German folk song

From Dave's One Night Stand 2011

More Henning Wehn videos

A London-based German comedian, Wehn has been performing as the self-styled 'German Comedy Ambassador' since 2003, playing on the English stereotype of Germans as humourless Nazis, obsessed with efficiency.

He was a regular on the Channel 4 show FAQ U in 2005, as well as Radio 5 Live sporting panel show Fighting Talk.

He regularly appears with fellow German performer Otto Kuhnle, and their show 1000 Years Of German Humour was nominated for the Barry Award at the 2009 Melbourne Comedy Festival.

CV

Original Review:

Wehn is possibly the only German comic working on the British circuit, which is obviously going to be the springboard for many gags playing up to the stereotype of an efficient, but humourless people.

Thus he will tell the most appalling old gag, then forensically, painstakingly analyse it in ridiculously minute detail. Depressingly, he often gets a laugh from the original bad joke – but the unrelenting audacity with which he forges ahead with his obsessive deconstructions is also impressive. ‘Stop laughing,’ he admonishes the audience at one point, ‘I haven’t finished explaining the joke yet.’

It’s an incredibly well-engineered piece – living up to yet another German archetye – managing to subvert many of the conventions of stand-up by so blatantly telegraphing what he’s up to, yet remain accessible and funny.

Yet however good this is, the heavily-accented Wehn always runs the risk of being pigeonholed as something of a novelty act. Perhaps aware of this, he’s edging his routine into more interesting areas. The suggestion he’s an unreconstructed Nazi yearning for the glory days of the Third Reich pushes into darker area, as do the nasty, vindictive traits he subtly affects.

Still relatively new, Wehn is shaping up to be an impressive act able to push at the limitations a few one-dimensional national traits initially suggest.

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His material is positively anorexic.

Nelson, November 2004

Arrogant

Fraud Spotter, September 2004

I've seen him twice now and he is rather good. Some of the jokes are old, but he does new things with most of them. And his enthusiasm is infectious.

Edward Hands, September 2004

This man is the funniest man I have ever met in my life. I mean you just have to look at him.

Phil Clisby, March 2004

Henning deserves the German Order of Merit for finally making the English laugh about our jokes. Henning's great at presenting our traditional humour. You should give the funny side of modern Germany a try.

Another German Comedian

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