Self-styled German Comedy Ambassador Henning Wehn brings his latest show, It’ll All Come Out in the Wash, to Birmingham Town Hall on October 7 and 8.
After moving to the UK 19 years ago to take up a job in the marketing department at Wycombe Wanderers Football Club, Henning ditched sport for stand-up and has since become a firm favourite on the comedy circuit, and a regular on TV shows including 8 Out of 10 Cats, Have I Got News For You, and QI.
Tell us about your Birmingham Comedy Festival show-for the uninitiated, what can the audience expect?
An unbiased lookat the Covid crisis. One of the basic ideas is quite a novel one: eating and exercise has a correlation to one’s health.
You cover both Brexit and Covid quite a bit in the show-looking back, these were both crazy times so how does it feel to be able to joke about them now?
Brexit and Covid are both fertile grounds for humour. Admittedly they’re both old hat at the moment. Now it’s all about the death of a distant relative of mine and the period of mourning and madness this induced.
Are there any festival acts you’re planning on seeing yourself or any you’d recommend people checkout?
The mixed bill show at the Town Hall on Tuesday sounds good. Anything with Ninia Benjamin in gets my support.
You arrived in the UK to work in football-how did you end up in stand-up comedy?
Wrong place, wrong time. In 2003…..what, 19 years ago?! Blimey, how time flies…
Why did you decide to stay in the UK? Surely not for the weather…
Very simple. I misplaced my return ferry ticket.
As a German living and working in the UK, what do you think of us Brits’ continuing obsession with German stereotypes? Do Germans have any similar ideas about Brits?
I don’t mind the odd bit of Germans this, that and the other. But that obsession is one way. In Germany there’s no stereotypes about Brits as they’re not important enough to the locals.
What have been the highlights of your career so far?
The stand-out moment was travelling across Europe for a fortnight with the greatest footballer of all time: Lothar Matthaus. We were filming short promos for Courtyard Marriott in various European capitals. And Matthaus’s opening gambit during the contract negotiations allegedly was: “I’m happy to do this but I’m not staying in a Courtyard Marriott.” And he never did. They say never meet your heroes. Well, I’ve met mine and I loved every second.
