| |
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
The Week in Germany: Culture October 6, 2006German Sense of Humor on Display in Cologne Germany’s largest comedy festival kicked of on October 5th in Cologne, where more than 200 comedians from German speaking countries in Europe and others from across the world will tickle the funny bones of an expected 33,000 showgoers. The Cologne International Comedy Festival, now in its 15th year, is at the vanguard of a growing stand-up comedy scene in Germany. Despite the stereotype of the humorless German, German comedy has a long tradition in the form of political cabaret, which features satire, humorous songs, and dramatic readings. Only in the last 15 years has the casual, conversational style of stand-up comedy popular in Britain and the USA caught on in Germany. The Cologne festival has been pivotal in the careers of many younger German comics who combine the more formal German cabaret traditions with stand-up comedy. Rüdiger Hoffmann, whose slow as molasses delivery of wry anecdotes has made him one of Germany’s most prominent comics today, appeared at the first Cologne festival 15 years ago. Other festival favorites include the tattooed and frenetic Michael Mittermeier, who wrote his master’s thesis on “American Stand-Up Comedy” and went on to become a star in Germany with edgy political satire, and Mario Barth, the Berliner who first scored big with a battle of the sexes routine entitled “Men are Pigs, But so are Women” and is continuing to cash in on similar territory with “Men are Primitive, but Happy.” International acts to appear on Cologne’s stages during the festival
include the American clown Jango Ewards, Terry Pratchett of England, Anthony
Kavanagh of Canada, the Umbilical Brothers from Australia, and the Tokyo
Shock Boys of Japan. Links:
|
|
More from Germany.info  Newsletters
 Printer-Friendly
Page
Email This Article |
||
|
|||||
|
|||||
