Herring's show much more than just reclaiming Hitler's moustache
It is not often I spend my Saturday nights in a packed downstairs room watching a man with a Hitler moustache pontificate about the state of politics.
In fact, I can genuinely say that before this weekend it was something I had never had the pleasure of doing. Thankfully though, Richard Herring has changed all that.
The comedian was at the White Rock Theatre, showcasing his latest – and it is fair to say, most controversial – offering to date. No main stage for Herring though. Fittingly it was in the beer cellar-esque Sussex Hall that the comedian waxed lyrical about the pitfalls of growing – and keeping – a Hitler moustache.
Herring is no fascist. Far from a celebration of Nazi iconography, Herring is on a one man mission to reclaim the toothbrush moustache originally made famous by Charlie Chaplin.
But there is a clear message in his set and one which should resonate perhaps more strongly in Hastings than elsewhere on his tour.
Herring bemoans the political apathy of voters which allowed the British National Party to post victories in the last round of European elections. He points out that people from across Europe went to Spain to fight Franco's fascists, while voters in modern day Britain "couldn't even be bothered to walk to their local primary school and put a tick in a box."
Part of Herring's genius is the way he uses the strength of his convictions to lay to rest any concerns the audience has over some of his material.
His regular use of terms which would be questionable outside of a comedy show (or even IN a comedy show, if it happened to be one by Jim Davidson) risks losing some of the more precious members of the crowd.
But far from shying away from that danger, Herring embraces it, somehow managing to de-racialise (is that a word?) offensive language and in doing, make his point perfectly. Words are not racist. People are. And silly people at that.
His musing on the merits of seeing the world through the eyes of a racist ("They see people as black or white – that is just ONE step away from viewing everyone as equal. Surely better than seeing 194 different nations like we do?") are as original as they are logic twistingly brilliant.
And a ten minute descent into comedic schizophrenia in which he bickers with himself over the credibility of using an ethnic slur when quoting a racist sees him shift seamlessly from the manic Hitler-esque posturing to the more subtle physical comedy of Chaplin – an apt metaphor for the show itself.
Herring is certainly not the first person to tackle Nazism in his comedy. Indeed, comedy behemoth Ricky Gervais based his entire stand-up debut on the rather wider theme of Politics, including a gaggle of Hitler and Holocaust inspired set pieces.
However, much like Chaplin's departure from comedy to serious political point making in the 1940 film The Great Dictator – a move which Herring applauds during his show – Herring occasionally leaves the jokes to one side in favour of some genuine political points.
As an orator, Herring may bear more than a passing resemblance to the Fhrer. But as a gifted comic at the very top of his game, his use of comedy to drive home his very real, and very serious, political concerns, Herring has far more in common with Chaplin.
Chaplin's intervention helped win over American public support in favour of military intervention in the 40s, and the eventual victory over the Nazis.
If Herring's show convinces just a handful more people to vote in the forthcoming elections ("Are you honestly telling me there is not ONE single politician you prefer to a Nazi?") then in his own inimitable way he will be helping the war against the modern far-right.
And that is surely more fitting a tribute to Chaplin than the reclamation of what is, in fairness, a pretty naff look anyway.
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Weather for Hastings
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
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