Finnish lines

Did you know there is a comedian from Finland who can sell out Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall?

His name is Ismo. DD and I first discovered him on Youtube a few years ago.

He riffs about his fish-out-of-water experiences in English-speaking countries, for example …

We booked tickets for his show on Sunday as part of a comedy festival. The weather was glorious, so we headed to the Opera House early for a glass of Chardy and some food at Opera Bar.

We had such a lovely time relaxing in the late afternoon sun!

Then we wandered up the stairs, where I mistakenly told an usher Ismo was Icelandic! Eeeeek. Oooops.

After gazing at the fabulous view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a few minutes, we took our seats (that’s us circled in the main pic!).

During his show, Ismo had a lot of fun with the fact Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for seven years in a row by the United Nations World Happiness Report.

He said the Finns are pretty surprised by this – when you mention it to the locals they say, “who did they survey?”

When I told a workmate, he also scoffed – both at the concept of a Finnish comedian and the country being happy – as he’s still bitter about a Finnish girl breaking his heart once and because Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. 

But the Finns have really turned that around in recent years.

Why are they so happy now? They have free education, affordable healthcare and childcare, reliable infrastructure and public transport, a healthy work-life balance, low levels of crime and corruption and beautiful natural surroundings.

They are also very humble. Ismo wrote on Facebook after his gig: “I sold out the Sydney Opera House. I think that’s quite a nice thing. Even like a big thing. Thanks everyone who came. You were a marvelous crowd. I really appreciate this.”

Unfortunately, sweet Ismo has moved to California and left the benefits of the Finnish lifestyle behind. But it has given him lots of new material, including how Americans still use cheques to pay for things and the complexities of dating American women, such as having to open doors for them and pay for everything.

Apparently such behaviour does not exist in Finland because they have gender equality!

I think Ismo’s humour speaks to me because I often feel a bit English-as-second-language about human behaviour.

I struggle to understand a lot of it. People can be so unpredictable and cruel, which frightens and baffles me.

But Ismo made me laugh.

It was such a fun night.

Song of the day: Monty Python “Always look on the bright side of life”