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Richard Herring - Hitler Moustache
Avalon Promotions
Underbelly until Sunday August 30, 2009

Growing a moustache similar to the one sported by Adolf Hitler, all in the name of comedy, didn’t have quite the disturbing effect that Richard Herring had feared – or hoped – it might. Feared, because the oh-so liberal comedian didn’t want to be associated with fascism. Hoped, because any reaction would have provided material for the show.

What it has done is allow him to muse on why there was a lack of reaction. Not to mention how he felt about sporting what has become a right-wing icon and whether it would be the moustache itself that made its wearer a Nazi. The last of which is palpable nonsense of course. Not least because Charlie Chaplin had the moustache first.

Ironically, Herring first went out with his new moustache on the day the BNP gained two MEPs through the failure of people to vote against them. Which Herring has made the heart of his show as, without being vicious or vindictive, he questions the morals of his audience.

On one level this is the self-obsessed musings of a bleeding heart liberal. On the other, it is the right and proper response to some of the most tricky questions being asked of us, in moral terms, in our every day conduct in society. Laughter certainly belongs in politics.
Review by Thom Dibdin
Published online at 11:21 on Thursday 27 August 2009