1000 Years of German Humour
Setting out to prove that Germans really do have a sense of humour, Henning Wehn, Comedy Ambassador to the UK, and Otto Kuhnle, German all round entertainer, presented an insane humorous lecture of sorts in 1000 Years Of German Humour.
The guys took us through Brothers Grim fairy tales, German stand up, puppetry, slap dancing, opera and yodelling. Links between their segments and humour were often so tenuous that it actually was a broad history of German art and culture. The majority of the laughs in the show came from their high spirited performance that often bordered on falling apart into a hilarious mess. Despite the ramshackle and random appearance of the show it was actually a perfectly constructed performance that relied heavily on the comedy of awkwardness, schadenfreude and endurance. They maintained the facade of not knowing what they were doing with frequent arguments (both in English and German) and plenty of awkward pauses.
Henning acted mostly as the fall guy for much of the show, finding himself at the end of Otto’s scolding for not following the script which made for an amusing dynamic between the duo. With his fascinating Cockney German accent, he filled gaps in the show with rather timidly presented and dry stand up bits that delved into interesting and hilarious insights into the German view of English culture and politics, some references being very local that went over my head. It appeared to be very polished and the least confident delivery but it was difficult not to be mesmerised by his performance.
Otto was the song and dance man of the show, throwing himself wholeheartedly into demonstrations of the topics covered in the ‘lecture’. Doning costumes and picking up a range of instruments, he sang songs in his native tongue and danced up a storm to the audience’s delight. The songs themselves were rarely humorous in content but he added some slapstick elements, employed hilariously silly props and pushed the length of the pieces beyond the crowd’s patience to the point of being funny.
This show was a case of spoken words not being always funny but they more than made up for it in the laughs that could be found in the concepts explored. The hilariously absurd and straight faced manner in which the material was presented added to the show immensely. Items such as their woeful acting of the Snow White tale, terrible ventriloquism of Knut the Polar Bear and over dramatic Operatic production were a delight to watch and had us doubled over with laughter.
1000 Years Of German Humour was an amazing show that not only fed your thirst for German artistic history but also offered punters a discount at a sausage stand.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.