Helmut – Original Review

Note: This review is from 2004

Review by Steve Bennett

Marc Blake's fictional German stand-up is a stereotypically stern creation who isn’t going to let his utterly humourless personality stand in the way of a comedy career.

With a pair of out-of-place Eighties comedy braces his only concession to the spirit of comedy, he applies ruthless Teutonic logic to old pub gags, undermining their ridiculous set-ups as effectively as John Thomson’s politically-correct Bernard Right-On did 15 years ago.

That said, Helmut does still get away with some dubious-quality jokes you wouldn’t otherwise expect a modern stand-up to use. Blake gets to have his cake and eat it, using the distance a character provides to tell audience-pleasing pub gags, even if they’re not going to win many plaudits from the comedy-literate.

Blake himself falls into that category, having been a finalist in the very first Hackney Empire new act competition a decade or so ago, and a one-time writer for Frankie Howerd. Helmut marks his relatively recent return to the stage after a lengthy sabbatical devoted to writing novels, and teaching a stand-up course at London’s City University.

That depth of experience certainly shows in the performance, that is so perfectly droll with nicely sinister undercurrents. Also in his favour is a wonderfully dry turn of phrase and some wryly deadpan one-liners.

So while Helmut doesn’t yet feel like much more than a one-dimensional character, Blake does well within those limitations.

Review date: 1 Oct 2004
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Live comedy picks

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.