Micha Wertheim at the BAC

Micha Wertheim at the BAC

25 February, 2009
by: Emma

It's clear from the offset that tonight is not going to be the straightest stand-up gig. I'm not sure what to expect from controversial Dutch comic Micha Wertheim - a furious rant about the disabled perhaps - but I certainly am not expecting him to enter wearing a suit with no trousers, dancing to the tune of Anita Ward's 'Ring My Bell'.

Part of the Amsterdam Underground Collective (along with the legendary Hans Teeuwan) who stormed the Fringe last year, Wertheim is only performing at the Battersea Arts Centre for two nights and there can only be about 30 people in the room, perhaps due to the fact that top political comic Andy Zaltzman is performing in the next door room for part of the BAC's huge comedy festival. He makes light of the situation however by peering into the audience and asking "Is that my mother? I told her to sit at the back but I suppose she has to sit at the front."

He begins his set cautiously with a colourful anecdote about not returning library books as a young boy but soon enough dips his toe into the deeper end by telling us that: "The Dutch are liberal racists. We don't like blacks – regardless of sexuality." There is some witty material on condoms: "What is the point of raspberry flavoured condoms? Does the woman think I'd like some raspberry tea and the man think I'd like a blowjob and they decide to compromise? I'd like to have an aspirin-flavoured condom for when the woman has a headache.”

After a hearty response thus far, he wades in with an explanation of why he and his girlfriend would rather have a mongoloid child (with a mongoloid you have initial disappointment which get better over time; but it's the opposite with a normal child). Then it's onto the disabled: "Why do they make their toilets so big – what are they going to do with the extra room – get up and stretch their legs? It's like a gym in there!" Sure it may be classic 'controversial' material but Wertheim has the brains to back it up – one of his best jokes about the hypocrisy in saying we live in a democratic society while we simultaneously condemn gang rape was really clever and original.

Strangely enough Wertheim manages to deliver these outrageous statements and comes across as, well, quite sweet. Perhaps it's the fact he doesn't rant and speaks (understandably) a little haltingly at times. It isn't all straight-forward material either, there are stagey bits of candle lighting and a moment where he realises the show isn't real ("I must be in a dream, I'm not wearing any trousers and am doing a Chinese accent in a foreign language. Or should I say...Mandarin?"). There is also a surreal section at the end where he tells us about his religion 'Melvynism' ("It's just a hunch") and how Melvyn created the earth in seven days.

He came across as funny, intelligent and very likeable which was rewarded at the end with a rowdy round of applause. He may have said a few things we wouldn't repeat over tea and macaroons but that didn't stop us all cackling like hyenas. There's nothing wrong with a bit of controversy every now and then and had he started on the Muslims like his fellow compatriot MP Geert Wilders, we'd probably have laughed at that as well.

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Emma