September 2013

Dear Friends of German Comedy,

Welcome to the September newsletter. I know it will be hard to top the July and August bulletins. (If you don’t remember getting those you clearly weren’t looking hard enough in your email inbox. And that’s that.)

No, seriously, sorry for neglecting you and not giving any moral guidance in these complicated times. Not that I could offer you much advice on, say, Syria. Assad uses chemical weapons on civilians.
As a result we’re now supposed to help America in supporting the rebels, who are led by Al Qaeda, whose existence is America’s justification for spying on all of us. And most grotesquely, the Russians that can somehow claim the moral high ground. Say what you like about the Cold War, but at least I understood who was good (West Germany) and who was bad (the trade unions).

Talking of the triumph of capitalism, the Edinburgh comedy trade fair has come to an end and I’m happy to tell you that German humour is going from strength to strength. Not to the extent that it would have actually won the Perrier Award.
Or anything else for that matter. But it’s not the winning but the taking part that matters (add tired war jokes at your leisure).

And talking of taking part: I still haven’t uploaded the footage of the Henning
Knows Bestest prize draw, which you can find HERE.

Congratulations to all winners. Clap-Clap-Clap! And special thanks to German Wine Agencies (NOT German Wine Associations) and the German Deli for providing the goods.

After Edinburgh I went for a few days to the Shetlands, where I could have done with a bottle of Liebfrauenmilch or five. It’s the bleakest place imaginable! Even the seals on the beach and the puffins in the sky looked bored.

The place is so remote there isn’t even any mobile phone reception. While that might sound like a dream to anyone having to put up with people rabbiting away on public transport, it can turn awkward. I went to the leisure centre on Unst, an island so small not even David Cameron could talk it up.

The pool is no more than 10 meters long and shallow enough for me to stand in. As the only guest I had the undivided attention of the 14-year-old lifeguard, who was compelled by edicts of health & safety to follow my every move.

I felt so self-conscious that I made sure my hands were upright on the way to the side and then flat on their way back, and I made sure my feet touched at the end of the stroke.
I felt so under the spotlight I swam technically better than I ever have before. But never has a visit to a leisure centre been less leisurely or more intense. If only he could have updated his Facebook status he might have stopped staring at me for five minutes.

Assuming there are no more family bereavements, I’ll write to you next in early October, by which time Germany will have had its general election.
The campaign is rather boring as the two frontrunners, Angela Merkel and Peer Steinbrück are both equally highly qualified to lead Europe and as such it almost doesn’t matter which of them wins. As the quip goes: “May the better candidate win, as long as they’re German.” Guffaw, guffaw…

Have a great month and hopefully see you soon

Henning

Please find a list of upcoming tour dates below.
Tickets for all shows on www.henningwehn.de

There’s even a few tickets still left for the London preview on September 18th.

And if you can’t wait that long for your dose of Teutonic jolliness, why not get the No Surrender show as DVD or download.
Both only available on my website.
HERE‘s a snippet.