The first drafts of the flyers for both "Hitler Moustache" and my autumn internet stand up and sketch show "As It Occurs To Me" are now up in the
The downloads section of this website. I am very excited about both ventures, the latter should be very interesting. Although the shows will be broadcast on iTunes and through the British Comedy Guide website for free, they will be funded by people paying ten pounds each to see them recorded. If enough people come it will be about as financially viable for me as doing a radio show, but with an added immediacy and lack of censorship. If it works I will do more and who knows, it might even become the start of something even bigger. If I could get sponsorship or funding I would love to make filmed comedy for the internet too. But let's start small. Don't know if tickets are for sale yet, but the box office number is 0844 847 2475. Hope you can make it to one or more of them.
But don't forget to book in advance for
The Edinburgh Podcast Shows and
Hitler Moustache.
I have been powerfully tired all week, going to bed late and waking up early and have not got anything like as much work done on the show as I was hoping. Still it's progressing quite nicely and with so many gigs still to come it should find a shape before August. I am self-conscious though when I sit in cafes with my moustache surrounded by all my notes and various print ups from the internet and the BNP leaflet that I am hoping to incorporate that it might be easy to jump to the wrong conclusion about what I am up to.
I tried to work in the British Library this afternoon, but was overwhelmed with tiredness and just messed around on the internet instead.
Usually about an hour before the gig I start having ideas and getting on with some work. The adrenaline kicks in, I guess and the fear of having nothing to say makes the brain become active. As I sat eating some Thai food in Angel, before heading over to the venue, I started having an insane plan about how far the moustache idea could go. The problem is that even as I started this project to reclaim the toothbrush moustache that I knew it wasn't really possible, that the associations are too strong and deep and that that made the show a little bit of a folly in a way, even if it would lead to some interesting discussions and ideas.
But tonight I suddenly wondered if it really was impossible. It struck me that because pretty much no one has this moustache any more that it is ripe for reclamation. So many times a symbol of something can be flipped on its head to mean the opposite of what it once meant. In fact Hitler did this with the swastika. So I wondered if it might be possible to make the toothbrush moustache a new symbol of an anti fascist movement or one to encourage people to vote. I am not suggesting that people would have them all the time, but rather like a red nose or a poppy, there might be a democracy day where people were encouraged to wear false moustaches or have a real one for the day - on their faces if they are a hirsute man or shaved into their pubic hair if they are a woman. Or just stuck on to their faces with some gaffer tape or shoe polish. I had the vision of organising a massive pro-voting/anti BNP comedy gig at the O2 arena where all the audience sported the moustache, uniting in love for humanity rather than hatred. I joke in the show that when I went to see Al Murray at the O2 90% of his audience had a Hitler moustache anyway, so it would be cool to do a gig there where everyone actually did, but were doing it ironically and for a good cause. Because to allow this moustache to always stand for fascism and oppression is to afford Hitler a minor, but eternal victory. If we can flip its meaning, as Hitler did so successfully himself, then we defeat him and the stupidity of racism and fascism.
I know in my heart that I am being idealistic about it all and that none of that is likely to happen, but there might be something in it. Laughter is the ultimate weapon against these people. Bullets might kill them, eggs might stain their clothes, but the humiliation of parody and laughter could make them shrivel up and die. I think if Hitler had been in Britain with that moustache he would never have got anywhere. Not only are the British too fond of the underdog to become truly fascist (I hope at least), I think if he'd turned up at meetings with that moustache he would have been heckled and mocked with at least something along the lines of "How you doing Charlie?" or "Make your bread rolls do a little dance!" or "Eat your shoelaces, Chaplin!" of "Fuck off with your stupid tiny moustache you little twatty freak!"
Suddenly having this moustache doesn't feel so childish and sixth form any more. It feels like their is a possibility that I might be able to do something meaningful with it.
As if to prove my point as I walked up to the pub I was gigging in (in a tiny beer cellar, fittingly - would my moustache lead me to playing a massive hall with thousands of people chanting my name?), for the first time in the two weeks that I've had this moustache, a passing man saw it, laughed and leered "Oi, Adolf!" I carried on walking for fear of what he might do next, but he just turned to his mates and leered, "Did you see that. It was Adolf!" He laughed, probably assuming I was a nutcase. I considered turning around and giving him a salute, but they were four slightly beered up lads and I worried about what they might do. But it kinda proved my point about Britain's humorous response to such ridiculousness. Only in Germany could a man with a Chaplin moustache be taken seriously (though of course, in actuality it was the fact that his opponents didn't take him seriously enough that gave Hitler his foot in the door).
