Is German humor the thinnest book? Not necessarily, Paco Erhard demonstrates

 Paco Erhard knows his people well, and his "5-Step Guide to Being German" drives that knowledge

Paco bends over backwards for Germany.

home, with useful supplements on people he's gotten to know on his extensive travels. Americans' devotion to the flag, he supposes, is intended to reassure them they are still in their own country, and haven't been as footloose as he. Most of us know the word "Wanderlust" as well as we do "Gesundheit!"

A native of Munich, the comedian turned his given name into his surname and put "Paco" in front at the suggestion of a neighbor in Spain, where he was studying many years ago. Like most Spaniards, apparently, she couldn't handle the letter "h," making it come out as a kind of guttural stammer, a throat-clearing mess. "Paco," on the other hand, rolls off the tongue across the globe..

Certainly fluency of thought and language is at the center of Erhard's comedy, a topflight offering at the 2024 IndyFringe Festival.  He teases Germans unmercifully, pointing out ironically the country's number of World Cup victories and adding the achievement that "we were runners-up in two world wars."

Saturday's performance at the District Theatre had him recovering smoothly from the initial absence of a microphone. Once he had it in hand, there was a rolling repertoire of quips  and international observations both clever and ingratiating. (I will spare comment on the less-professional performance I also saw Saturday afternoon, "A History Tour Hijacked." Variety is at the heart of the Fringe Fest experience, so variation in quality is no surprise.)

This German even makes fun of his own accent, which is subtle enough not to confuse any Hoosiers. His delivery was crisp and expressive throughout his allotted hour. But anyone focused on counting up those five steps in the title is already too German to need his instruction, he suggested. You will be at great pains to identify the five steps, and you would be wasting the time you might have spent laughing. He has honed "5 Steps" since 2011, so there is no question about Erhard's echt-Deutsch devotion to order.

Love of order, Erhard explainend, dictates that before a German indulges in his love of travel, he will read anything he can find about the destinations on his itinerary. Erhard admitted that taking the pride to do so enables Germans more easily to judge others — a psychological necessity. Since it's risky for Germans to openly embrace patriotism, they find other ways to believe in their superiority.

I encountered this nearly 60 years ago as a college student based for a few months in Bonn, when Germany had a chancellor with the comedian's adopted surname. At a small party that a young man in my German host family invited me to, one of the guests started holding forth on culture. I was steeped enough in the language at that point to understand nearly everything in his rant. 

I remember his disdain for American culture. Essentially, he asserted there is no such thing, or it's derivative at best. He made fun of such features as public and private buildings fronted with Greek columns. He probably knew little about Frank Lloyd Wright or Louis Sullivan. 

I said nothing in defense, but my German friend made a gallant attempt to rescue me. Translating from memory now,  I recall that he retorted: "They say the thinnest book is called 'German humor.' But really the thinnest book is 'German modesty.' "  The phrase in German has a reassuringly absolute ring, echoing in my head more than a half-century later: "Deutsche Bescheidenheit." I can also still relish the silence of the blowhard then shutting up.

Paco Erhard would probably agree with my defender, but his own modesty as a German comedian is a relatively well-stocked book. His capacity, however, is huge, whether he is poking fun at phenomena in his homeland or abroad. 

[Photo: Indy Ghost Light]