First time ever, I’ve attended a comedy gig at the Cavern Club that is standing room only. After a few seconds of Erhard I can see why. He is fantastic: hilariously, intelligently, full-on fizzingly fantastic – which could partially be due to having only just arrived in Aotearoa a day or so prior, on the hell that is that flight ofendurance from theUK. But I don’t think so.   

Riffing on NZ Immigration has us all exclaiming in agreement, including the very enthusiastic Germans in the audiencewho are actually as entertaining as Erhard and I’m always up for people laughing at and enjoying themselves. Their laughter rings throughout the performance with declarations of“Izz true, Izz true!” (That’s my attempt at a German accent which may just be a little racist).

Worst. German. Ever. actually relies on those commonalities of racism that we’ve either been subjected to or directed at others. That is, unless you’re white which, of course gets the biggest laugh of the night. Erhard is white, German and proud. And on a day (April 30) that remembers the death, 70 years ago, of one of its most infamous identities, that can’t be easy as he really takes us there regaling tales of his fellow countrymen; the white knuckle experience that is the Autobahn and that space inhabited when you no longer fit in either the country of your birth or that of your residence.

Erhard is entertaining and I’m reminded why comedy is addictive; how generously comedians (good ones that is) give of their energy. He is effervescent. He feeds off the audience and we off him. It’s love. Like, in the throes of honeymoon-period-love. I hear the range of different types of laughing from the audience: tittering, head back mouth open, giggling, giddygiggling and not once that all-too-familiar-cringe/groan laugh.

We’re all having a good time. And why wouldn’t we? Erhard knows how to tell and hold a story. I never understood the Euro crisis, let alone found funny. Until last night. Until Erhard.

International comedians bring to the NZ comedy circuit a depth, professionalism and effortlessness to their performance that as a punter, I appreciate and that I am sure NZ-grown comedians respond to and compete with.

It feels like I’ve scored the comedy jackpot, having blindly selected Worst. German. Ever. He’s only here tonight and tomorrow, and I don’t know why he’s in the equivalent of what he calls a “cellar”. It’s a long way to come, to only be seen by 50 or so people a night. 

If you’re hungry for intelligent, political entertainment Erhard is a must-see.

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