After 13 years in the UK, says Henning Wehn, his national identity is no longer clearcut – even though “on stage, I German it up”. That’s been emphatically true in the past: Wehn has made a career out of sending up and celebrating German stereotypes. But that particular ingredient is lower in the new show’s mix – with abundant TV and radio credits to his name, Wehn is now well enough established to joke not only about who he is, but what he thinks.
For much of Ein, Zwei, DIY, that’s good news. There’s a refreshing novelty to Wehn’s material that comes partly, yes, from his outsider’s angle on UK life, but also because he’s addressing stuff that other comics might dismiss as off‑puttingly weighty. One major section treats the London housing market with the dismay, and indeed moral indignation, it richly deserves, while finding big laughs in the degree to which his mainstream-European solutions – renting and living within one’s means – sound sacrilegious to British ears.
As that implies, plenty of jokes here still draw on Wehn’s roots, including a fine routine about the British tendency to use self-deprecation as a get-out-of-jail-free card – which would be a complete non-starter back home, he says. There’s also a wicked spoof lecture on Austrian culture, which peaks with a Goons-esque menu of increasingly ludicrous-sounding kuchen (cakes).
The momentum wanes towards the end. After the big-hitting material on oligarchs and payday lenders, Wehn’s anecdotes about watching Formula One feel lightweight, and light on laughs too. His streak of devilment – he likes to appear un-PC – sometimes leads him tediously astray: the Wonga routine is snobbish towards poor people from “oop north”, and when he mentions Korea, Wehn can’t resist joking about eating dogs. I applaud the reduced dependence on German stereotypes; it’d be nice if he’d nix the other ones too.
• Until 8 March. Box office: 020-7734 2222. Venue: Leicester Square theatre, London. Then touring.
