One Man Show
Amsterdam Abortion Survivor

"Micha Wertheim is smart, edgy and damned funny – in any language."

Paul Provenza Host of Showtimes The Green Room

"THE influx of Dutch comedians is perhaps the most exciting trend in UK stand-up over the last two years."

Jay Richardson, The Scotsman (fringe 2008)

"Being Dutch, Micha Wertheim does not know that most audiences aren't comfortable with stand-ups making jokes about Down Syndrome, gang rape, disabled people and child abduction. Thankfully, in Holland, political correctness is a few decades behind the UK so Micha's hilariously refreshing material confronts our intellectual sterilization and makes for some of the funniest, most intelligent and challenging stand-up I have seen in years."

Adam Bloom

This Summer Dutch stand-up Micha Wertheim is bringing his 2008 Edinburgh show:
Amsterdam Abortion Survivor to the New York Fringe Festival.

Micha Wertheim's smart, theatrical and controversial stand-up has earned him praise in both The Netherlands and at the 2007 and 2008 Edinburgh Fringe festival. Even in a country as liberal as The Netherlands, Wertheim has managed to both shock and charm his audiences at the same time. Just like his Edinburgh Fringe show, his New York debut promises hard hitting cutting edge comedy with an adorable accent.

Written and performed by: Micha Wertheim
Stage design by: Bart van den Boom
Graphic design: Joost van Grinsven
Production: Harry Kies Theater Producties /New York Fringe


Contact info

New York Fringe (The Present Company): info@fringenyc.org call: 22.2794488 Harry Kies theater producties / geert@harrykies.nl +31 20 489 9899 (please note that we are closed in July )

Micha Wertheim is more than happy to talk to anyone interested in more information. Please send an email with your questions and/or phone number to: micha.wertheim@gmail.com (please note Micha will be traveling in July and won't be able to check his email everyday.)

For updates and press photos please go to:
www.fringenyc.org/
www.michawertheim.nl/nyfringe

Who is Micha Wertheim?

After finishing his MA in Cultural Sciences Micha Wertheim (1972) became a member of the Amsterdam based Dutch comedy collective Comedytrain. In 2004 Micha won the first prize in the 'Leids Cabaret Festival'. Since then Micha has written and performed 4 one-man shows that were made into TV specials for national Dutch Public Television.

Off stage Wertheim writes children's books, produces radio documentaries and writes a weekly satire for the Vrij Nederland Magazine.


International

In 2007 Micha was the MC of the Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective, a sell out show at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was invited back to Britain where he performed in The Comedy Store and the Soho Theater. In 2008 Wertheim and Hans Teeuwen returned tot the Edinburgh Fringe Festival together to perform their one-man shows. After which Wertheim was invited to perform his one-man show at London's Battersea Arts Center. Since then Wertheim has performed for expats in Bahrain, Istanbul, Beijing and Shanghai. But he has always concentrated on touring in The Netherlands.


Storytelling

Inspired by The Moth, Micha Wertheim initiated Amsterdam's own storytelling series, called Echt Gebeurd

Download press photo's

Q & A

What's comedy like in The Netherlands?

Until 20 years ago comedians were expected to do political cabaret-style one-man shows in a theater with songs in between the jokes. Stand-up, with just a mike in a café-setting is rather new. Twenty years ago a group of comedians inspired by people like Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor got together and started the 'Comedytrain', a collective of comedians that now owns its own comedy club in Amsterdam. Twelve years ago I joined them. I still perform in our club but most of the year I perform in theaters with my one-man shows. I think they are a mix between stand-up, and cabaret.


Amsterdam has the image of being the world's most open-minded city. Is there still something to talk about for comedians?

People are the same confused species where ever your live. The Dutch like to think we are as good as our image, but just like the rest of the world The Netherlands is a country with many irrationalities, fears and contradictions. Maybe drugs and gay marriage are not such big deals. But don't be fooled by that. For starters, the Dutch invented the word 'apartheid'. In the last elections one out of six people voted for an extremely islamophobe right wing party, our government was totally in favor of the Irak war, but one of the last in the world to investigate why. And when the sea rises we will be among the first ones to notice it. In the last ten years Holland has had to cope with two political murders. One by an animal rights activist, the other by a jihadist. Ultimately people are the same everywhere. The only difference perhaps is that on an international scale we haven't been significant since the 17th century.


Who are your influences?

Obviously there are a few Dutch comedians but I am afraid you won't know them. But English and American comedy has always played a big role in my life. My parents used to watch 'All In the Family' with my brother and me. I think that show has made me fond of complex comic characters that make it very hard to love them. I think that's why I can never get enough of watching comedians like Ricky Gervais, Steve Coogan, Zack Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Garry Shandling and obviously Larry David.

The best thing about owning our own comedy club in Amsterdam is that a lot of UK and US comedians like to come over. That way I got to meet and see great comedians like Dough Stanhope, Rich Hall, Paul Provenza and Arj Barker.

Recently I discovered Mike Birbiglia. But I don't know how big he is in the US. He should be.


Why perform in a second language?

Holland is so small, that at a certain point you want to see if your material survives outside the dykes. That's why in 2007, we, a group of Dutch comedians, decided to bring our stand-up routine to the Edinburgh festival. Just for fun. We wanted to see what it would be like to perform in a second language, for a crowd that did not know us at all. It was great fun and it turned out that being an outsider actually added something to some of our acts. Especially Hans Teeuwen and I got such good reviews that the next year the two of us went back with our one-man shows.


So why this time New York?

First of all because New York to me is the place where stand-up started. I still think it's a great place to see comedy. Last time when I was in New York, I saw some great shows in Comix. But I must admit I was somewhat disappointed by the other comedy clubs. Somehow it feels like many comedians use the clubs to audition for network television and that they are not willing to take risks. The most interesting shows I saw in New York were the ones at the more alternative venues. Like the ones organised by Eugene Mirman, Kevin Allison and Ophira Eisenberg.

The second reason is more primal. I know the summer in New York can be devastating, but after all the rain in the 2008 Edinburgh festival I wanted to be reminded of what summer feels like. So last year I set out for New York. Friends took me to a New York Fringe show. I thought: why not send them a DVD and see what happens?


Have you ever performed in New York before?

Not really. I did go to a few comedy clubs. But when no one knows you its very hard to get an open spot. I did pay 5 dollars to perform for five minutes at five in the afternoon in front of 10 other comedians who had paid the same price. I thought that was so bizarre that I consider it one of my most memorable gigs ever.


What's it like to do stand-up in a second language?

It's fun. Obviously sometimes I loose a reference or miss the right word. But don't forget how much books, films and TV we get from the US. If there is anything I learned from doing stand-up abroad, it was that in London and Edinburgh audiences were much more inclined to cross boundaries with me because I am not one of them. I suppose that as a foreigner from a small country I am less of a threat.
'The influx of Dutch comedians is perhaps the most exciting trend in UK stand-up over the last two years'

Reviews

Chortle.co.uk (Brittan's leading comedy website) (Edinburgh 2007)

By Steve Bennett

Micha Wertheim, who served up a deliciously dark cocktail of abortion, the Holocaust, Down syndrome, gang rape and more – hideously politically incorrect material from the man charged with setting a warm, welcoming atmosphere for the ensuing acts.

The gags, however, are as sharp as they are controversial, and Wertheim knows how to pitch them. Anyone arrogant enough to think the British have a monopoly on irony should start their re-education here.

The Times (Edinburgh 2007)

By Dominic Maxwell

Wertheim holds the stage with a relishable dry wit, reflecting how a Fringe play about a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv has educated him: 'With hindsight,' he deadpans, 'I wish the Holocaust had never happened.'

ThreeWeeks The Edinburgh Festivals Daily (2008)

****

Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective Presents Micha Wertheim - Having been banned from a venue in Holland, Micha Wertheim certainly seems to go down well in Edinburgh. Gloriously controversial, he charms and shocks his audience in the same breath. Moments that verge on tastelessness are counteracted by his indisputable originality and off-the-wall approach to stand-up (who needs trousers when you have material like this?). He flaunts his impeccable timing and makes the stage his own with great physicality and a truly unique delivery - this isn't even his first language after all, a point he isn't afraid to make... several times. Tonight they loved him, others have hated him; either way you will have a strong reaction and if you ask me, it's worth the risk to find out.

The Scotsman (fringe 2008)

By Jay Richardson

AMSTERDAM UNDERGROUND COMEDY COLLECTIVE PRESENTS...
HANS TEEUWEN & MICHA WERTHEIM

****

THE influx of Dutch comedians is perhaps the most exciting trend in UK stand-up over the last two years.

To see Hans Teeuwen is to feel yourself in the presence of a master, with the attendant pitfall that he won't compromise his art, even when it meets with long periods of audience bewilderment. He's never less than captivating, whether craving affection from a rapist sock, spinning a story about a disabled fireman that is a gem of manipulative oratory, or simply persuading the audience to repeat his name to a variety of pop songs. His Dr Hemmington number is a little too close to his signature Nostradamus tune, also performed here, but Teeuwen succeeds in "making the English language my bitch" and convincing you of Donald Duck's Nazi shame.

Micha Wertheim is every bit as perversely committed, opening light with a Google-translated introduction from Dutch. Like Teeuwen, he won't sacrifice his show's integrity for easy laughs and pretty soon works his way into darker territory, establishing his less than charitable charity and his status as an abortion survivor, before explaining why he and his girlfriend want "mongoloid offspring". He has a skill for picking at the contradictions that bind society together, and if he can't quite convince of disabled people's racism, he is on surer ground with the democracy of gang rape.

With his amiable manner becoming increasingly fervent, he finishes with a parable of his Melvinist beliefs that go some way to explaining his prejudice.

Suchsmallportions.com (London 2009)

By Caroline White

Double Dutch with Micha Wertheim at the BAC

Humor is famously the cultural characteristic most inaccessible to outsiders. The Japanese taste for pain-based comedy is chilling to western sensibilities. Italian hysteria at adults in chicken outfits waddling through game shows is baffling to all but Roman sensibilities.

But a Dutch stand-up comedian, Micha Wertheim, has been performing to acclaim in Britain since 2001. Moreover, he seems to be a fresh import, not the type of globetrotting Dutchman you are bemused to discover is not American after half an hour of conversation.

His recent show at the Battersea Arts Centre was littered with warnings that English is not his first language.

His skills were in finding the humor in his failure to communicate (undoubtedly exaggerated for this purpose) and using the international language of physical comedy - a combination we have known can work a treat since Manuel first shuffled into the Fawlty Towers dining room.

Wertheim's entrance, like the rest of his performance, was joyous and theatrical.

Skipping on stage wearing a suit jacket, socks, trainers and blue pants, he performed a two step dance to routine to You can Ring My Bell by Anita Ward, grinning enthusiastically and encouraging the audience to clap along, which brightened everyone's mood, or at least made them giggle.

The only unifying themes in his routine were Dutch liberalism ('a Dutch taxi-driver will tell you 'I hate black people, regardless of their sexuality') and a striving to be as controversial as possible ('I don't think we in the West can truly call ourselves a democracy while gang-rape is illegal - there is a majority there').

But the most engaging aspect of the show was its theatricality. When he began to wave at his mother, patently absent, at the back of the theatre, I was concerned that he was trying a joke designed for a large venue, where someone could plausibly pretend a family member lurked at the back, but which was absurd and embarrassing with this sparse Tuesday night audience.

But later, when he spoke to his dead grandmother and then looked down to discover that he wasn't wearing any trousers, all became clear Ð he was dreaming.

Specifically, he was dreaming one of those fear-induced scenarios that leaves you naked in front of a crowd. A series of surreal acts and outrageous jokes later, the comic disappeared to the sound of an alarm clock, leaving his imagined audience with the feeling that as much can be gained as lost in translation.

Micha Wertheim appeared as part of the Battersea Arts Centre's N2O comedy season www.Spoonfed.co.uk The smart, definitive guide to things to do in London (London 2009).

It's clear from the offset that tonight is not going to be the straightest stand-up gig. I'm not sure what to expect from controversial Dutch comic Micha Wertheim- a furious rant about the disabled perhaps - but I certainly am not expecting him to enter wearing a suit with no trousers, dancing to the tune of Anita Ward's 'Ring My Bell'.

Part of the Amsterdam Underground Collective who stormed the Fringe last year, Wertheim is only performing at the Battersea Arts Centre for two nights and there can only be about 30 people in the room, perhaps due to the fact that top political comic Andy Saltzman is performing in the next door room for part of the Back's huge comedy festival. He makes light of the situation however by peering into the audience and asking "Is that my mother? I told her to sit at the back but I suppose she has to sit at the front."

He begins his set cautiously with a colorful anecdote about not returning library books as a young boy but soon enough dips his toe into the deeper end by telling us that: "The Dutch are liberal racists. We don't like blacks - regardless of sexuality." There is some witty material on condoms: "What is the point of raspberry flavored condoms? Does the woman think I'd like some raspberry tea and the man think I'd like a blowjob and they decide to compromise? I'd like to have an aspirin-flavored condom for when the woman has a headache.'

After a hearty response thus far, he wades in with an explanation of why he and his girlfriend would rather have a mongoloid child (with a mongoloid you have initial disappointment which get better over time; but it's the opposite with a normal child). Then it's onto the disabled: "Why do they make their toilets so big - what are they going to do with the extra room Ð get up and stretch their legs? It's like a gym in there!" Sure it may be classic 'controversial' material but Wertheim has the brains to back it up Ð one of his best jokes about the hypocrisy in saying we live in a democratic society while we simultaneously condemn gang rape was really clever and original.

Strangely enough Wertheim manages to deliver these outrageous statements and comes across as, well, quite sweet. Perhaps it's the fact he doesn't rant and speaks (understandably) a little haltingly at times. It isn't all straight-forward material either, there are stagey bits of candle lighting and a moment where he realizes the show isn't real ("I must be in a dream, I'm not wearing any trousers and am doing a Chinese accent in a foreign language. Or should I say...Mandarin?"). There is also a surreal section at the end where he tells us about his religion 'Melvynism' ("It's just a hunch") and how Melvyn created the earth in seven days.

He came across as funny, intelligent and very likeable, which was rewarded at the end with a rowdy round of applause. He may have said a few things we wouldn't repeat over tea and macaroons but that didn't stop us all cackling like hyenas. There's nothing wrong with a bit of controversy every now and then and had he started on the Muslims like his fellow compatriot MP Geert Wilders, we'd probably have laughed at that as well.

Bristol and Bath magazine