A night of German comedy? Sounds unlikely. Forgive the stereotypes - that's the effect of prolonged exposure to Henning Wehn, the British-based stand-up who headlines this Teutonic double bill. Wehn plays shamelessly to British prejudices against his countrymen, adopting a ruthlessly efficient, borderline Nazi persona. In lederhosen and armed with a squeezebox, sidekick Otto Kuhnle likewise stokes the suspicion that Deutsch comedy is mired in clownish tomfoolery with Alpenhorns and ukuleles.
That's fine by me. There's no language barrier to German TV star Kuhnle's act, which is in the international vernacular of gormless light entertainment. His disappearing ping-pong balls routine, in which we're not meant to notice the five in his mouth, is irresistible. Wehn is a more orthodox stand-up, and what comedy he gains with his thick accent, he sometimes loses in timing. But that's partly the idea - Wehn's shtick is to tell a joke (about work-shy East Germans or about his regret at losing the war), then ruthlessly and efficiently deconstruct it. Humourlessness parodied through humour. Vorsprung durch laughs.
The joke, of course, is less about Germany than the absurdity of British prejudice. So when he expresses disgust at his country's sporting reaction to World Cup defeat ("when did Germany get so touchy-feely?"), he's mocking those who really imagine Germans to be intolerant of failure.
It's a sly technique, which buys Wehn the right to some unreconstructed material, but means that his agenda is set largely by other people's stereotypes. Kuhnle's good-natured hi-jinks are the perfect complement, however, at a gig that proves that not only do Germans have a sense of humour, but it comes in two varieties.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0870 033 2733.
