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Scotsman review of HM

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Comedy review: Richard Herring


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Published Date: 28 August 2009
RICHARD HERRING – HITLER MOUSTACHE
UNDERBELLY (VENUE 61)

THE success of this provocative show can be seen right across Edinburgh, with the posters of scores of comics, and Jimmy Carr in particular, defaced with toothbrush moustaches. I like to think this swells Richard Herring's he
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art with pride on his walk to work in the evening and niggles at the part of his brain that wonders what might happen if he used his oratorical gifts for evil.

Herring was labelled one of the new offenders of comedy in a controversial newspaper article before the festival began, the phrase "maybe racists have a point" in particular blown spectacularly out of context and proportion by the resulting furore. He treads a fine line here between the inappropriate and freedom of expression, acknowledging that fashioning your top lip after Hitler's and wandering around London for a few weeks, in the name of a Fringe show in which you claim to be reclaiming the pencil moustache for Chaplin and anti-fascism, is quite an undertaking for such a glib point.

With convoluted logic though, Herring goes on to venture that racists are more comfortable with a wider number of people than liberal comedygoers, enquiring whether it is truly important to respect cultural differences. In the main, he's playing with language to be contrary. But wasn't that one of the Nazis' most powerful propaganda tools? He tackles the thorny issue of irony by admitting to some unease at the part he's played in developing Al Murray's Pub Landlord character, a creation which, to be blunt, is enjoyed unironically by a sizeable number of bigots.

There's no irony, though, in his straightforward, passionate denunciation of anyone in the audience who didn't vote in the European elections, allowing the BNP to claim two seats. Strikingly preachy and laughter-free, this blast is nevertheless admirable for its artistic import as much as its moral. Good men standing by and doing nothing except writing clever but dismissable comedy shows risk being ignored or misrepresented. So after a brief but amusing coda on his iPhone being stolen, Herring sends his followers out into the night with Velcro pencil moustaches, charged with reclaiming the symbol where they may.

JAY RICHARDSON