardiff University, Nicola decided to do a comedy course at the Second City training centre in Toronto, Canada. She was enjoying it so much that Rosie joined her there after she left London University with a degree in English.
Interview continues here.
