G2
THIS WEEK
InOut | THE CPH POST ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
2 - 8 September 2011
A night of gay gags and German guffaws ENGLISH COMEDY NIGHTS
CONTENTS Performance
G2-3
Kids
G3
Exhibitions
G3-4
Music
G6-7
Museums
G8
Lifestyle
G8-9
Copenhagen Map
G10-11
Food & Drink
G12-13
Classified
G14-17
Film
G18-19
Television
G20
InOut Editor Ben Hamilton
Art Editor Bonnie Fortune
Film Editor Victoria Steffensen
Regular contributors: Arun Sharma, Kasper R Guldberg, Tom Stratton, Avi Bebe, Stacie Menard, Kristina Lund Hansen, Simon Cooper, Kevin Evancio, Nichole Accettola, Dave Sauriol, Anee Jayaraj, Dave Anderson, Mette Windberg Baarup, Julie Fjeldstad, Andy Rugg, Valerie Mathis, Jazz K Guide Listings: Eva Korte (other events G4) Daniel van der Noon (music G4) Information may be displayed for free at the editor’s discretion. Unrequested material is not returned. We do not take responsibility for changes and mistakes, but please contact the editor regarding misleading information at ben@cphpost.dk. Additionally, we welcome readers’ comments about any of the material published in InOut CPH. Copyright owned by CPHPOST.DK ApS [www.cphpost.dk]. InOut CPH was founded by Thomas Dalvang Fleurquin
inside this week
BEN HAMILTON
I’M SORRY in advance for any name-dropping this editorial might contain. I promise it won’t happen again. But this is the first time I can honestly say I know the person on the front cover of InOut … if you don’t include the time I shamelessly put my daughter there, or myself, or my neighbour (gay sex shops special, January 2008 best he doesn’t find out). I knew Henning Wehn (who is one of several Englishlanguage acts performing at this year’s Zulu Comedy Festival – see G2 and G8 for details) , the man whose name annoyingly switches to ‘When’ when you type it out, before he was famous, and even then he acted as if everyone should know him. We’d go to pub quizzes (he was a right Bez – absolutely hopeless) and he would get progressively louder as the night wore on, raising his hands in jubilation and cheering – which is normal behaviour when the
answers are read out, not the questions. People would say “Who’s the German bastard?” (it was Southeast London after all); now they just say “Oh, that German bastard.” But seriously, I’m sure I’m not the only copy editor in history whose red pen has involuntarily twitched at the sight of ‘German stand-up comedian’. It was only after I left Britain that he became relatively well-known. Which caused a dilemma as we continued to stay in touch. Was his lateness in replying to my emails because he was famous now? Or was it because I was now haranguing him three times a day on Yahoo chat function urging him to read my sitcom (he never did). And what if we meet again? Would the dynamic in our relationship – me cracking jokes, him trying to keep up in a foreign tongue – completely change. I might even get starstruck – so I’d best get tanked up beforehand just to make sure I don’t come across as a sycophant. I’ll cut to the bitterness straightaway: “Why didn’t you read my screenplay, you German bastard.”
Lygten Station; Lygten 2, 2400 Cph NV Tickets 110-130kr, billetlugen.dk PAUL FOOT & HENNING WEHN Thu Sep 8, 20:30; 110kr ANTHONY JESELNIK & MIKKEL RASK & JAKOB SVENDSEN Fri Sep 9, 20:30; 130kr AS PART OF the ongoing Zulu Comedy Festival, five English-speaking stand-up comics will be pushing the envelope, and your buttons, on September 8 and 9 at English Comedy Nights at Lygten Station. These guys are not mainstream guffaw types, but come from a very weird and, in a couple instances, even dark place. Of course you’ll hear funny stuff in English - that’s why you’re going, right? - but you should also know that within the genus of stand-up are several varietals, reflecting the tastes and trends of the comics’ countries of origin. The first show, on September 8, and starting at 20:30, features Britain’s Paul Foot and the Germany’s Henning Wehn, now living in England. Foot is beyond fey (and openly gay). He doesn’t take all his material from a homoerotic inspiration, although he is known for his routine on gay sperm as well as his bit on the ‘Levels of Homophobia’ – the top level being punching somebody because they are not homophobic. More quirky even than John Cleese (is this one reason why Foot is always on the brink of stardom, but never seems to get to the next stage?), he has wild rants on how one must always politely say a piece of cake is moist, how to take vengeance on an overly chatty B & B landlady, and a routine declaring that though Jesus was a success in most ways, he was definitely a failure as a carpenter. Such irony, which has occasionally gotten him booed off the stage, is not the modus operandi of German-born Henning Wehn, who has described his style as that of a typically outspoken Ruhrpott (Ruhr being the industrial area he’s from). Wehn uses slapstick and gags, as well as a confrontational approach. A sample line to his British audience “If Germans had won the war, we’d all be living in shitholes like you,” asserts that the English have ended up this way because they live beyond their means, on credit cards and taking fancy vacations, rather than the stodgy Ger-
Performance
Did you hear the one about Angela Merkel and the frankfurter?
man method of not getting something you can’t pay for. The self-appointed ‘Comic Ambassador of Germany’ is pretty convincing as he proves that the German habits of compulsive order and forced cheerfulness are actually funny, with material about the Autobahn and German punctuality, and less references to the wars that in his earlier material. He’s unthreateningly ingenuous and even ingratiating, and he often manages to win over the audience when he first appears on stage to present an act that is sometimes headlined ‘Four World Cups and One World Pope’. “I’m looking forward to it,” Wehn told InOut, who was unconcerned any of his material might stir up anti-German feelings. “We’re all Europeans. Who doesn’t understand this is a dinosaur.” Both he and Foot have showcased at the Edinburgh Fringe, proving once more that comedy can be levelling. Another brand of ‘in your face’ - or crassness if you will - is the speciality of Anthony Jeselnik, the American comic originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A former staff writer for late night TV host Jimmy Fallon, Jeselnik is known for his own one-man show
Contact
Tivoli pantomimes & ballets
Tivoli; open Sun-Thu 11:0022:00, Fri 11:00-00:30, Sat 11:00-24:00; tickets: 75kr, 125kr after 20:00, under-8s free adm; www.tivoli.dk All performances are included with entrance to Tivoli - performance times and days vary so check the website for more info. The Unfortunate Suitor
ends Sep 25 Columbine is destined to marry a man chosen by her father; Harlequin is helped by a sorcerer to save her from a man she does not love. Will the lovers be reunited again. Petzi visits Pierrot
started Sep 1 As Petzi is walking around Tivoli, he meets Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot. The three characters invite him on stage where Petzi learns how to dance ballet, and teaches his new friends how to bake pancakes. VM
Dansehallerne, Pasteursvej 14-24, Cph V; starts Tue, ends 4 Sep, daily performances at 20:00, and Sun 15:00; tickets: 160-210kr; www.dansehallerne.dk The Copenhagen-based dance group Cross Connection Ballet Company (CCBC) returns to Dansehallerne with three new creations and one installation, which will try to turn the physical into the emotional. CCBC’s international ensemble of professional dancers and choreographers wants to challenge the observer and to explore the power of physical contact on our body and mind. Expect an intense interaction between the 12 dancers and the audience. EK
ADG Europe presents ‘Macbeth’
on Comedy Central, and was dubbed ‘One of Comedy’s Ten to Watch’ by Daily Variety. Best known for his ‘roast’ of avaricious New York City real estate developer Donald Trump, Punchline magazine once described Jeselnik as full of “well-honed, nearly sociopathic self-assured bravado”. You couldn’t argue with that. In his roast of Trump, he said Americans would be less sorry to see Trump die of cancer than Michael Douglas in Wall Street, the film about another ruthless American tycoon. Trump, who was on hand, took the attack with grace, as did the also present deaf actress Marlee Matlin and TV talk show host Larry King, who he pilloried for their respective states of being deaf, and old. Jeselnik’s ‘up yours’ comedy style will contrast sharply with Mikkel Rask’s innocent, even benevolent, satire-by-exaggeration: case in point his set piece on Ingmar Bergman. Swedish newspaper The Local calls Rask “abstract and intelligent”. While the more exuberant, occasionally hyperactive Dane, Jakob Svendsen, will test Aristotle’s assertion that “melancholy men are of all others the most witty”.
Rosenborg Slot Gardens, Øster Volgade 4A, 1350 Cph K; starts Thu (Sep 1), ends Sep 3, daily performances at 18:00; Adults: 220kr, concessions 110kr; www.adg-europe.com The American Drama Group Europe is bringing Shakespeare’s most controversial character to life in the courtyard of Rosenborg Castle as part of a three-day stopover on its worldwide Castle Tour, which sees the group perform at revered landmarks all over the world. The performance includes electronic music, human sound and acrobatic dance performances. The beautiful Dutch renaissance-style venue is the perfect setting for the play, which memorably climaxes on the battlements of Macbeth’s castle. “This is theatre such as Shakespeare himself might have imagined,” commented German newspaper Donaukurier after a recent performance. VM
MARSHA MCCREADIE
The Coronation of Poppea
Københavns Musikteater, Kronprinsensgade 7, Cph K; starts Sat, performances at 19:30 (unless stated) on Sat, Mon, Wed, Sep 2, Sep 4 (15:00), Sep 6; tickets: 150250kr; 3332 5556; www. kobenhavnsmusikteater.dk When Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea premiered in Venice in 1643, opera was still in its infancy and the opera singers were actually singing stage actors. Just 358 years later, in an attempt to stay as true as possible to the original version, nine opera singers will take on 24 roles between them. They populate a grotesque, raven-hued baroque universe, accompanied by a small baroque-ensemble. Acclaimed musical singer Xenia Lach-Nielsen takes the stage as Emperor Nero’s ambitious mistress Poppea. Her antagonist, Nero’s wife Octavia, is played by Swedish soprano Elisabeth Holmertz. EK Sommerballet 2011