Comedy Curtain Call
Helsinki’s only regular English-language comedy club, Comedy Curtain Call, takes place once a month at NoName Theatre in Töölö. NoName may brand itself as an amateur theatre and, yes, the hall is a small black box theatre – but don’t let that fool you. Their monthly stand-up nights are the real deal, regularly ranking among the best recurring comedy nights in Helsinki. Even if you’re a fluent Finnish speaker, this is still one of the sharpest places in the city to secure some proper laughs.
Getting there is an experience in itself. The theatre hides on the fifth floor of a building owned by students, and reaching it feels a bit like completing a side quest. First you track down the correct door – handily marked ‘Keskisuomalainen osakunta’ – then ring the bell, slip past the barred entrance and take a suspicious-looking lift that creaks its way to the top floor. The reward is worth every moment of mild uncertainty.
NoName Theatre doesn’t publish the Comedy Curtain Call line-up in advance, but you might get lucky and catch Finnish-Scottish comic Ray Zambino, who is genuinely one of the funniest performers in the country. A firm audience favourite is the recurring segment ‘Bucket of Problems’, in which members of the core team dispense brilliantly unqualified life advice to anonymous dilemmas dropped into a bucket before the show.
And a word of warning for any staunch Finnish patriots: much of the humour comes from the trials and triumphs of foreigners living in Finland – all delivered with great affection, but still very much at your expense. Then again, Finns are famously good at laughing at themselves. What else can you do in this godforsaken corner of the civilised world, perched at the edge of Europe with six months of darkness and coffee strong enough to clean engine parts?
Hietaniemenkatu 7 B. Tickets: €16