Richard Herring: Hitler Moustache

Richard Herring: Hitler moustache

I think it's fair to say that I'm a bit of a comedy novice. I'm not all that interested in stand up as an art and only really know a few of the more mainstream comics through exposure to them via the medium of TV. I don't count myself as hip in anyway or any kind of connoisseur. So this will inevitably explain why I know nothing about Richard Herring, a comic/writer whose career stretches back 20 years apparently.

Herring's current show (i.e the one on this DVD) was apparently one of the most talked about sell out shows of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2009. It essentially revolves around the fact that Herring decided to grow a toothbrush moustache and try to reclaim it for comedy. This style of moustache, once extremely fashionable in Europe in the early part of the 20th Century, is now synonymous with Adolf Hitler. And this is despite arch master of silent film comedy Charlie Chaplin sporting the same style of lip appendage.

So why grow this moustache in the first place? Why not use a stick on? In fairness to Herring, he felt clearly that he needed to make a statement and using a fake 'tache would never stand up to scrutiny. Herring also worried about the effect that growing and showing this moustache would have on his every day life, how would people react to the sight of the toothbrush lip hair? Well, with general apathy it would seem as no one made any kind of fuss whatsoever and at any point where he could have gotten a reaction, he got rid of it. Which in the event of his parent's 50 year anniversary was indeed the correct decision.

And so, the primary reasoning behind the whole idea for the show falls at the first hurdle. Still, Herring wasn't going to let that stop him and so he builds a set around racism as well as touching upon the ethics of pulling a stunt for comedy and the danger of political apathy, plus other linked but disjointed ideas.

I have to admit that I quite liked large sections of this act but it was clear that Herring really needed a bit more material to pad it out as there were large periods of time where the show didn't really go anywhere. The largest example of this was the on screen argument with himself over the use of the four letter insult used disparagingly against those of Pakistani descent. But that wasn't the only portion.

Still, Herring made some salient points over the BNP, how those who refuse to vote are more guilty than those who actually voted for the BNP for the party gaining political seats in the EU parliament and how we judge others. Unfortunately though I suspect that a lot of that will have been lost by the time people walked out of the show, all 120 odd times. After all, he's a comedian and he's funny. And that's quite sad.

So overall, I felt this was not as good as it could have been and with the only real extra being a slideshow of Hitler moustache photographs sent in by fans, well I just wonder if the whole point of this in the end was not a serious reclamation of some lip hair but just an excuse for a bit of a laugh about Hitler.

Note: This review copy came on a DVD-R which is why there is no information on aspect ratio or soundtrack options.