Jonny & the Baptists: The Satiric Verses

Jonny & the Baptists: The Satiric Verses

by Joanna Orland

Jonny & the Baptists sing political satirical material mostly about UKIP, with a very lighthearted tone, good tunes and with frozen smiles on their faces.  While their material is solidly enjoyable and the duo’s personalities endearing, the show feels a bit on the light side, and I struggled to deeply connect to the performance as it unfolded on stage.

Perhaps I’m a cynic to fault Jonny & the Baptists for their lighthearted happy energy as their comedy is strong and their music enjoyable.  Songs berating UKIP include one about Nick Farage, trying to do to the word Farage what the general populus has already done to Santorum in the case of Rick Santorum.

The most enjoyable bit of their show is actually not in song form, but is Jonny reading out hate mail they’ve received from UKIP members tearing them apart for speaking out against them.  This is quite funny and actually a better point in the show for them to laugh at themselves and the situation at hand.  The constant giggles they had throughout their set was less the time and the place for such behaviour.

Sadly their unassuming and perpetually giggly personalities detract from the statement they are trying to make, and soften the effectiveness of their songs.  There is good material in their work, but it never quite finds its way to the foreground.