So I’m back from my mini tour to Copenhagen and Malmö and I had a great time. The Copenhagen comedy festival was a blast. I have been to Copenhagen once before, about 15 years ago, inter railing, when I did the sights by bike with a couple of Mexicans from the youth hostel. This time round, having been in Sweden for so long, my expectations were that Copenhagen would be a variation on the theme of Stockholm – i.e. a big Scandinavian city. However, I was pleasantly surprised to come to a city that was bursting with life in all its shades.
The centre of the city is almost entirely pedestrianised and filled with people who all seemed to share a vibrancy. Maybe it was just because the sun was shining but the city felt alive. I stayed out in the sun as long as I could and watched a Portuguese group of medical students sing Fado ballads and play a variety of stringed instruments as well as a Finn sing opera which was quite frightening..
I think the main difference between Sweden and Copenhagen was the number of people who looked stoned and/or drunk and/or homeless. It’s difficult to reflect on this as being better, but it seems that this section of society is brushed under the carpet in Sweden meaning that often Swedish cities lack an ugly underbelly which is essential to the urban tapestry as a whole.
Anyway the gig went well – It started off slowly with a pretty average set from a Danish comedian called Morten something who was then followed by Swedish comedian Messiah Hallberg. Now, Messiah is hot stuff in Sweden, he has rocketed to fame in the last year by breaking the mold in Swedish stand up. His stage persona is an arrogant Östermalmsbo, the archetypal Ung Moderat with slickback and suit, who venomously condescends his audience*. The Swedes love it, as he lampoons a recognisable stereotype. In Denmark and in English, however, he was received by complete silence and left the stage with the majority of the audience staring daggers. The MC decided to take the first break there… What I think was so interesting about the gig was that an audience of Danes and expats just didn’t recognise the character, thus smashing my preconceptions involving lumping all Scandinavians together.
I came on to an audience who were slightly angry. They needed an injection of energy and so I abandoned some of my opening and improvised a bit with the audience to warm them up again.. Having been disappointed in the first half they warmed immediately to my style and I was free to improvise more which is the most liberating thing to do onstage. There is a real adrenalin rush of finding something out from the audience and then rolling with it, unscripted and unplanned, with laughs punctuating the free wheeling patter.
Well, I won’t blow my own trumpet further, but I did get lots of pats on the back after the gig from a range of different nationalities, I have even become Facebook friends with a guy from the Faeroe Islands!
The next day I was back in Sweden playing a couple of gigs in Malmö. They went well too and I hope that I have laid the groundwork for a longer trip to the south of Sweden and Denmark in the future.
*Offstage Messiah is a top bloke and (almost) nothing like his stage persona.
