Germans stand up for comedy class

Stand up and be counted: Germans are going from classroom to club

The German sense of humour is often itself the butt of jokes, but stand-up comedy is taking off in Germany and potential comedians are getting a helping hand, writes the BBC's Ray Furlong.

A class full of students in Berlin bang their fists on the table - a sign of appreciation for a sketch that one of them has just performed.

But after the joke comes the analysis; an earnest discussion about whether the sketch was funny or not.

For the students here, comedy is a serious matter.

The course has been prompted by an explosion of late-night comedy shows in recent years. Sat 1 television, which screens the comedy show What Are You Looking At? set up the course with Berlin's University of the Fine Arts as a means of finding talent.

Comedy blues

"In Germany, in fact, there is demand for comedy and there's not enough supply because there are not so many writers and not so much experience. Some shows of course have been pretty bad," says teacher Moritz Netenjakob is the teacher.

Big German cities have also seen a boom in stand-up comedy clubs in recent years.

One of Germany's top stand-up artists is Hennes Bender. His routine begins with a gag about being stuck in a traffic jam.

Stand-up is... still new to many people, when somebody comes on stage and talks about themselves Hennes Bender comedian

So after the show I ask him whether there is a specific German sense of humour.

"I don't think that the themes are that different to English or American comedy, but you have to be a bit more careful. A lot of English comedians work with a lot of blue material - you can't do that here," he says.

"I mean if you start with blue material, everybody closes up. Because stand-up is - although it has been 10 to 15 years - still new to many people, when somebody comes on stage and talks about themselves."

Hennes Bender is the top end of German comedy. For the participants of the comedy course, it's less glamorous.

Funny money

Stefan Stuckmann graduated last year and is now part of a team that writes for a programme called Friday Night News. He says it is a cut-throat business.

"There are 12 shows in this season, so I'm going to be paid for 12 weeks and after each season we have a help writer and he takes care that the parts that each writer contributes to the show are relatively equal," he says.

And if you are not funny enough, you can get sacked.

He adds that some completely freelance joke writers who sell their material get 110 euros (£72) per joke.

So the Germans do have a sense of humour after all. But unfortunately for the students of the comedy course, it is probably not going to help them get rich.