Henning Wehn

Henning Wehn

Wehn in 2013
Born (1974-04-10) 10 April 1974
Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Medium Stand-up, television, radio
Nationality German
Website henningwehn.de

Henning Wehn (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛnɪŋ ˈveːn]; born 10 April 1974) is a German stand-up comedian based in London.

Career

Wehn studied Business Administration in Münster and worked in customer relations.[1] In 2002, he moved to England to work in the marketing department of Wycombe Wanderers.[2] One evening, he saw an open mic night and decided to try comedy.[3] Of his decision to stay in the UK, Wehn later wrote: "I initially planned to stay in the UK for only 12 months to improve my English, but the good weather, the tasty food and the classy women made me stay. In order to blend in with the locals, I decided to get extremely lazy, spend money I don't have and, most importantly, to unjustifiably bang on about my great sense of humour. This is why I decided 1,646 days, nine hours and 42 minutes ago to try my hand at stand-up and become the German Comedy Ambassador."[4] As a result, since October 2003, Wehn has been the self-styled "German Comedy Ambassador in London".[5] After beginning his career as "warm-up act" to various comedians in London (including Stewart Lee for Comedy Vehicle), he now has his own act on the British comedy circuit.[6]

Wehn has appeared on the panel shows 8 Out of 10 Cats, Have I Got News For You, Room 101, Would I Lie To You?, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and QI. He also appeared on Channel 4's political discussion/comedy show 10 O'Clock Live in May 2013. He is a recurring panellist on both the BBC Radio Five Live comedy sports show Fighting Talk and on the BBC Radio Four panel game The Unbelievable Truth.[7] Wehn also appeared as a panelist on the 2015 and 2016 series' of 'Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice' on BBC Two.

On a Season 7 episode of Would I Lie to You?, Wehn revealed that he spent three weeks on the Interpol missing persons list, having travelled to Morocco with a man he met on a train in Spain. He also appeared in Episode 8 of Season 9,[8] in which he revealed that he and his friend were once arrested by border guards for illegally entering the Czech Republic in the mid-90s.

In 2014, Wehn and fellow comedian Mark Watson fronted a travelogue in Brazil called The Road to Rio for Dave. In the show, they explored the country's sporting culture, tying in with the 2014 World Cup held in the country.

In May 2015, Wehn presented An Immigrant's Guide to Britain on Channel 4, telling Radio Times: "[W]hat I really like about the programme it mixes light-hearted issues (the job market), with more serious ones (trouble of having two water taps instead of just one) to the ultra serious (the British class system)".[9] In October that same year, Wehn was the presenter of the BBC World Service radio documentary Wall in the Head in which he explored "the invisible cultural and psychological divide" between East and West Germans twenty five years after German reunification following the fall of the Berlin Wall.[10]

Approach to comedy

Wehn's comedy frequently employs common stereotypes about Germans, with Brian Logan, writing in UK daily newspaper The Guardian in 2015 noting, "Wehn has made a career out of sending up and celebrating German stereotypes. But that particular ingredient is lower in the new show's mix – with abundant TV and radio credits to his name, Wehn is now well enough established to joke not only about who he is, but what he thinks".[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Three jokes with cabbage" at Süddeutsche Zeitung (German language). Retrieved 16 September 2016
  2. ↑ Wehn, Henning (15 April 2013). "I expected yobs, but got a royal welcome". The Times.
  3. ↑ "Comedy: Henning Wehn shows how an outsider's perspective is useful in joking about Britain". scotsman.com.
  4. ↑ Wehn, Henning (16 April 2008). "Henning Wehn explains German humour". Time Out. London. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "Henning heads to the Deutsch market". Elmbridge Guardian. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  6. ↑ "Germans flex their funny bone". BBC News. 23 August 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  7. ↑ Henning Wehn. "The German Comedy Ambassador". henningwehn.de.
  8. ↑ "BBC One: Would I Lie to You? Episode 8 Series 9". BBC Online. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Wehn, Henning (3 May 2015). "Henning Wehn on An Immigrant's Guide to Britain - and suddenly realising he is one". Radio Times. London. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Presenter: Henning Wehn, Producer: Helena Selby (4 October 2015). "Wall in the Head". The Documentary. BBC World Service.
  11. ↑ Logan, Brian (4 March 2015). "Henning Wehn review – German comedy ambassador's devilish reception". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 March 2016.

External links

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