Ford and Akram: Bamp

“Everyone needs a thing, an idea in order to get famous,” says Ford to her comedy partner Akram. Voluptuous Akram tosses her glossy hair dismissively and serenely indicates her breasts, “No worries,” she replies, "I have two things, and no ideas." This is about as funny as the pair’s show gets. Ford and Akram are two young things, with very little idea. Thus fame may well elude them.

While youth and luminously sweet smiles may render the duo very likeable (it certainly makes one feel mean to criticise them), these charms do not humour make – and the comediennes’ attempts at a brand of surreal story-telling, quite frankly, never get off the ground.

Their show last year received a collection of excellent reviews. Which goes to make the flaws of this year’s one seem extra-puzzling. Bamp tells the story of a fictional quest – Ford must get the made-up word ‘Bamp’ into the dictionary if she is to inherit the multi-million pound word-coinage business of her recently executed Grandmother. Failure would result in the business going to her arch enemy, who improbably turns out to be a training shoe named Phil. This rather silly story is paired with a sloppy semi-spontaneous script; predictable comments on the fact it's a shoe occur with alarming frequency. 

Who knows, perhaps the pair’s vivacity and good humour will win over future audiences. But for the moment, their material does them a huge disservice.