Richard Herring - Glee Club, Cardiff

Having graced our television screens in the mid-nineties with cult comedy favourites Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard not Judy, Richard Herring has always favoured humour with an anarchic edge.

If the title of his latest stand-up show, Hitler Moustache, isn’t enough to send the PC brigade into meltdown then the toothbrush-sculpted fuzz sat atop of Herring’s lip should send them well over the edge. There is reason, or course, for Herring’s facial attire – an opportunity to examine whether a square inch of hair can really be blamed for Hitler’s Nazi regime and to subsequently reclaim the moustache for comedy purposes.

It was the silent movie genius Charlie Chaplin that first paraded the toothbrush moustache to the world and Herring insists Hitler would’ve struggled if he’d stuck with his original, curly hippy lip. Herring’s delivery is explosive – barely pausing for breadth as he lays into the narrow-mindedness of the BNP, the misconception of fascism and how appearances can turn the simple, general public into potential fascists.

He recalls attending an Al Murray gig where sports presenter Jim Rosenthal tuts his disgust at the moustache – yet earlier the crowd was belly-laughing at jokes about illegal immigrants. He also contemplates shaving off the moustache for fear of ridicule at his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, “Imagine how the photos will turn out”, he exasperates. Fundamentally, Herring uses Hitler Moustache as a vehicle to destroy the sheer idiocy and ridiculous concept of fascism, with a hefty amount of laughs along the way.

Michael Took